Director of Engineering, NPD & VAVE
Pentair · Apex, NC
- Level
- Director+
- Team
- Manufacturing
- Base pay
- $149k–$277k
- Degree
- Preferred
- Experience asked
- 12+ years
- Industry
- Industrial
- Posted
- 30+ days ago
The role in 30 seconds
A director-level manufacturing role at Pentair (industrial) in Apex, NC. Lead 3 Engineering Managers (Mechanical NPD, Electrical NPD, VAVE Engineering) across ~25–28 engineers, designers, and product engineers in Apex, NC.
- They ask for
- 12+ years · degree preferred
- Base pay
- $149k–$277k
Read from the posting. The full description is below.
From the plant jobs report · week of October 19, 2026
Manufacturing Engineer roles in North Carolina: typical posted base $97k–$143k. This one lists $149k–$277k.
Median of the low and high ends of 12 live postings that list pay, out of 34 manufacturing engineer openings in North Carolina, read from manufacturers' own careers sites.
North Carolina plant jobs report →Pay by team and state →What moves pay →
How this role compares
Against 33 other live manufacturing postings in North Carolina.
- Base pay
- About 77% above similar roles
- Experience asked
- More than usual (12+ vs 4+)
Typical $97k–$143k, from 10 postings that list pay.
Similar roles usually ask 4+ years.
Skills these teams ask for most
- Tooling 53%
- Lean 41%
- ✓ New product launch 35%
- Automation 35%
- Root cause 35%
- Team leadership 29%
✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention it.
At a glance
Pulled from the posting text. If it's not listed here, the posting didn't say.
How to get in at this plant
Five moves over a week or two. The first one takes ten minutes.
- 1
Pick 2–3 people on the Manufacturing team at Pentair
Engineers who joined in the last year or two reply the most. Use the team search on this page to find them.
- 2
Send a short, curious note
One real question about their work. No favors yet. Each person gets a different note, written for this role.
- 3
Turn a reply into a short call
Questions worth asking about this team:
- What does a normal week look like on your team?
- Is the work mostly new product launches or sustaining existing lines?
- How much time do you spend on the floor versus at a desk?
- How did you land the job? What stood out in your interviews?
- 4
Apply with someone vouching for you
If the call went well, ask whether they’d pass your résumé to the hiring manager. Send your résumé link, apply that day, and let them know.
- 5
Bring proof to the interview
One page of before-and-after numbers from projects you led: scrap, OEE, cycle time, cost. Plant managers hire on results.
Full description from PentairAs posted on their careers site.ShowHide
requirements
ambiguity with Product Management/PLLs and the embedded Product Engineer organization before detailed design begins.
- ✓Serve as the single accountable engineering owner for technical delivery across all active NPD programs, resolving cross-team (Mechanical/Electrical/VAVE) trade-offs without escalation.
- ✓Drive stage-gate discipline with PMO and track a shared spec-quality metric (post-launch ECO volume) jointly with Product Management.
Qualifications
- ✓Bachelor’s degree in mechanical, Electrical, or related Engineering discipline; Master’s or MBA preferred.
- ✓12+ years of engineering experience in new product development, including 5+ years leading multiple engineering disciplines (Mechanical, Electrical, and/or VAVE).
- ✓Demonstrated success leading front-end specification definition and stage-gate NPD processes in a hardware/electromechanical product environment.
- ✓Experience leading or partnering closely with Value Analysis / Value Engineering activity, with an understanding of VE-in-design vs. VA-post-launch distinctions.
- ✓Proven ability to manage cross-functional decision rights and RACI-based governance with Product Management peers in a functional (non-matrix) organization, including partnering effectively with a Product Management-owned Product Engineer function.
- ✓Strong program management acumen, including stage-gate/PMBOK-aligned governance and multi-team resource and priority trade-offs.
- ✓Consumer/durable-goods or industrial hardware product experience preferred; pool, water technology, or connected-product experience a plus.
Show full description ↓Show less ↑
Job Description
At Pentair, you will work alongside passionate problem-solvers who are committed to the future of our planet. We put our mission into practice, helping the world sustainably move, improve, and enjoy water, life's most essential resource. From our residential water filtration to industrial water management to pool products and more, our 9,000 global employees serve customers in more than 150 countries, working to help create a better world for people and the planet through smart, sustainable water solutions.
We have an opportunity for a Director of Engineering, NPD & VAVE, to join our Apex, NC team. You will lead Pentair Pool’s Mechanical, Electrical, and Value Analysis / Value Engineering (VAVE) NPD teams in Apex, NC, and is the single accountable engineering owner for design decision rights and on-time technical delivery across the new product portfolio. This is a newly created Director-level role reporting to the Sr. Director, Hardware Engineering & Engineering Services, established to close two persistent gaps — unclear ownership between Product Management and Engineering at the team level, and insufficient front-end specification rigor — while operating as a peer function to Product Management under Pentair’s functional (non-matrix) NPD structure.
Specification & Program Ownership
- •Own engineering’s accountability for specification quality at program kickoff, resolving
Decision Rights & Cross-Functional Coordination
- •Hold clear design-authority decision rights within NPD engineering, eliminating team-level ownership ambiguity with Product Management.
- •Partner with the Product Management organization, which now owns the embedded Product Engineer function, to maintain clean specification hand-off at program kickoff and throughout the design cycle.
- •Represent NPD Engineering in stage-gate reviews and design reviews alongside PMO, NPI, SQA, Reliability, and Field Test; close cross-functional silo gaps that delay launch readiness.
Value Analysis / Value Engineering (VAVE)
- •Lead Value Engineering activity inside the NPD design cycle, embedding cost-avoidance and design-for-cost discipline into concept and detailed design rather than post-launch.
- •Partner with Sustaining Engineering and Operations on VA/VE continuity across the product lifecycle and report design-phase (OCOGS) cost improvements delivered through active programs.
Team Leadership & Talent Development
- •Lead 3 Engineering Managers (Mechanical NPD, Electrical NPD, VAVE Engineering) across ~25–28 engineers, designers, and product engineers in Apex, NC.
- •Build engineering leadership bench strength across all four teams; develop a proven successor candidate for the Sr. Director role.
- •Champion consistent NPD standard work (specification templates, design review templates, change control) to reduce variability and rework across teams.
Key
Benefits
As a Pentair employee, you would enjoy a wide array of benefit options to help keep you and your family healthy and protected, health benefits, a generous 401(k), employee stock purchase program, disability benefits, life insurance, critical illness insurance, accident insurance, parental leave, caregiver leave, tuition reimbursement, plus paid time off and wellness programs to encourage a healthy work/life balance.