WHAT DOES AN ENGINEERING DO?
Published: Jun 3, 2025 - The Engineering Professional applies scientific and mathematical principles to create innovative solutions for complex real-world challenges. This role supports the design, development, and maintenance of systems, products, and infrastructure across multiple industries. The individual contributes to technological progress, ensures sustainable practices, and enhances the overall quality of life through efficient engineering solutions.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Engineering
1. Engineering Finance Analyst Duties
- Financial Analysis: Participate as a key stakeholder for the Management teams of the allocated Engineering functions
- Business Advisory: Question and challenge the business and provide feedback and advice to drive optimal business outcomes
- Performance Reporting: Deliver clear and consistent reporting of financial performance including monthly results
- Cost Tracking: Measurement and tracking of cost drivers, operational metrics and cost initiatives
- Budget Forecasting: Forecast and budget preparation - OPEX and CAPEX
- Risk Management: Flag risks and opportunities to enable mitigation
- Financial Modelling: Provide financial support for business cases, including detailed financial modelling and analysis
- Project Support: Attend various working groups and meetings to support the Project requirements
- Reporting Assistance: Support the Engineering Finance Manager on ad hoc projects, reporting and presentations
2. Engineering Assistant Details
- Team Coordination: Attend team meetings and work with production, marketing, procurement, engineering, and technicians to manage and lead status update meetings regarding new product schedule
- Product Documentation: Create new and existing product documentation
- Tooling Scheduling: Work with the engineering and machine shop to schedule tooling and other related shop items
- Technical Reporting: Assist in compiling and completing technical reports and other documentation
- Documentation Interpretation: Interpret prints, schematics, bill of materials, and other applicable product documentation requirements
- File Management: Maintain engineering and manufacturing file storage
- Media Capture: Assist in capturing video, photos, and data to help complete documentation requirements
- Policy Awareness: Maintain understanding of firm policies
3. Engineering Associate Responsibilities
- Production Documentation: Develop bills of material, process routings, packaging methods and all other required documentation for production
- Cost Estimation: Estimate tooling and material costs for new products and packaging
- Tooling Procurement: Order tooling both internal and external
- Tooling Maintenance: Interface with the external and internal tool shop to maintain existing tooling
- Label Management: Maintain packaging, labeling software and equipment to support customer label specifications
- Drawing Interpretation: Interpret customer drawings, bills of material, and other documentation
- Cost Quotation: Develop cost quotations for new products, packaging, and engineering changes using in-house quoting software and programs
4. Global Engineering Consultant Job Summary
- Customer Engagement: Interfaces with potential customers to help define their needs and to present technical proposals to meet those needs
- Proposal Development: Ensures proposals meet requirements for design profitability, manufacturing profitability, etc.
- Design Feedback: Provide design and development feedback on projects and schedules
- Team Collaboration: Participate in cross-functional teams in the design and documentation of assemblies
- Technology Development: Apply engineering knowledge and skills to develop new, leading-edge technologies
- Independent Work: Work independently and in a team environment
- Technical Support: Provide technical support to business development teams to assist in winning new business
- Industry Awareness: Maintain current on industry trends and future technology and market opportunities
5. Engineering Campus Recruiting Coordinator Accountabilities
- Candidate Scheduling: Manage and schedule a high candidate volume promptly
- Interview Coordination: Schedule interviews, communicate interview details and host candidate visits
- Relationship Building: Establish relationships with engineers, recruiting team members and vendors
- Customer Service: Provide the highest level of customer service to internal and external customers
- Task Prioritization: Effectively manage simultaneous projects and prioritize tasks
- Expense Processing: Process candidate expense reimbursements and agency invoices
- Event Support: Organise and support Winter Test activities
- Event Coordination: Organize and attend in-house, on-campus and internship events including interview days, career fairs, hackathons, and info sessions, tech talks, etc.
