Director, Waterfront Engineering

The Director of Waterfront Engineering is a high-visibility leadership role accountable for overseeing new construction engineering and design. This position demands a highly proactive leader who can anticipate issues, communicate extremely effectively, and execute action.  This position will interface regularly with Manufacturing, Planning, and Materials leadership in the common goal of delivering high-quality ships for the least cost on schedule. This position is responsible for the overall safety, quality, schedule adherence, cost performance, and personnel management within engineering during build, test and delivery process under the BIW Business Operating System (BOS). The Director of Waterfront Engineering manages mechanical, electrical, combat, and structural engineering, and design personnel, ensuring compliance with safety, quality, technical and performance standards, and collaborates closely with Manufacturing and Planning to align production efforts with broader organizational goals. 

Key Responsibilities

• Safety Leadership:
  • Enforce safety policies and procedures, with a focus on housekeeping and personal safety.
  • Lead initiatives to enhance workplace safety and foster a culture of continuous improvement.

• Project Execution:
  • Manages the engineering and design activities to address any and all engineering or production technical issues that restrict or impede the ability of manufacturing to construct the ships. This includes, but is not limited to, the management of the Burke Problem Tracker (BPT), Field Engineering Production Assist (FEPA) or similar process to ensure any design corrections or modifications are completed in sufficient time to support on time execution of work by Operations.
  • Manages the engineering and design effort to incorporate change into the shipbuilder products in sufficient time to support on time execution of work by Operations
  • Manages the waterfront engineering plans of the week (POWs) to ensure compliance with current guidelines.
  • Direct engineering and design performance to meet schedule and cost objectives.
  • Oversee Integrated Product Team (IPT) engineering leads assigned to each hull and the buildings to work cohesively with Manufacturing management to align construction priorities with design, engineering, and quality requirements.
  • Continuously identify and eliminate non-value-added activities and implement process improvements to enhance productivity and reduce cost.

• Engineering Management:
  • Leader of engineering waterfront operations at BIW focused on new construction. Establishes and implements the strategic direction of the company’s waterfront engineering and design initiatives.
  • Lead Engineering and Design Managers, Supervisors, IPT engineering leads, engineers and designers to resolve challenges using the A3 problem-solving method.
  • Oversee Earned Value Management (EVM) of engineering activities, reporting on cost variances and corrective actions.
  • Responsible for the technical oversight of ship equipment and interface with the suppliers.
  • Responsible for the development of plans for safe lifting and handling of ship units.
  • Responsible for test and evaluation team and test procedure development for new construction items.
  • Responsible for steel lift and loft.
  • Responsible for Liaison support across all manufacturing facilities.
  • Responsible for implementation of Liaison Inquiries (LIs) and producibility requests (Shipbuilder Growth Authorization Forms - SGAFs).
  • Responsible for design of Installation Aid Fixtures (IAFs).
  • Responsible for coordinating with the Lead Yard Services Engineering Director on the introduction and maintenance of the shared BIW engineering infrastructure. (including engineering software applications, 3D models and drawings) used for waterfront design and engineering efforts.
  • Prepare weekly “ship performance” review with SLT.
  • Maintain/manage Operational Performance Improvement Plan (OPIP) to track improvements and hour reduction programs across waterfront engineering team.

• Training and Development:
  • Drive training programs as required to meet first-time product quality objectives.
  • Provide feedback and lessons learned to improve future planning and execution stages.

• Team Collaboration and Communication:
  • Ensure effective communication within the Engineering team and support groups.
  • Responsible for the staffing and development of the organization including maintenance and introduction of critical skills from a capability and capacity perspective.
  • Foster teamwork and collaboration among Engineers and Designers, support personnel, manufacturing, planning, IPT representatives, and external stakeholders.

• Continuous Improvement:
• • Champion BOS manufacturing principles and productivity enhancements.
  • Lead Engineering team to streamline processes and improve safety, quality, and cost-efficiency.

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering is required, a Master’s degree is preferred.

• Minimum of 10 years working in positions of progressively increasing responsibility in supervision and management required. Ship construction experience preferred.
• A solid foundation in labor contract administration required and working experience in leading a union workforce.
• Excellent administrative skills: effective interpersonal skills, demonstrated skills in the areas of verbal and written communication, problem solving/decision making, conflict resolution, and organization required.
• Knowledge of Surface Combatant operation.
• Demonstrated understanding/implementation of LEAN manufacturing principles.
• Understanding engineering processes to help in build/operations problem solving.
• Exceptional people skills required. Demonstrated ability to get cooperation from engineering personnel, support personnel, and manufacturing personnel in often high stress situations.
• Ability to represent BIW’s position on various engineering and design, contractual and technical matters in a professional, courteous, yet assertive manner.
• Working knowledge of the various engineering activities performed on U.S. Navy surface combatants, naval architecture design and engineering discipline required.
• Demonstrated experience in new ship construction understanding Navy requirements, vendor technical management, component/equipment/system qualification, physical system integration, , and test and trials.
• Significant leadership experience in ship design and engineering of surface combatants preferred.
• Demonstrated management, project coordination and leadership skills required.
• Strong written, oral communications, and organizational skills required.
• Proficiency with computers including Microsoft Office products required.
• Ability and willingness to work in, and promote, a true team environment.
• Successful experience in implementing and monitoring continuous improvement initiatives to improve safety, improve quality, reduce cycle time, and reduce costs.