Wheelabrator Global Air OEM Engineering VP

Charleville-Mézière, France or Metelen, Germany

Join a global leader and shape the engineering of the future!

Wheelabrator Global Air (Norican Group) is seeking a Global Air OEM Engineering VP, a visionary technical leader capable of driving global engineering strategy, unifying practices across technical centres and structuring innovation for years to come.
This key role within the Global Air Technology Centre directly influences the performance, competitiveness and transformation of the entire Air business.

Responsibilities:

The Global Air OEM Engineering VP is responsible for:

·         Working with customer facing organization to identify additional features and benefits required of the current product portfolio as well as emerging requirements for new products
·         Participate actively to the Air Business Plan preparation
·         Conduct competitive analysis and market intelligence
·         Establishing priorities and resource levels for all innovation projects and activities, including the addition, expansion or elimination of projects or products.
·         Establishing procedures for product design, development and testing, bridging scientific research with marketplace realities
·         Define and deploy a global engineering strategy aligned with business objectives, cost targets, and delivery commitments.
·         Establish technical governance, including design authority rules and decision-making frameworks across all engineering entities.
·         Lead the unification of engineering methods across historically independent technical centers while preserving critical domain expertise.
·         Drive engineering–supply chain integration to ensure execution efficiency, cost control, and manufacturability.
·         Define and implement a modularization and reuse strategy enabling industrial efficiency within a highly customized, engineer-to-order environment.
·         Ensure on-time, on-cost, and high-quality engineering delivery for customer projects.
·         Build and develop a high-performing global engineering organization, fostering accountability, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement.
·         Act as the technical executive interface, translating engineering complexity into business impact and supporting commercial decision-making.
·         Lead digital engineering and knowledge management transformation to enable scalability, reuse, and cross-site collaboration.
·         Able to supervise a team of project managers and their portfolio and track their deliverables.

Technical Skills :

🎓 Education & experience

• Master's degree in mechanical engineering (or equivalent).
• Minimum 10 years' experience, including 5 years in engineering management.
• Proven experience in CAPEX projects in an international industrial environment.
• Field experience with customers and technical partners.
• Strong skills in developing innovative products that have led to successful commercialisation.
• Fluency in English (French/German appreciated).

Specific Tasks:

Specific tasks:
·         Facilitate cross-functional team collaborations
·         Product knowledge and competency gap/fit across regions including gap closure planning with local stakeholders.
·         Owning technical cost overruns and warranty expenses related to product design
·         Harmonize engineering practices across technical centers by standardizing:
o   Design methodologies
o   Calculation rules and tools
o   Documentation standards
o   Validation and approval processes
·         Define a single engineering operating model with clear ownership, interfaces, and escalation paths.
·         Establish a structured interface between engineering and supply chain, ensuring alignment between engineering BOMs and production release planning.
·         Reduce late-stage design changes by enforcing design maturity and robust change management.
·         Define and maintain:
o   A library of validated sub-assemblies
o   Standard calculation notes and design rules
·         Implement “engineer-to-order with reuse” through modular architectures and configurable sub-assemblies.
·         Lead engineering productivity initiatives to:
o   Reduce engineering hours per project
o   Eliminate non–value-added engineering activities
·         Sponsor redesign initiatives focused on:
o   Simplification of complex designs
o   Reduction of part count
o   Improved manufacturability
·         Implement robust project execution practices, including:
o   Design reviews
o   Risk assessments
o   Formal change management processes
·         Act as executive sponsor for critical or high-risk projects.
·         Define roles, competencies, and career paths; develop system architects and technical leaders.
·         Formalize engineering know-how into processes, tools, and digital repositories.
·         Support deployment of PLM/PDM systems, 3D-systems ,digital design standards, and engineering knowledge repositories.

What we offer :

Wheelabrator Group is...

Participative management
A dynamic working environment and innovative projects
A career path tailored to your aspirations
A community of recognised experts
An attractive annual salary over 13 months, depending on your experience
Many benefits such as a holiday bonus, a performance bonus, a profit-sharing bonus, a PEI, a PERCOI, a remote working allowance during business trips, a weekend allowance during business trips, a company restaurant, a company health insurance scheme covered at 90%, a supplementary pension, benefits with our CSE, and events organised throughout the year.