Miller Industries – Vice President of Engineering - Fenton, Michigan Who We Are At Miller Industries, we design, engineer, and manufacture custom products right here in the USA, at our locations in Fenton and Burton, Michigan, and with additional engineering support in El Paso, Texas. The divisions of our business include Miller Fabricated Systems, Flex Air, Miller Industries Representatives, and our MI Service Group. Together, we have the capabilities to provide our customers with custom steel fabrication, custom commercial and industrial HVAC systems, and various modular mechanical and electrical systems. Over the years, we have been a primary supplier to automotive, healthcare, institutional, and semiconductor manufacturers worldwide. We take great pride in our family-operated business built on hard work and a passion for making quality products. We are committed to ensuring the needs of our employees are met and even exceeded, and that they can grow and develop throughout their careers. As we continue to grow at a rapid pace, we are looking for skilled talent to join our team. If you believe this opportunity is right for you, we welcome you to apply today! Position Summary Miller Industries is seeking a highly accomplished Vice President of Engineering to provide strategic leadership, organizational development, and execution oversight for all engineering functions across the company. This executive leadership role is responsible for defining and executing the engineering vision, developing world-class engineering capabilities, and ensuring alignment between engineering strategy and business objectives. The Vice President of Engineering will oversee all engineering disciplines, including Mechanical, Structural, Electrical, Controls, BIM, Design Engineering, Design Automation, and Engineering Subcontractors, while driving innovation, operational excellence, product standardization, and scalable growth. This leader will balance long-term strategic initiatives with day-to-day execution, ensuring engineering delivers safe, reliable, cost-effective, and innovative solutions that support Miller Industries' mission-critical infrastructure business. The ideal candidate is a transformational engineering executive with a proven ability to build high-performing organizations, develop future leaders, establish robust engineering processes, manage complex budgets, and drive continuous improvement across multidisciplinary engineering teams. Key Responsibilities Executive Leadership & Strategic Direction - Develop and execute the company's engineering vision, strategy, and long-term roadmap in alignment with corporate objectives.
- Serve as a key member of the executive leadership team, contributing to overall business strategy, growth initiatives, and operational planning.
- Establish strategic engineering initiatives that improve product competitiveness, innovation, scalability, and profitability.
- Lead engineering organizational planning, workforce strategy, capability development, and succession planning.
- Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement throughout the engineering organization.
- Provide executive oversight and decision-making for critical engineering, technical, and operational matters.
Engineering Organization Leadership - Lead and oversee all engineering disciplines, including:
- Mechanical Engineering
- Structural Engineering
- Electrical Engineering
- Controls Engineering
- BIM (Building Information Modeling)
- Design Engineering
- Design Automation
- Engineering Project Management
- External Engineering Partners and Subcontractors
- Ensure proper staffing, resource allocation, organizational structure, and workload balancing across engineering functions.
- Establish clear performance expectations and accountability measures throughout the engineering organization.
- Develop future engineering leaders through mentoring, coaching, competency development, and succession planning.
- Build and maintain a strong engineering talent pipeline through recruiting, onboarding, training, and professional development initiatives.
Strategic Roadmapping & Innovation - Develop and maintain technology, product, and engineering capability roadmaps that support market growth and customer requirements.
- Identify opportunities for product standardization, modularization, and platform development.
- Evaluate emerging technologies, tools, and engineering methodologies to improve organizational performance and market competitiveness.
- Drive engineering innovation and support development of new products, systems, and solutions.
- Champion digital engineering initiatives, automation technologies, and advanced engineering tools.
Process Development & Continuous Improvement - Establish and continuously improve engineering processes, standards, procedures, and governance frameworks.
- Drive engineering excellence through standardized workflows, design reviews, verification processes, and quality management systems.
- Implement best practices for design automation, BIM execution, configuration management, and engineering documentation.
- Lead continuous improvement initiatives focused on cost reduction, cycle time improvement, quality enhancement, and increased engineering productivity.
- Promote lessons learned, standard work, and knowledge-sharing practices across all engineering disciplines.
Technical Leadership & Problem Solving - Provide executive-level technical guidance and oversight for complex engineering challenges and critical business decisions.
- Lead cross-functional resolution of significant technical, quality, manufacturing, and customer-related issues.
- Foster a culture of creative problem solving and data-driven decision-making.
- Champion root cause analysis and corrective action methodologies to prevent recurrence of systemic issues.
