Vice President, Engineering

About the Role

The Vice President of Engineering is the senior enterprise leader responsible for product creation, innovation, and engineering delivery at Wabash. This position oversees the complete product journey, from early concept and design through launch, ongoing support, and end-of-life planning, with a strong focus on safety, compliance, manufacturability, cost competitiveness, and market fit.

In addition, this executive owns the company-wide engineering operating model. That includes building and connecting digital, physical, and operational engineering capabilities into a single closed-loop system that strengthens innovation, safety, execution quality, and long-term enterprise value. The role has a direct impact on business growth, product reliability and performance, and reductions in total lifecycle cost.

Key Responsibilities

You will lead the full new product development process, establish the stage-gate framework, and ensure product launches are timely, cost-effective, and ready for manufacturing handoff.

You will shape and direct the enterprise R&D and innovation agenda in line with growth goals, while building a pipeline of next-generation products, platforms, and enabling technologies.

This role also requires evaluating and incorporating advanced materials, automation, and digital design methods, while leading adoption of digital engineering tools and data-led design practices across engineering and manufacturing.

You will be accountable for product safety, regulatory adherence, and technical risk management across all product families, including compliance with DOT, NHTSA, and other applicable standards throughout the product lifecycle.

Partnering closely with Commercial teams, you will bring customer insights and voice of customer input into product design, validate requirements with customers when needed, and help resolve complex technical issues.

You will drive design-to-cost, value engineering, and material optimization efforts, with accountability for engineering’s contribution to margin improvement, lower warranty costs, and stronger cost competitiveness through manufacturable, lifecycle-oriented design.

The role also includes aligning engineering priorities with SIOP, demand planning, and capacity strategies, while balancing standardized platforms with customer-specific customization needs.

Finally, you will build, coach, and retain high-performing engineering leaders and technical teams, while creating succession plans and career paths for critical roles.

Qualifications

A bachelor’s degree in Engineering is required. A master’s degree or MBA is preferred.

The ideal candidate brings 15+ years of progressive engineering leadership experience in a manufacturing setting, along with a strong background in product development, manufacturing engineering, and lifecycle management.

Success in this role also requires the ability to balance rigorous engineering discipline with speed, innovation, and execution.

Leadership Attributes

• Value diversity and inclusion by welcoming input, respecting differences, and promoting transparency.
• Practice active listening to arrive at stronger solutions and better decisions.
• Keep improving continuously and avoid settling for the status quo.
• Work with honesty, energy, and resilience in everything you do.
• Collaborate effectively, build alignment, and communicate across groups to succeed as one team.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Wabash provides equal employment opportunity to all associates and applicants, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, veteran status, disability, or any other protected characteristic under applicable federal, state, or local law. Employment decisions are based on neutral and legitimate criteria, and company policies are applied consistently to similarly situated associates.