Sustaining Engineering Manager

POSITION SUMMARY 

The Sustaining Engineering Manager is responsible for leading and scaling sustaining engineering operations within Vertiv's busbar division, ensuring product quality, manufacturability, and operational performance across the product portfolio. This role also plays a critical part in supporting the PD Cloud integration of the Busbar Product Line, ensuring sustaining engineering processes, data, and workflows are aligned with the digital transformation. Reporting to the Global Sustaining Manager, this role owns the sustaining engineering function at the site level — setting priorities, driving cross-functional execution, managing team performance, and delivering measurable improvements in quality and cost.

RESPONSIBILITIES 

Strategic & Functional Leadership 

• Own the sustaining engineering strategy for the busbar division, aligned to the Global Sustaining Manager's priorities and overall product line objectives. 

• Define and manage the sustaining engineering roadmap — balancing reactive issue resolution with proactive design improvements, cost reduction, and quality initiatives. 

• Establish and track key performance indicators (KPIs) for sustaining engineering, including engineering change cycle time, repeat issue rate, cost-of-poor-quality reduction, and first-pass yield improvement. 

• Provide regular reporting and executive-level updates to the Global Sustaining Manager on sustaining performance, risks, and resource needs. 

PD Cloud Integration — Busbar Product Line 

• Support the PD Cloud integration of the Busbar Product Line, acting as the sustaining engineering lead to ensure product data, engineering change processes, and bill of material structures are migrated and maintained accurately within the PD Cloud environment. 

• Partner with the PD Cloud programme team to define sustaining engineering requirements, validate data integrity, and drive user adoption across the sustaining team. 

• Ensure sustaining engineering workflows — including drawing management, BOM updates, ECO processing, and product lifecycle governance — are transitioned to and fully operational within PD Cloud. 

• Identify and resolve sustaining-specific gaps, risks, and process misalignments during the PD Cloud rollout, escalating to the Global Sustaining Manager as needed. 

• Drive engineering team readiness for PD Cloud, including training, process documentation, and change management within the sustaining function 

Team Leadership & Development 

• Lead, mentor, and develop Sustaining Engineering Supervisors and their teams, building bench strength and technical capability across the function. 

• Set clear performance expectations, conduct performance reviews, and manage talent development plans for direct reports. 

• Drive workforce planning, including headcount forecasting, hiring, onboarding, and succession planning for the sustaining engineering team. 

• Foster a high-performance culture of accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement, and technical excellence. 

Cross-Functional Execution 

• Serve as the primary sustaining engineering point of contact for Operations, Quality, Supply Chain, and Product Management leadership — ensuring alignment on priorities and timely resolution of production-impacting issues. 

• Lead cross-functional review forums (e.g., engineering change boards, design review gates, quality escalation meetings) to drive disciplined decision-making and execution. 

• Partner with Quality to lead systemic root cause investigations (8D, 5-Why, fishbone) and ensure corrective actions are validated, sustained, and institutionalised. 

• Coordinate with Supply Chain on component obsolescence management, supplier quality issues, and alternate sourcing engineering support. 

Engineering Change & Configuration Management 

• Own the engineering change management process for sustaining activities — ensuring changes are properly evaluated, documented, approved, and released with minimal disruption to production. 

• Drive standardisation of bills of material, drawing practices, and product data management to improve accuracy and reduce variation across the product portfolio. 

• Ensure compliance with product lifecycle management processes and engineering governance standards. 

Continuous Improvement & Cost Reduction 

• Identify and lead cost reduction initiatives through design optimisation, material rationalisation, and process improvement — delivering measurable savings against annual targets. 

• Champion design for manufacturability across the sustaining portfolio, reducing recurring manufacturing issues and driving first-time-right performance. 

• Lead lessons-learned processes and ensure systemic improvements are embedded into engineering standards and practices. 

New Product Introduction Support 

• Partner with the NPI and R&D teams to ensure smooth transition of new products into sustaining ownership, including design maturity assessments and readiness reviews. 

• Ensure sustaining engineering input is incorporated early in the NPI process to prevent downstream quality and manufacturability issues. 

QUALIFICATIONS 

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related engineering discipline 

• 8+ years of experience in product design, sustaining engineering, manufacturing engineering, or a related engineering function 

• 3+ years of experience in a formal engineering leadership role, including direct management of supervisors or team leads 

• Demonstrated ability to set functional strategy, manage competing priorities, and deliver results through others 

• Strong knowledge of manufacturing processes and experience driving design for manufacturability improvements 

• Proven track record of leading root cause analysis, corrective action implementation, and engineering change management at scale 

• Experience managing engineering KPIs, budgets, and resource allocation 

• Strong experience with bills of material, drawing standards, and product lifecycle management systems 

• Excellent stakeholder management, written communication, and executive-level reporting skills 

• Proficiency with 3D modeling, 2D drafting tools, and Microsoft Office 

• Preferred 

• Experience supporting or leading PLM/PD Cloud platform migrations, including data migration, process transition, and user adoption within an engineering function 

• Experience in engineered-to-order products, busbar, sheet metal, copper design, or similarly complex manufacturing environments 

• Experience operating within a global engineering organisation and aligning local execution with global standards 

• Experience with Lean, Six Sigma, or structured continuous improvement methodologies 

• Familiarity with supplier quality processes and component obsolescence management 

• Experience supporting new product introduction from a sustaining engineering perspective