New Product Introduction (NPI) Director

We are seeking a New Product Introduction (NPI) Director who is responsible for leading the strategy, execution, and successful transition of new products from design to development and into production. This leadership role ensures manufacturability, optical performance, quality, and cost efficiency while driving cross-functional alignment across engineering, operations, quality, and supply chain. The NPI Director plays a critical role in ensuring production readiness for complex optical components and opto-mechanical assemblies.

Location

U.S. (Sunnyvale, CA – 501 Mercury Drive) - hybrid role with travel of approximately 25%

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and oversee all NPI programs for optical components and opto-mechanical assemblies

• Establish NPI strategies, processes, and governance to ensure scalable, repeatable, and efficient product transitions.

• Drive cross-functional collaboration across design, manufacturing, metrology, quality, and supply chain teams.

• Champion design for manufacturability (DFM), design for assembly (DFA), and design for testability (DFT) principles.

• Ensure successful engineering builds, pilot runs, and production ramps achieve yield, cost, and schedule goals.

• Lead root cause analysis efforts across programs and ensure corrective and preventive actions are implemented effectively.

• Develop and manage NPI timelines, budgets, and resource allocation across multiple concurrent programs.

• Ensure supplier qualification for outsourced manufacturing components and processes.

• Drive continuous improvement initiatives focused on yield enhancement, cost reduction, and cycle time optimization.

• Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing NPI engineering team; establish best practices and technical standards.

Success in this role will be measured by

• Successful and timely product launches meeting performance, yield, and cost targets

• Manufacturing readiness and scalability of new products

• Optimized NPI cycle time and rapid time-to-market

• Cross-functional alignment and executional excellence

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Optical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, or related field.

• 10+ years of experience in NPI, manufacturing engineering, or product development within precision optics, photonics, or high-tech manufacturing environments.

• 5+ years of leadership experience managing engineering teams and complex programs.

• Deep knowledge of optical manufacturing processes

• Strong understanding of optical tolerancing, surface quality standards (scratch/dig), and inspection methods.

• Experience with optical metrology instrumentations.

• Proven experience in root cause analysis and structured problem-solving

• Strong project/program management and cross-functional leadership skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in industries such as semiconductor equipment, aerospace, defense, or advanced imaging systems.

• Familiarity with metrology software and optical simulation tools.

• Knowledge of thin film coatings.

• Experience with ERP/MRP systems (e.g., Microsoft Dynamics preferred, SAP, Oracle).

• Experience with cleanroom environments and contamination control.