Senior Director, Design Engineering

Senior Engineering Leader

The role is for a highly motivated and experienced Senior Engineering Leader to spearhead a strategic customer engagement focused on cutting-edge technology solutions. This role demands a unique blend of technical expertise, customer-centricity, and leadership acumen to drive successful outcomes in a dynamic environment. This role is accountable for strategic customer engagements - this includes regular engagement with the customer on technical advances, product quality, engineering metrics etc. To be successful in the role, the senior leader will need to work closely with internal and external stakeholders globally. The leader must be a thought leader, with strong communication skills and be forward thinking. As a people leader, the leader will build and groom a team of high performing engineers, working with them on objective setting and professional development initiatives. The candidate will have overall responsibility for software quality, customer engagement (Engineering) planning, budgeting, implementing and maintaining costs in a functional area. The candidate will regularly interact with executives and/or major customers. Interactions may involve readouts, strategic direction setting or responding professionally and proactively to any potential escalations.

Responsibilities

Lead Customer Engagement:

• Serve as the primary technical point of contact for a key customer, building strong relationships and understanding their needs.
• Collaborate closely with the customer to define project scope, requirements, and success criteria.
• Effectively communicate technical concepts and solutions to both technical and non-technical audiences at the customer.
• Ensure customer satisfaction by delivering high-quality solutions that meet their expectations and timelines.

Drive Engineering Excellence:

• Lead and mentor a team of engineers, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Oversee the design, development, and delivery of cutting-edge technology solutions, leveraging emerging technologies (e.g., AI Systems, Data Center technologies, Compute .. ).
• Champion engineering best practices, leveraging modern and secure software processes and languages.
• Drive continuous improvement in engineering processes and methodologies to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.

Ensure Quality Outcomes:

• Define and implement quality assurance processes and metrics to ensure that deliverables meet the highest standards.
• Proactively identify and mitigate risks to project success and product quality.
• Champion a culture of quality throughout the engineering team and the customer engagement.

Knowledge/Skills/Competencies

Proven Leader: 15+ years of experience in software engineering, with a demonstrated ability to lead and deliver complex projects in a customer-facing role.

Technical Depth: Deep, hands-on understanding of AI/ML infrastructure, hardware accelerators (GPUs, TPUs, etc.), and the software stack required for large-scale LLM/GenAI training and inference. Expertise in Rack Management Software (Provisioning, Monitoring, Lifecycle Management). Experience with protocols like Redfish, IPMI, and SNMP for interfacing directly with hardware components (BMCs, PDUs, CDUs, PCIe switches). Strong understanding of high-speed IO protocols such as PCIe, CXL, and high-speed networking (InfiniBand/Ethernet) Expertise of Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) tools like Terraform, Ansible, Chef, or Puppet for provisioning at Deep understanding of the competitive landscape and technological demands of the hyperscalar market segment. Deep knowledge of software development methodologies (e.g., Agile, Scrum), cloud computing (AWS, Azure, GCP), data architecture, cybersecurity, and modern, secure programming languages. GenAI, vibe coding and other modern means of software development.

Customer Focus: Excellent communication, interpersonal, and presentation skills, with a proven ability to build strong customer relationships.

Quality Advocate: Deep understanding of quality assurance methodologies and a passion for delivering high-quality solutions.

Emerging Tech Savvy: Experience with and understanding of emerging technologies, with the ability to identify and leverage them to solve customer challenges.

Strategic Thinker: Able to translate customer needs into technical solutions and align engineering efforts with business goals.

Thought leader: Be a thought leader for internal and external stakeholders, able to network effectively in a global environment.

Physical Demands

Incumbent will perform the duties of this position in a normal office environment. Travel - 5-10% (estimated)

Typical Experience

Fifteen plus years' relevant experience

Typical Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related field, or consideration of an equivalent combination of education and experience. Advanced studies in Business/Operations/Technology are recommended.

Notes

This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties and responsibilities of the position. Employees are held accountable for all duties of the job. Job duties and the % of time identified for any function are subject to change at any time. The salary range described in this posting is an estimate by the Company, and may change based on several factors, including by not limited to a change in the duties covered by the job posting, or the credentials, experience or geographic jurisdiction of the successful candidate. Salary Range: $200,000 - 245,000 USD/annually Celestica is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on any protected status (including race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran or disability status or other characteristics protected by law). At Celestica we are committed to fostering an inclusive, accessible environment, where all employees and customers feel valued, respected and supported. Special arrangements can be made for candidates who need it throughout the hiring process. Please indicate your needs and we will work with you to meet them.

Company Overview

Celestica (NYSE, TSX: CLS) enables the world's best brands. Through our recognized customer-centric approach, we partner with leading companies in Aerospace and Defense, Communications, Enterprise, HealthTech, Industrial, Capital Equipment and Energy to deliver solutions for their most complex challenges. As a leader in design, manufacturing, hardware platform and supply chain solutions, Celestica brings global expertise and insight at every stage of product development from drawing board to full-scale production and after-market services for products from advanced medical devices, to highly engineered aviation systems, to next-generation hardware platform solutions for the Cloud. Headquartered in Toronto, with talented teams spanning 40+ locations in 13 countries across the Americas, Europe and Asia, we imagine, develop and deliver a better future with our customers.