Prototyping Manager

Bring ideas to life. Collaborate directly with designers, engineers, and partners to translate early concepts into unique, innovative designs, visual models, and working prototypes. Own the big picture. Lead multiple high-impact projects spanning team programs, business groups, and product lines—while managing individual project budgets and contributing to capital equipment planning. Drive innovation. Champion new ideas that reshape processes and best practices. Be the expert others rely on. Deepen your subject matter expertise across multiple prototyping specialties and use that influence to steer decisions that set your team up for success. Shape the strategy. Partner with senior leaders in the model-making discipline to build business plans, gathering and incorporating input from your team along the way. Grow the next generation. Mentor team members across a wide range of techniques, sharing deep expertise from across the discipline. Build lasting partnerships. Cultivate new relationships with external suppliers, leading the charge on model and project delivery and guiding project specifications from concept to completion. Lead people. Manage, develop, and inspire a talented team—driving employee growth, executing projects, and elevating performance. Business Strategy & Operations Leverages expertise and experience to provide perspective on the business and needs of the organization. Solicits input from team members to incorporate into business operation planning, working with senior leaders within Model Making to develop plans. Cascades strategic direction and objectives to team members. Influences decisions to ensure success of their team. Implements strategies for streamlining work to allow team members to accomplish tasks with minimal difficulty and a high degree of expertise. Works directly with designers, engineers, and other partners who approach the team with a prototyping idea. Ensures understanding of finishing and assembly requirements. Works collaboratively across teams and with key work partners to provide updates, communicating any deviations or changes in planning or direction. Ensures team members are well informed in order to effectively deliver final prototypes and/or parts. Develops and implements strategies and procedures to encourage continuous communication both within the organization and with key work partners. Contributes to the broader prototyping strategy, identifying and actively seeking to implement new processes. Managers deliver success through empowerment and accountability by modeling, coaching, and caring. Enable success across boundaries. Develops and leads the implementation of creative and strategic approaches for addressing problems. Builds mechanisms and infrastructures to encourage creativity in the problem-solving process. Advises others on breakdowns, challenges, or obstacles to mitigate or prevent their occurrence, including potential security challenges or vulnerabilities. Provides a clear vision to team members and highlights project time schedules. Develops a future oriented perspective regarding prototyping work. Ensures clarity is obtained across teams on delegated tasks and requirements. Provides guidance to team members on how to communicate designs to key work partners. Advises team members on how to make future designs and solutions iterative. Collaborates with relevant work partners to determine the direction for unique models and prototypes. Provides guidance to team members on possible materials, resources, machinery, and equipment requirements needed for current and future projects. Contributes to managing capital equipment budget. Participates in the decision-making process to determine when internal and external resources should be used. Coordinates with an array of teams to ensure lab is able to function effectively (e.g., Ensure prototype specifications incorporate secure data handling, transport parameters, security protocols, and security practices. Advises team members on how to maintain supplier compliance. Develops standards for setting pricing/costs and schedules with suppliers. Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Design, Industrial Technology, or related field AND 6+ years model making or prototyping work experience OR High School Diploma AND 10+ years model making or shop experience, including building and machining appearance models or prototypes Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Design, Industrial Technology, or related field AND 10+ years model making or prototyping experience in the consumer electronics industry, including building and machining class A appearance models or engineering prototype. OR equivalent experience. 5+ years of people management experience. Experience leading multidisciplinary prototyping, model-making, or fabrication teams in a fast-paced product development environment. Proven track record of collaborating with designers, engineers, researchers, and product teams to translate ambiguous concepts into high-quality prototypes and physical models. Deep knowledge of advanced prototyping methodologies, manufacturing processes, fabrication techniques, materials, and emerging model-making technologies. Experience managing multiple concurrent, high-visibility projects, including resource allocation, prioritization, budgeting, scheduling, and risk mitigation. Effective people leadership experience with a demonstrated ability to coach, develop, and grow technical teams through empowerment, accountability, and inclusive leadership practices. Experience establishing and scaling lab operations, including equipment planning, capital investments, safety programs, vendor management, and operational excellence initiatives such as 5S or similar methodologies. Demonstrated history of driving innovation through the adoption of new tools, technologies, processes, or intellectual property that advance prototyping capabilities and improve business outcomes.