SUMMARY: The Sr. Director of New Product Introduction, Sustaining and Tech Transfer will lead the sustaining engineering function by driving cross-discipline product introduction roadmap from R&D to Commercialization, sustaining activities to improve the product quality, reliability and performance based on field feedback/findings and owns all product tech transfers between sites based on company strategic priorities and/or products acquired through an acquisition. S/he will lead multiple engineering disciplines including electrical, mechanical, optical, fluidic engineering, firmware development, and systems engineering.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform essential duties and responsibilities satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
- Lead multinational engineering teams to ensure end-to-end successful launch of new products, from R&D hardware assistance to full commercialization and field service. Assist R&D to bring complex new products to manufacturing and service readiness through product optimization and process development.
1. Product Lifecycle Management
- Ensure smooth transition from new product introduction (NPI) to sustaining phase.
- Support R&D on hardware project requests.
- Maintain product performance, reliability, and compliance throughout its lifecycle.
- Manage end-of-life (EOL) planning and execution.
2. Issue Resolution & Root Cause Analysis
- Lead cross-functional teams to resolve field issues, quality problems, and customer complaints.
- Drive root cause analysis and corrective actions for product failures or defects, leading to DOA (death on arrival), Failure at Installation, failure during warranty period, and failures during service period.
- Implement preventive measures to avoid recurrence, proactively identify other areas where lessons learned and solutions created can be applicable before a failure is experienced.
3. Cost Reduction & Value Engineering
- Identify opportunities for cost optimization without compromising quality or compliance.
- Support design changes for manufacturability, serviceability and supply chain efficiency.
- Support and deliver cost savings associated with Value Engineering category, built in operating budget.
4. Regulatory & Quality Compliance
- Ensure all sustaining activities meet regulatory requirements (FDA, ISO, CE, etc.).
- Maintain documentation and change control processes for audits and inspections.
5. Supplier & Component Management - OEM Development
- Manage component obsolescence and alternative sourcing to improve Supply Chain robustness and reliability.
- Collaborate with suppliers and supply chain teams for quality improvements and continuity of supply.
- Close collaboration with Strategic Sourcing team to develop second and third source for all A and B parts (plus major C parts)
- Identify opportunities for OEM products that can be offered to enhance/supplement/complement Cytek offerings (collaboration with Marketing and Platform teams), develop partnership in collaboration with Supply Chain, Strategic Sourcing and Legal teams (if and as needed).
6. Engineering Change Management & Tech Transfers
- Oversee Engineering Change Orders (ECOs) and ensure timely implementation.
- Validate changes through risk assessments and testing.
- Manage Tech Transfer projects from concept to planning to full execution. Tech transfers can be between Global Cytek sites and/or from Acquired entities to any of the Global Cytek facilities.
7. Customer & Field Support
- Provide technical support for service teams and customers.
- Analyze field data to identify trends and drive product improvements.
8. Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Develop strong partnerships with relevant companies and stakeholders to ensure fulfillment of Company needs.
- Create/reinforce interdisciplinary connections between technical leads and managers cross-functionally with R&D organization, software, supply chain, manufacturing, finance, quality, product platforms, service, field applications and other teams/functions in Cytek.
- Work closely with Quality, Regulatory, Manufacturing, and R&D teams.
- Act as the technical authority for sustaining products.
9. Continuous Improvement
- Implement Lean and Six Sigma methodologies for process and product improvements.
- Drive initiatives to enhance reliability, drive DOA (death on arrival) and warranty costs to zero occurrence levels.
10. Leadership & Project Management & Team Development
- Build and mentor a high-performing product sustaining, new product introduction and tech transfer disciplines/sections and engineering teams.
- Set priorities, define budget, resources and schedules, manage resources effectively and efficiently to ensure deliverables are met on schedule and within budget.
- Define budget, resources and schedule for each project/program implementation and provide concise status updates.
- Improve engineering organization capabilities through formal training programs on engineering disciplines including ESDA (Engineering Statistics and Data Analysis).
- Lead the team to ensure that career paths are outlined and skills are enhanced.
11. Perform other duties as assigned
REQUIREMENTS & QUALIFICATIONS:
The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.
- Bachelor's with 18+ years of hands-on experience at market relevant organizations in new product introduction, sustaining for commercialized products, technical transfer of complex instrumentation/hardware and project management in both large and small-to-medium medical device, life science and/or telecommunication organizations.
- PhD degree in at least one relevant engineering discipline or equivalent experience preferred.
- Thorough understanding of product development, product sustaining and NPI process.
- Extensive hands-on experience in managing multi-national engineering organizations.
- Proven experience in bringing a product to market and ability to collaborate with Platform, Marketing and Sales teams to do so.
- Proven experience in building strong teams that meets high-performance standards and goals across multiple disciplines.
- Strong interdisciplinary leadership experience in electrical, mechanical, regulatory, prototyping, validation, and test areas.
- Able to implement an engineering strategy for a major business unit that balances operations and support requirements with engineering development programs.
- Passion for leading, mentoring and inspiring strong, talented engineers as a co-worker, actively involved in day-to-day engineering.
- Ability to identify and recruit top talent.
- Curious about our business, confident and responsive working with executives.
- Experience leading top-performing diverse, global teams, preferred.
- Highly collaborative, inclusive, creative and flexible.
- Experience defining KPIs and OPIs, manage performance through metric.
- Ability and willingness to travel globally as necessary (when safe and permitted).
PHYSICAL DEMANDS AND WORK ENVIRONMENT:
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
- Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer
- Must be able to travel up to 25%
Cytek is an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, age, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, genetic information, disability status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.