6. Engineering Designer Functions
- File Conversion: Import DWG, DGN, and other file formats, or hard copy drawings, to create electronic base maps for conduit and cable designs
- Construction Design: Design and issue construction work packages for conduit, copper, and fibre-based residential and business services
- Pole Line Drawing: Prepare Pole Line Analysis drawings and arrange for applicable permits
- Utility Assignment: Prepare Utility Line Assignment drawings and arrange for applicable permits
- Crossing Agreements: Prepare pipeline, railway and power crossing drawings and arrange for applicable agreements
- Material Listing: Prepare a bill of materials
- Project Execution: Complete projects within prescribed time frames while delivering a high-quality design package
- Design Evaluation: Plan and conduct work requiring judgment in independent evaluation, selection, and substantial adaptation/modification of standards
7. Director of Engineering Job Description
- Technical Leadership: Drive the company’s technical advancement via leading a software engineering, DevOps, and UI/UX organization
- Department Collaboration: Provide leadership to managers and peer-level department heads in a fashion that supports the company’s culture, mission, and values
- Mentorship Support: Foster an environment of empowerment and learning by providing mentorship and coaching to technical staff
- Design Oversight: Direct, review, or approve product design changes
- Project Collaboration: Confer with leadership, project managers, or other staff to discuss project specifications, contribute to architectural decisions, or execution plans
- Product Viability: Assess product viability by analyzing technology, resource needs, and market demand
- Resource Management: Direct resource planning, recruitment, placement, and ongoing performance management of engineering project staff
- Policy Development: Develop or implement policies, standards, or procedures for engineering and technical work
8. Engineering Head Overview
- Engineering Culture: Build engineering culture and grow the engineering team to achieve Real’s mission
- Product Collaboration: Work with the Head of Product Experience to build a cohesive, user-friendly product and realistic timelines to reach milestones
- Technical Solutions: Propose viable technical solutions to business needs that align with Real’s mission and values
- Strategic Advising: Advise both Real’s technical and non-technical leadership on technical product strategy, both on scaling current products, and the relative value of new products
- Domain Expertise: Be a technology domain expert (security, data science, data analytics, server-side technology, site reliability, and/or DevOps)
- Sprint Leadership: Participate and lead the sprint and stand-up process alongside the product team
- Process Improvement: Identify and execute on opportunities to improve the software development lifecycle and processes
- Effective Delegation: Scale by delegating effectively, ensuring tasks are completed as specified without micromanaging
9. Engineering Intern Details and Accountabilities
- Documentation Review: Conducting system documentation reviews and updates (e.g., drawings, manuals, certifications, etc.)
- I/O Testing: Assisting with I/O testing
- Quality Documentation: Conducting quality documentation review, generation, and issuance for PM, SOP, and Calibrations
- Operational Testing: Assisting in conducting operational testing, power failure testing, alarm and interlock testing
- Construction Support: Supporting outsourced construction and design, including construction management, on-site verification, and inspections
- Equipment Verification: Verifying equipment drawings in parallel with the retagging of equipment to meet SAP standards
- Changeover Support: Aiding the manufacturing changeover activities including organizing the movement of equipment, testing, and commissioning
- Process Development: Supporting Operational Excellence activities such as the 6S process development
10. Engineering Leader Tasks
- Technology Roadmap: Develop and execute a technology roadmap for a mobile-optimized web application
- UX Optimization: Optimize the existing user experience through enhancements to website speed, email automation, check-out features, product recommendation and upsell logic and more
- API Development: Craft API capabilities that allow for real-time flow of price, inventory and order data between the platform and third-party partners
- Ad Automation: Suggest and build mechanisms for search engine ad automation and growth engineering
- Contractor Management: Manage domestic and offshore engineering contractors on a case-by-case basis
- Technology Communication: Communicate the company’s technology strategy to investors, management, staff, and stakeholders
- Information Security: Direct the development and execution of an information security plan that protects the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the company’s data and servers
- Project Management: Set clear technology delivery expectations through project management tools and consistent calendar management
- Code Review: Quickly address product bugs, consistently conduct code reviews, and ensure improvement along QA metrics
- Analytics Integration: Integrate analytics reporting to inform product development
11. Engineering Manager Roles
