Chief Development Officer - Higher Ed. jobs in Racine, WI

Chief Engineering/R&D Officer

At Johnson Outdoors, home to some of the world’s most innovative and best-known outdoor recreation brands, we create amazing outdoor experiences - for adventurers, by adventurers.  Check out each of the unique Johnson Outdoor brands in Fishing, Watercraft, Camping and Diving! 

At Johnson Outdoors, innovation is in our DNA. As the Chief Engineering/R&D Officer, you’ll shape the future of outdoor exploration by creating cutting-edge, outdoor equipment. We prioritize our consumers’ needs and foster a collaborative environment where team members seamlessly work together to achieve remarkable solutions. Our collective dedication to making a difference, both in the outdoors and as a family of brands, sets us apart.

Johnson Outdoors is calling for a leader who values adaptability and innovation. In this role, you’ll wear multiple hats and thrive in an environment where personal initiative is celebrated. Collaboration is our foundation, and we take pride in assisting one another while working towards shared goals. Join our team to amplify your impact, contribute to meaningful change, and be a part of a community that shares your passion for the great outdoors.

Key Responsibilities:

Innovation (Front-End Integration):

• Working with the cross functional innovation team oversees the end-to-end product development process, from Gate 1 approval to commercialization, ensuring products meet market demands and regulatory requirements.
• Develops and supports the use of prototypes for enhancing market research with user feedback of potential products.
• Active voice in innovation process, assessing technical merit of new ideas prior at early stages prior to commitment of enterprise resources.
• Collaborates closely with the Marketing Lead of the innovation team to ensure alignment and collaborate on the development of the enterprise innovation process.
• Ensures Engineering Department adheres to enterprise innovation process.
• Ensures product delivers product experience that mirrors the conceptual intent: product/concept fit.
• Works with the marketing/product strategy and sales teams to successfully bring new products to market and maximize their commercial success. Identifies / develops / delivers technical details / information that supports marketing messaging within the aligned timeline.

Execution [Core Engineering Activities]:

• Oversees the ideation, conceptualization, and development of new consumer goods products (how the product will deliver the concept), ensuring a maintaining a robust innovation pipeline by meeting strategic objectives on time and within budget.
• Oversees the design, development, and testing of prototypes that conform to product concepts and performance requirements provided by Brand/Marketing.
• Leads the definition and articulation of engineering specifications based on anticipated and unanticipated usage. Performs risk analyses, including FMEA, to identify necessary improvements.
• Ensures appropriate technical analysis is performed to ensure design robustness in functionality and durability. Comfortable with performing and assessing analytical, computational, and experimental analyses within discipline and leveraging appropriate resources to assess analyses outside discipline.
• Develops a culture of excellence for the engineering function, this includes defining and tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of the team and individuals.
• Implements and oversees effective methodologies to ensure timely and cost- effective development of consumer goods.

Execution [Core R&D Activities]:

• Supports development of technologies new to the product space and revolutionary applications of existing technologies to create new product categories that are aligned with broad brand strategies.
• Continuously assesses broad consumer goods technology space in other industries to identify potential game-changing technology applications. Brings blue-sky new ideas to Marketing team for assessment of potential fit within brand innovation strategy.

Ops [Back-End Integration]:

• Collaborates with Operations to ensure product quality, safety, and compliance with relevant regulations and standards. Identifies appropriate regulations and standards for new product categories.
• Collaborates with Operations to ensure manufactured product meets defined product technical specifications by developing and tracking appropriate test methods.
• Effectively integrates with operations to ensure work product design is aligned with what operations can reliably produce using modern Design for Manufacturability principles.
• Collaborates with Operations to track warranty claims, identify potential issues related to design, and implement product improvements to alleviate issues.
• Oversees in-house Failure Analysis function to troubleshoot product performance issues, identify broadly applicable engineering lessons, and integrate lessons into future product development.
• Perform due diligence and quality oversight on engineering work performed by third-party suppliers/vendors.

Strategic Planning (Product) / Executive Leadership:

• Represents Johnson Outdoors in a variety of industry, institutional, and/or professional forums with investors, clients, the public, and others to promote the company.
• Collaborates closely with GVP, brand management, and operations to align engineering efforts with product strategy, business objectives and ensure product success in the market.
• Assists in designing, developing, and delivering the strategic plan for each area of the business, providing the specific viewpoint of engineering, applying functional expertise to test the viability of the business strategy, and contributing creative ideas and insights to support the strategy formation process
• Provides regular reports on engineering progress, product development milestones, and key performance indicators to senior leadership.
• Manages the intellectual property portfolio, patent strategy, and protect valuable innovations.

