New Product Development / R&D Director

BYRNA TECHNOLOGIES INC•Corinth, TX

2d•$175,000 - $225,000•Onsite

About The Position

Lead New Product Management for mechanical and electro-mechanical hardware, overseeing product lifecycles from design through manufacturing and integrating IoT capabilities. Drive hands-on mechanical expertise while evolving toward data-driven, connected platforms. Build and lead IoT product teams, integrating embedded systems, firmware, and cloud technologies. Serve as the bridge between Engineering, Software, Operations, Supply Chain, and Leadership, ensuring products meet business, quality, and customer needs.

Requirements

BS in Mechanical Engineering strongly preferred (MS highly preferred).
15+ years of Leading NPI product development and progressive experience in mechanical product development and manufacturing, including high‑volume of regulated products.
Deep expertise in DFM/DFA, PFMEA, SPC, design transfer, and manufacturing engineering principles.
Six Sigma experience: SPC, Gage R&R, correlation studies.
Experience with embedded firmware, device connectivity, cloud platforms, and application ecosystems.
Proven ability to lead hardware‑centric organizations through digital and IoT transformation.
Excellent analytical, communication, and cross‑functional leadership skills.
Hardware and IOT NPI execution and manufacturing readiness.
Product quality, cost, yield, and reliability.
Software release stability aligned to hardware launches.
Cross-functional execution effectiveness.
Clear, confident communicator across disciplines.
Strategic thinker with strong execution focus.
Strong leadership presence and coaching mindset.
Comfortable balancing technical depth with business priorities.
Calm under pressure with strong decision-making ability.

Responsibilities

Lead, mentor, and develop the Engineering department, covering mechanical hardware PMs, embedded/firmware PMs, software PMs, and cross‑functional IoT product owners.
Establish product processes, frameworks, and playbooks across mechanical engineering, manufacturing, NPI, and software development lifecycles (SDLC).
Allocate resources, set departmental priorities, and manage performance across hardware‑first and software‑enabled product portfolios.
Define and maintain integrated mechanical hardware and IoT software roadmaps across devices, firmware, mobile apps, cloud services, analytics, and future platform capabilities.
Oversee and sustain all launcher development, incorporating new mechanical designs, cost reductions, manufacturing simplification, and reliability improvements, alongside digital feature enhancements.
Balance mechanical feasibility, tolerance constraints, tooling realities, operational scalability, and IoT architecture considerations in prioritization decisions.
Serve as the senior leader for mechanical manufacturing execution within NPI.
Lead EVT/DVT/PVT phases including DFM/DFA/DFT, tolerance analysis, tooling strategies, test readiness, pilot builds, FAI approvals, and production ramp planning.
Ensure all designs are production ready with proper testing validation and documentation.
Ownership of Design Engineering, Sustaining Engineering, and manufacturing Engineering.
Ensure IoT and software dependencies (firmware, connectivity, provisioning, UI/UX) are aligned to mechanical builds and factory milestones.
Ownership of all product technical specifications and adherence to specification.
Lead the formation and maturation of an IoT ecosystem, covering embedded firmware, connectivity, cloud infrastructure, device management, and data pipelines.
Collaborate closely with Operations to integrate software and IoT requirements into mechanical production processes (firmware flashing, device provisioning, calibration, configuration control).
Own Design Quality across mechanical, electrical, and software.