Director, NPI Program Management

Summary

The Director of NPI (New Product Introduction) Program Management is an executive-level leadership role responsible for the end-to-end orchestration, risk management, and operational execution of next-generation hardware products from concept to mass production. In this role, you will lead and scale a high-performing team of Manufacturing Technical Leads (MTLs) who serve as the critical operational bridge linking Design Technical Leads, Software Engineering Program Managers, Factory NPI Managers, and Operations/Engineering teams. The Director is ultimately accountable for ensuring that multi-layered technical risks are identified and mitigated early, hardware prototype builds are executed flawlessly on schedule, build plans are thoroughly validated, and strict Phase-Gate exit criteria are met across the entire product lifecycle.

Detailed Description

1. People Management & Technical Team Leadership

• MTL Group Leadership: Directly manage, mentor, and build a world-class team of Manufacturing Technical Leads (MTLs), establishing clear performance metrics and cultivating a culture of technical rigor, ownership, and cross-functional influence.
• Resource Optimization: Strategically allocate MTL resources across a complex portfolio of parallel hardware and software programs based on product complexity, tier-1 customer demands, and factory constraints.
• Technical Escalation: Act as the primary operational escalation point for programmatic and technical bottlenecks, unblocking the team by facilitating rapid engineering alignment and executive decision-making.

2. Cross-Functional Bridging & Stakeholder Management

• Factory Integration: Ensure seamless synchronization between Design teams and Factory NPI Managers, translating product requirements into execution-ready factory directives.
• Operations & Engineering Alignment: Partner closely with internal Front-End, Back-End, and Test Engineering Senior Managers to ensure manufacturing infrastructure, SMT processes readiness, box build automation, and test fixtures scale alongside prototyping phases.
• Design & Software Synthesis: Direct the team in bridging the gap between hardware Design Technical Leads, Software Engineering Program Managers and the manufacturing teams to ensure that firmware, diagnostics, and silicon features are operationally aligned with hardware/software testing timelines.

3. Prototyping Execution & Build Plan Validation

• On-Time Prototyping: Drive accountability across the team to ensure all early-stage hardware prototype builds (e.g., Proto, EVT, DVT, PVT) are executed on time and to precise quality standards.
• Build Plan Validation: Authorize and validate master product build plans, ensuring material readiness, factory capacity, component-level tooling, and custom test vectors are verified prior to firing up production lines.
• Build-Specific SOW Discipline: Enforce a strict documentation discipline requiring a comprehensive Scope of Work (SOW) to be authored, reviewed, and locked down for each individual build stage to clearly define build objectives, hardware configurations, and engineering deliverables.
• Deviation & Yield Controls: Supervise the tracking and resolution of design-induced or process-induced anomalies during builds, ensuring engineering deviations are strictly controlled, documented, and closed.

4. Risk Mitigation & NPI Governance

• Predictive Risk Frameworks: Implement systemic risk-identification frameworks (utilizing NUDD, pFMEA, and CTQ parameters) to flag technical, supply chain, and manufacturability constraints months before physical builds commence.
• Rigorous Change Management: Establish and govern strict change management protocols across the product lifecycle, ensuring all mid-cycle design modifications, component substitutions, or process variations are fully documented, risk-assessed, and approved.
• Issue Tracking & Timely Escalation: Implement robust issue-tracking infrastructure to capture real-time build anomalies, driving cross-functional engineering teams toward rapid resolution or orchestrating structured, timely technical escalations before critical path schedules are impacted.
• Phase-Gate Governance: Own the operational readiness reviews and Phase-Gate exits for all active programs, ensuring engineering data, DFM/DFA, and yield validation metrics are meticulously prepared for executive leadership approval.
• Post-Mortem & Continuous Improvement: Lead comprehensive post-build teardowns and post-mortem evaluations to feed lessons learned back into early-stage hardware co-development loops.

Knowledge/Skills/Competencies

• Technical & Process Depth: Deep mastery of standard product development lifecycles (PLC/NPI frameworks), advanced configuration management, and complex bill of materials (BOM) structures. Strong familiarity with hardware manufacturing processes (SMT, Box Build, Rack Integration, and Testing).
• Documentation & Governance Acumen: Solid proficiency in establishing documentation baselines (such as build SOWs), running rigorous change control boards (CCB), and implementing automated bug/issue-tracking methodologies (e.g., Jira or equivalent tracking systems).
• Cross-Functional Influence: Exceptional ability to operate in a highly matrixed environment, successfully commanding authority and building alignment between highly technical chip/software architects and factory floor operational leaders.
• Programmatic Acumen: Proven track record of managing multimillion-dollar prototyping budgets, complex global supply chains, and demanding critical-path schedules with high volatility. PMP or equivalent program management certification is a plus.

Typical Experience

12+ years of hardware program management or NPI engineering experience within high-performance compute, networking, hyperscaler, or tier-1 consumer electronics sectors, with at least 5 years in a direct people-management