 Strategic Planning (Capabilities, Resources):

• Stays at the forefront of industry trends, engineering best practices, and emerging technologies, leveraging insights for innovative and creative product design and development.
• Identifies and develops appropriate engineering technical capabilities, including the use of appropriate computational, experimental, organizational tools. Responsibly allocates capital expenditure / development budget.
• Develops resource sharing plan for engineering capabilities (equipment and expertise) across business units.
• Identifies preferred external (3rd party) technology partners and how/when to best leverage.
• Integrates sustainability practices and environmental responsibility into product development processes, considering eco-friendly materials and practices and ensuring compliance with applicable regulations.
• Effectively leverages internal and external resources to ensure appropriate speed to market. Balances the use of outside resources and hiring of critical talent as appropriate.

Team Building:

• Relates to individual capabilities and develops employees’ technical skills as appropriate. Creates a culture where each engineer at Johnson Outdoors works at the top of their skill- set and has life-long learning opportunities.
• Creates cohesive engineering brand across business units.
• Identifies and elevates appropriate engineering talent into enterprise-wide roles serving multiple business units.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Supervisory/Management Responsibility: 

• Performs human resources responsibilities for staff, which includes but is not limited to the following: hiring and terminating employees, promotions/pay adjustments, staff development, performance evaluations, resolution of employee concerns and disciplinary counseling.
• Oversees the development of budgets, and ensures budgets are managed within approved guidelines.
• Oversees the development and approval departmental policies, procedures, and guidelines to meet business needs.

 Knowledge & Background Requirements:

• Typically requires a master’s degree in electrical or mechanical engineering. PhD also preferred.
• Typically requires a minimum of 15 years of extensive experience in leadership roles, preferably in engineering and research & development positions.
• Industry expertise: Strong knowledge of the industry in which the company operates.
• R&D experience: Track record of new product development.
• Project management: Strong project management skills, keeping teams on time and under budget.
• Commercialization: Experience commercializing at least one product in an organization that deal with high volume commercial products.
• People Management: Experience overseeing a diverse team, ideally spread across multiple locations, with the ability to lead employees in areas outside own expertise.
• Cultural Transformation: Ability to create and mature an engineering culture. This experience may come from working in a start-up environment or from building a function in a larger organization. Build strong engineering rigor and customer satisfaction.
• Key Competencies: cultivates innovation, strategic mindset, business insight, balances stakeholders, manages complexity, collaborates, plans, and aligns, optimizes work processes, persuades, situational adaptability.
• Personal Attributes: Tolerance of ambiguity, openness to differences, need for achievement, risk-taking, adaptability, influence, credibility, sociability.

A few pointers about our culture:

• Entrepreneurial spirit and innovation are in our bones! We authentically innovate trusted equipment that gets people out there.
• We are laser-focused on our consumers, and passionate about inspiring people to actively engage with the amazing awe of the outdoors again and again.
• We strive to create meaningful, healthy change in the world as individuals and as a family of brands.
• We value diversity and team members who are willing to wear multiple hats; who take personal initiative, anticipating what needs to be done, and figuring things out to make them happen; but who are also willing to ask for help, to assist others and work together.

 What you will receive:

• Share in the company’s success - Competitive base salary, with additional earning potential through participation in the annual discretionary cash profit sharing program, eligibility for annual pay increases, and employee stock purchase plans.
• Find your work/life balance with generous paid time off and holiday benefits, health insurance and wellness plans.
• Further your career with training opportunities including our tuition assistance program.
• Plan for your future with our 401k with company match and deferred retirement contributions, Sons & Daughters Scholarship program, life and LTD insurance, employee stock purchase plan, and more.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment at Johnson Outdoors (and all subsidiaries) without regard to race; creed; color; religion; national origin; sex; age; disability; sexual orientation; gender identity or expression; genetic predisposition or carrier status; veteran, marital, or citizenship status; or any other status protected by law. Johnson Outdoors is proud to be an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer.

If, because of a medical condition or disability, you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process, please contact Human Resources at HRSpecialAccommodations@johnsonoutdoors.com to let us know the nature of your request and your contact information.

About Us:

JOHNSON OUTDOORS is a leading global innovator of outdoor recreation equipment and technologies that inspire more people to experience the awe of the great outdoors. The company designs, manufactures, and markets a portfolio of winning, consumer-preferred brands across four categories: Watercraft Recreation, Fishing, Diving and Camping. Johnson Outdoors' iconic brands include: Old Town® canoes and kayaks; Ocean Kayak™; Carlisle® paddles; Minn Kota® fishing motors, batteries, and anchors; Cannon® downriggers; Humminbird® marine electronics and charts; SCUBAPRO® dive equipment; Jetboil® outdoor cooking systems; and Eureka!®camping and hiking equipment. Founded in 1970 by Samuel C. Johnson, the Company has delivered double-digit compound annual growth over its history, evolving from a single brand into a nearly $663 million global enterprise with around 1,300 employees across 20 countries.