- Engineering Leadership: Provides direction to the Engineering team in alignment with the Company's objectives
- Performance Focus: Understand Key Performance Measurement (KPM) processes and be goal-oriented/team-focused
- Equipment Design: Ensure the optimum design of equipment to meet specified requirements for process machinery configured solutions
- Prototype Development: Lead design of prototypes and custom solutions, which are then converted into standard product templates for future product platforms
- Project Supervision: Supervises highly complex projects across multi-tasked engineers in a matrix-type design organization
- Sales Collaboration: Work with the sales team to deliver “best of class” solutions to secure new projects
- Standards Management: Develop and maintain engineering standards and processes
- Design Validation: Develop procedures for equipment design verification and validation (quality assurance)
- Software Support: Generate and maintain 3D design and other engineering software support tools
- Staff Development: Recruit and develop engineering staff to assure efficient and effective performance of the mechanical and electrical design/project team
- Progress Reporting: Keep management informed of project progress
- Result Evaluation: Evaluate ongoing results, present reports forecasting the outcome of projects to assure the achievement of targeted results
12. Engineering Specialist Additional Details
- Cost Savings: Meet the annual Business Plan for material cost savings on vehicle projects
- Benchmark Analysis: Benchmark analysis and detailed documentation of the findings
- Concept Development: Develop concepts with a good balance of cost and performance based on local market standards
- Cost Calculation: Coordinate detailed cost calculations based on best practices to prepare material piece price, Tooling Investment, and/or pre-logistics cost calculations
- Concept Support: Support concept developers based on the potential savings identified to define the best concept for the vehicle
- Estimate Preparation: Analyze drawings and other documentation to prepare time, cost, materials, and labor estimates for parts and assemblies
- Supplier Consultation: Consult with suppliers and internal departments to formulate estimates, resolve issues and make changes or updates to the cost calculation
13. Engineering Supervisor Essential Functions
- Software Architecture: Work collaboratively with the VP of Product and the product and engineering teams to understand high-level requirements and develop software architecture and design
- Technical Leadership: Provide hands-on technical leadership on the engineering team (a mix of in-house and outsourced resources)
- Task Management: Create and drive the technical design and task management of the development team to meet business goals and schedules
- Development Execution: Drive the implementation of development activities, both as an individual contributor and as the supervisor/technical lead of a small team of developers
- Application Support: Lead team to provide ongoing support for web application
- Issue Troubleshooting: Diagnose and troubleshoot production application issues
- Process Standards: Establish and evolve software development and documentation practices, standards and processes
- Technology Evaluation: Keep up-to-date with technical trends and evaluate/recommend the adoption of new technologies, processes, and tools
- Team Mentorship: Supervise, mentor and develop team members
- Code Review: Provide constructive feedback on design and code quality
- Inclusive Culture: Build an inclusive culture with high-performing teams
- Technical Communication: Communicate technical information to clients and other stakeholders
- Security Support: Support all aspects of the Torchlight Information Security Policy and associated procedures
14. Engineering Technical Lead Role Purpose
- Program Management: Manage complex programs from a technical solutioning and engineering standpoint
- Corrective Measures: Identify insightful and logical corrective measures for complex deficiencies and forward systemic proposals to leadership
- Standards Compliance: Provides advice to leadership on the design, development and enforcement of business/infrastructure application standards to include the associated controls, procedures and monitoring to ensure compliance
- Documentation Maintenance: Maintain project and system documentation
- Risk Mitigation: Identifies technical risks to systems and works toward identifying and implementing mitigations to those risks
- Project Participation: Participates in special projects
- Process Improvement: Ensure process improvement and participate in technical discussions/reviews
15. Engineering Technician General Responsibilities
- Product Testing: Perform product testing based on engineering protocols and other technical documents
- Cross-Department Communication: Communicate with various departments regarding actions required for project completion
- Project Assistance: Assist project engineers to meet deadlines for tests, complete milestones and day-to-day engineering tasks
- Testing Improvement: Identify problems and initiate improvements to current testing techniques
- Product Evaluation: Support the evaluation of products or technologies by using analysis tools
- Process Support: Support the overall department by following department processes