- Ensure engineering solutions meet requirements for performance, safety, quality, constructability, manufacturability, and lifecycle value.
Business & Financial Management - Develop and manage annual engineering operating and capital budgets.
- Ensure engineering resources are effectively allocated to support business priorities and growth objectives.
- Drive value engineering initiatives to improve profitability while maintaining quality and performance standards.
- Monitor engineering performance metrics and financial indicators to ensure budget adherence and operational effectiveness.
- Support strategic business planning, forecasting, and capital investment decisions.
Cross-Functional Collaboration - Partner closely with Operations, Manufacturing, Project Management, Quality, Supply Chain, Sales, and Executive Leadership to achieve company objectives.
- Ensure seamless integration between engineering, manufacturing, procurement, and project execution functions.
- Support customer engagement activities, technical reviews, strategic partnerships, and major project pursuits.
- Promote organizational alignment and effective communication across departments.
Governance, Compliance & Risk Management - Ensure engineering compliance with applicable codes, standards, regulations, and industry best practices, including but not limited to:
- UL
- ASME
- NFPA
- IBC
- NEC
- IEEE
- Applicable customer and regulatory requirements
- Establish risk assessment and mitigation processes for engineering projects and initiatives.
- Maintain robust engineering quality systems and design validation practices.
- Ensure subcontracted engineering activities meet company standards and performance expectations.
Qualifications Required - Bachelor's degree in Engineering from an accredited institution.
- 15+ years of progressive engineering leadership experience, including executive-level responsibility for multidisciplinary engineering organizations.
- Demonstrated success leading large engineering teams across multiple disciplines.
- Strong background in industrial, modular, mission-critical, manufacturing, infrastructure, or engineered systems environments.
- Proven ability to develop engineering strategies and execute complex organizational initiatives.
- Extensive experience managing engineering budgets, resource planning, and organizational development.
- Experience implementing engineering processes, continuous improvement initiatives, and scalable engineering systems.
- Strong technical, business, leadership, and communication skills.
Preferred - Master's degree in Engineering, Engineering Management, or Business Administration (MBA).
- Professional Engineer (PE) license.
- Experience leading engineering organizations supporting modular construction, mission-critical infrastructure, power systems, data centers, or industrial equipment.
- Experience with BIM, digital engineering, and design automation platforms.
- Lean, Six Sigma, or continuous improvement certification.
- Experience overseeing globally distributed engineering teams and external engineering partners.
What Success Looks Like - A highly engaged, accountable, and high-performing engineering organization.
- Strong engineering leadership bench with established succession plans and future leaders in development.
- Engineering strategies and roadmaps that support long-term business growth and market leadership.
- Consistent delivery of high-quality engineering solutions that meet cost, schedule, and performance objectives.
- Reduced engineering cycle times and increased organizational efficiency through process excellence and automation.
- Successful implementation of continuous improvement initiatives that drive measurable business results.
- Strong cross-functional alignment resulting in predictable project execution and customer satisfaction.
- Effective management of engineering budgets and resource utilization.
Metrics-Based Expectations (KPIs) Strategic & Business Performance - Achievement of annual engineering strategic initiative objectives.
- Execution of engineering roadmap milestones aligned with business goals.
- Contribution to revenue growth through innovation, new product development, and engineering efficiency.
Cost Performance - Meet annual engineering budget targets.
- Improve engineering productivity and resource utilization year over year.
- Drive measurable cost savings through standardization, value engineering, and process improvements.
- Reduce engineering-driven change orders, rework, and non-value-added costs.
Schedule Performance - Meet or exceed on-time engineering deliverable commitments.
- Reduce engineering cycle times and design release durations.
- Improve predictability and accuracy of engineering schedules and project execution.
Quality Performance - Improve first-pass design quality across all engineering disciplines.
- Reduce engineering-related NCRs, field issues, and customer-reported defects.
- Maintain compliance with all applicable codes, standards, and customer requirements.
People & Capability Development - Improve employee engagement, retention, and promotion rates.
- Increase organizational competency through formal training and development programs.
- Establish and achieve leadership succession targets.
- Develop measurable improvements in technical capabilities, engineering tools proficiency, and organizational effectiveness.
Continuous Improvement & Innovation - Increase adoption of design automation and digital engineering capabilities.
- Achieve annual continuous improvement targets focused on productivity, quality, and cost.
- Implement scalable engineering processes and best practices across all disciplines.
- Improve engineering throughput while maintaining quality and compliance standards.
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