Engineering Manager

 

The Engineering Manager is responsible for leading Grote’s engineering function in the design, development, release, and support of food processing equipment and related systems.

 

The ideal candidate is a technically capable, practical engineering leader with strong OEM equipment experience and a solid mechanical background. This person must be able to support technical decision-making, but the primary need is leadership around direction, structure, prioritization, and execution. The role requires someone who can create clearer ownership across the team, improve how work flows through Engineering, and help connect customer needs, product strategy, and business priorities.

 

This role works closely with Sales, Applications, Operations, Service, Supply Chain, Production, and customers. Success will require balancing current customer orders, production support, custom applications, standard product development, and longer-term product roadmap work.

 

• Lead and develop the Grote Engineering team, including design, drafting, project engineering, application support, and technical resources.

• Provide technical leadership and act as a resource for the team on design challenges, application questions, product decisions, and tradeoffs.

• Create clear ownership lanes within Engineering so work does not rely too heavily on any single person for answers, approvals, or direction.

• Establish priorities across customer orders, production support, product improvements, R&D, and standard platform development.

• Own the Engineering side of the Sales-to-Engineering handoff, including clearer intake requirements, response expectations, escalation paths, and communication back to Sales / Applications.

• Oversee engineering execution from technical review through production release, including drawings, BOMs, specifications, documentation, and release quality.

• Improve production release discipline to reduce shop floor questions, rework, engineering changes, obsolete inventory, and avoidable delays.

• Partner with Operations, Fabrication, Machine Shop, Assembly, Service, Controls, and Supply Chain to ensure designs are practical to build, service, support, and scale.

• Lead Product Management activity for Grote equipment, including product roadmap input, product standardization, simplification, cost reduction, and prioritization of product improvement work.

• Help translate customer feedback, field issues, PMMI / market data, service learnings, FAT results, and post-project reviews into actionable product and engineering priorities.

• Support decisions around standard versus custom work, ensuring Engineering time is focused on opportunities that have the right customer value, business case, repeatability, and technical fit.

• Improve project visibility, meeting structure, and engineering communication so the right people are involved at the right time without creating unnecessary interruptions.

• Develop engineering talent through clear expectations, coaching, accountability, delegation, and knowledge sharing.

 

• Experienced engineering leader with a strong technical foundation in OEM machinery, capital equipment, automation, or similar engineered products.

• Strong mechanical design background with practical understanding of fabrication, machining, welding, assembly, controls interaction, production release, and field support.

• Technically credible and willing to engage directly when needed, but disciplined enough to avoid becoming the bottleneck for every decision.

• Strong process and prioritization mindset; able to create structure without slowing the business down.

• Comfortable working directly with customers, sales teams, shop floor personnel, service technicians, and cross-functional leaders.

• Able to make practical tradeoff decisions between speed, cost, quality, customization, standardization, and long-term product direction.

• Strong communicator who can simplify technical topics, clarify ownership, and keep teams aligned.

• Product-minded leader who can connect customer needs and market feedback to product direction, roadmap priorities, and engineering execution.

• Strong people leader who can build accountability, develop talent, and create more ownership across the team.

 

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or related field preferred; equivalent OEM engineering leadership experience will be considered.

• 10+ years of engineering experience in an OEM manufacturing environment preferred.

• Prior engineering leadership or management experience required.

• Experience with custom or configurable capital equipment strongly preferred.

• Experience with SolidWorks or similar 3D CAD platform required.

• Experience with ERP, PDM, BOM management, engineering change control, production release, and product development processes preferred.

 

• Engineering priorities are clear, visible, and understood.

• Ownership is spread more effectively across the team, reducing bottlenecks and improving accountability.

• Sales, Applications, Engineering, and Operations are better aligned on technical requirements, timing, and handoffs.

• Production releases are complete, accurate, and easier for the shop to execute.

• Product development work is better tied to customer need, business value, standardization, and long-term product direction.

• Customer and field feedback are consistently turned into product and process improvements.

• Meetings are more focused, communication is cleaner, and engineers have more time for value-added work.

• Grote continues improving as a practical, responsive, scalable, and product-focused OEM engineering organization.