Engineering Manager – Electronics & Manufacturing

Engineering Manager – Electronics & Manufacturing

Fully Onsite in Sandy, Utah | Leadership Team Seat | Hands-On Product Leadership | Small Team, Big Impact

WD Electronics is looking for an energetic, high-impact Engineering Manager to help drive what we build, how we build it, and where the company goes next.

This is not a big-company “manage from a distance” role. You will sit on our leadership team, help make real company decisions, lead a small engineering team of approximately 3–4 people, and jump into the work when it matters. We want the kind of leader who would never ask someone to do something they would not be willing to roll up their sleeves and help do.

We build real products for real customers. That means product development, PCBs, 12V electrical systems, wiring, manufacturing, equipment, validation, BOMs, documentation, quality, production support, and solving problems quickly when the work gets messy.

Because the products, equipment, vehicles, production team, and engineering challenges are here, this is a fully onsite role in Sandy, Utah—not a remote or hybrid position.

If you want layers of approval, endless meetings, and big-company red tape, this probably is not your role. If you want ownership, speed, meaningful influence, and the opportunity to make a visible difference every week, you may have found your next adventure.

Why This Role Matters

We are a small company, which means engineering has an enormous influence on our success. Better priorities, faster decisions, stronger documentation, reliable products, improved manufacturing, and a well-developed team all show up directly in the customer experience and the company’s results.

You will not be one leader among dozens. You will be the person accountable for turning WD’s priorities into focused engineering work—and for building the people, tools, systems, and habits that allow the team to produce more without depending on constant heroics.

What You’ll Own

• Lead, coach, and develop a small engineering team while establishing clear expectations, priorities, accountability, and growth plans.
• Serve as an active member of the WD leadership team and help drive company-level decisions, priorities, and execution.
• Build and run a practical engineering operating system with visible priorities, owners, milestones, credible deadlines, capacity, risks, blockers, and weekly commitments.
• Increase sustainable engineering output by finding bottlenecks, eliminating waste, improving processes, and making smart staffing, outsourcing, or investment recommendations.
• Lead product-development, manufacturing-engineering, new-product-introduction, validation, BOM, documentation, release-readiness, equipment, and production-support work.
• Create reliable project commitments and communicate risks early—while there is still time to make a good decision.
• Partner closely with Product, Operations, Production, Quality, Customer Support, Purchasing, Sales, and Marketing.
• Establish dependable engineering coverage for production issues, including clear ownership, contact methods, response expectations, and escalation paths.
• Turn recurring problems into better products, controlled documentation, improved training, stronger processes, and preventive action.
• Build a candid, constructive, positive, solutions-first engineering culture.

AI Is Part of the Job

We are looking for someone who already uses AI in practical ways—or is extremely motivated to become excellent at using it.

You should be excited to find responsible ways to use AI, automation, and better tools to improve research, analysis, documentation, project visibility, workflow coordination, data entry, problem-solving, and engineering output.

We are not interested in using AI simply because it is trendy. We care about verified results: time saved, fewer errors, faster decisions, better documentation, improved quality, and more capacity for high-value engineering work.

You will be expected to experiment, learn quickly, establish sensible safeguards, and help the rest of the team become more capable with these tools.

The Kind of Leader We Want

You may be a great fit if you:

• Bring energy, urgency, initiative, and optimism to difficult problems.
• Want your work to make a visible difference to the team, the customer, and the company.
• Lead from the front and are willing to step into technical, production, or process problems when needed.
• Know how to stay hands-on without becoming the bottleneck for every decision.
• Set clear expectations, follow up, give candid feedback, and hold commitments accountable.
• Raise problems with facts, options, and a recommendation—not just a complaint.
• Enjoy coaching people and creating opportunities for them to become more capable and independent.
• Can move comfortably between a leadership meeting, a project plan, a technical review, a vehicle, and the production floor.
• Prefer ownership and action over politics and bureaucracy.
• Are excited to build a better system instead of accepting “that’s how we’ve always done it.”

Technical Foundation

We are looking for a leader with enough technical depth to earn the team’s trust, make sound decisions, and know when to involve the right subject-matter expert.

Qualifications include:

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related engineering discipline—or equivalent deep, demonstrated hands-on expertise.
• Proven engineering leadership experience in a fast-moving, hands-on product or manufacturing environment.
• Experience leading engineers, setting priorities, coaching people, managing performance, and delivering projects.
• Strong experience in one or more of the following: PCBs, 12V electrical systems, wiring, connectors, vehicle electrical systems, electronic products, product development, manufacturing engineering, validation, or related hardware.
• Working knowledge of product and manufacturing systems such as BOM control, documentation, release readiness, testing, quality, and production support.
• Strong problem-solving, prioritization, project-management, and continuous-improvement skills.
• Clear written and verbal communication, including the confidence to raise risks, present tradeoffs, and recommend decisions.
• Ability to learn WD’s products, equipment, customers, manufacturing environment, and technical systems quickly.
• Willingness and ability to work fully onsite in Sandy, Utah.

Patent-development, invention-disclosure, or patent-application experience is a plus.

Experience in a small company, startup, electronics, hardware, manufacturing, automotive, off-road, powersports, or vehicle-accessory environment is also a plus.

What Success Looks Like

Within your first 90 days, you will:

• Make engineering priorities, capacity, commitments, risks, and blockers visible.
• Establish a practical engineering operating system that the team uses consistently.
• Create reliable planning, communication, and production-support coverage.
• Identify the largest constraints to engineering output and implement meaningful corrective actions.
• Pilot useful AI, automation, tool, or process improvements and put the best ones into regular use.
• Establish clear expectations and development plans for each team member.
• Present and begin executing a written 12-month engineering vision and roadmap.
• Demonstrate that engineering is becoming more predictable, productive, proactive, and capable.

Why Join WD?

Because small-company engineering is different—in the best possible way.

You will have meaningful authority, direct access to decision-makers, a seat on the leadership team, and the ability to see your ideas become real products and better ways of working. Your contribution will not disappear into a giant organization. It will affect what we build, how our team grows, how our customers experience WD, and how the company succeeds.

If that sounds exciting, we would love to hear what you have built, what you have improved, how you have developed a team, and how you are already using—or plan to use—AI to make engineering better.

Pay: $110,000.00 - $150,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Employee assistance program
• Health insurance
• Health savings account
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance

Work Location: In person