NPI Engineering Manager

Job Summary:

The Engineering Manager / NPI Lead provides technical and people leadership for new-product introduction at Forj Medical's Vadnais Heights injection-molding site. This role owns the site NPI engineering system from feasibility and quoting through tooling, process development, validation, launch, and transfer to sustaining operations. The leader builds team capability, establishes clear priorities and accountability, and partners with customers and cross-functional leaders to deliver high-quality, scalable medical-device manufacturing solutions.

Job Duties and Responsibilities:

• Lead, coach, develop, and evaluate the NPI engineering team; establish clear roles, priorities, goals, accountability, and development plans.
• Own the VH site NPI operating model, including project intake, technical feasibility, resource planning, stage-gate execution, risk escalation, launch readiness, and handoff to sustaining operations.
• Provide technical direction for injection-molded products, molds, processes, fixtures, automation, equipment, secondary operations, and validation strategies.
• Partner with Commercial and Cost Estimating during quoting to ensure technical concepts, timing, capital, resource needs, assumptions, and risks are understood and support sound business decisions.
• Build strong customer relationships and serve as an escalation point for technical decisions, project risks, priorities, and recovery plans.
• Collaborate with Site Leadership, Operations, Quality, Tooling, Supply Chain, Program Management, and sustaining engineering to align capacity, priorities, and execution.
• Ensure projects comply with Forj Medical's quality system, design-transfer and document-control practices, customer requirements, and applicable regulatory standards.
• Establish and monitor meaningful performance measures for safety, quality, delivery, project execution, cost, launch performance, and resource utilization.
• Drive structured problem-solving, technical reviews, design for manufacturability, process capability, validation rigor, and production-readiness discipline.
• Manage engineering resources, operating expenses, capital needs, external engineering support, and technical suppliers within approved plans.
• Identify capability gaps and develop talent, systems, standards, tools, and partnerships required to support growth and increasingly complex customer programs.
• Create an inclusive, collaborative environment that encourages transparency, timely decisions, continuous improvement, and effective cross-functional partnership.
• Support site and enterprise strategy, operational excellence, customer audits, and other business priorities as assigned.

Qualifications:

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Manufacturing, Plastics, Biomedical, Industrial Engineering, or a related technical field required.
• Master's degree in Engineering, Business Administration, or a related field preferred.

Experience

• Eight or more years of progressive engineering experience with substantial responsibility for NPI, product development, tooling, or manufacturing execution preferred.
• Three or more years of formal people-leadership or significant technical-team leadership experience preferred.
• Demonstrated experience launching injection-molded products and processes from concept through validated production required.
• Experience in medical device, regulated manufacturing, or contract manufacturing strongly preferred.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Strong people leadership, coaching, change leadership, resource planning, and cross-functional influence.
• Deep understanding of injection molding, tooling, DFM, process development, validation, risk management, process capability, and production transfer.
• Business and financial acumen, including quoting, capital planning, project economics, and prioritization.
• Strong customer-facing communication, executive-level judgment, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
• Ability to create scalable systems and lead multiple complex programs in a fast-paced contract-manufacturing environment.

Working Conditions

• Office environment
• Manufacturing environment

Compensation 

• The expected starting salary for this position is $130,000 to $165,000 depending on qualifications. As part of your overall rewards, we offer a comprehensive benefits program.