Electrical Engineering Manager

Pentair · Apex, NC

Level: Manager
Team: Reliability
Base pay: $111k–$206k
Travel: 15%
Degree: Preferred
Experience asked: 8+ years
Industry: Industrial
Posted: 3 days ago

The role in 30 seconds

A management reliability role at Pentair (industrial) in Apex, NC. Lead, coach, and develop a team of 4-6 Electrical Engineers designing new-product hardware for connected pool equipment.

They ask for: 8+ years · degree preferred
Tools it names: Root cause, FMEA
Base pay: $111k–$206k
Day to day: about 15% travel

Read from the posting. The full description is below.

From the plant jobs report · week of November 9, 2026

Reliability Engineer roles in North Carolina: typical posted base $107k–$151k. This one lists $111k–$206k.

Median of the low and high ends of 6 live postings that list pay, out of 25 reliability 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 24 other live reliability postings in North Carolina.

Base pay: About 38% above similar roles
Experience asked: More than usual (8+ vs 7+)

Skills these teams ask for most

✓ Root cause 48%
✓ Team leadership 36%
Automation 28%
PLC 24%
EHS / safety 24%

✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention it.

Stands out: this posting asks for New product launch, which few similar roles mention. If you have it, lead with it.

It asks for 8+ years. If you're close, apply anyway: requirements are a wish list. Talk to someone doing this work there first.

At a glance

Promotion path mentioned

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 Reliability 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?
- The posting says about 15% travel. Between which sites?
- 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.Show

requirements

into robust electrical architectures.

✓Engage Sustaining, VAVE, Manufacturing, SQA, and Reliability partners to enable design-for-manufacture, design-for-cost, and design-for-reliability outcomes from program kickoff.
✓Coordinate with Regulatory Compliance and external certification bodies (UL, CSA, FCC) throughout the design cycle.
✓Program Delivery & Process Discipline
✓Manage electrical workload, resource allocation, and deliverables across concurrent NPD programs to meet cost, quality, and schedule commitments.
✓Drive electrical execution through Pentair's stage-gate NPD process, contributing to specification quality at the front end of every program.
✓Own electrical design reviews, DVT planning, EMC/regulatory test readiness, and design-transfer to manufacturing.
✓Track and report on team-level KPIs including on-time deliverables, first-pass design success, and post-launch electrical quality.
✓Quality, Reliability & Compliance
✓Ensure electrical designs meet applicable safety and regulatory standards including UL 1081, UL 1563, UL 676, NEC 680, and FCC Part 15.
✓Champion electrical FMEA, worst-case analysis, derating, and reliability practices across the team.
✓Support failure analysis and RMA root-cause investigations for shipping products; feed lessons learned back into design standards and NPD programs.
✓Advance a culture of first time-right electrical design through peer review, structured design verification, and documented design intent.

Key

Qualifications

✓Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, Electronics Engineering, or a related field; advanced degree preferred.
✓8+ years of progressive industry experience in electrical/electronic hardware development for microcontroller-based, connected consumer or light-industrial products.
✓3-5 years of direct people-management experience leading electrical engineering teams through the full product development lifecycle.
✓Some domestic and international travel may be required, typically less than 15%.
✓Deep expertise in mixed-signal PCBA design, including schematic capture, PCB layout supervision, component selection, and design-for-manufacturability.
✓Demonstrated experience with power electronics, motor drives (including VFDs), and line-voltage AC / low-voltage DC design in a regulated product environment.
✓Working knowledge of RF/wireless design and integration across Wi-Fi, BLE, Thread/Matter, and Sub-GHz — able to lead a team delivering integrated RF product hardware.
✓Strong understanding of embedded system hardware/firmware interfaces (I2C, SPI, UART, CAN) and proven experience partnering with firmware teams on hardware bring-up and integration.
✓Applied experience with safety, EMC, and regulatory compliance standards relevant to consumer/industrial electrical products (UL, CSA, FCC, NEC).
✓Track record of applying stage-gate NPD processes, design reviews, FMEA, and structured design verification in a hardware development environment.
✓Excellent leadership, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills; comfortable operating as a technical peer to Mechanical, Systems, Firmware, and Product Management leaders.
✓Experience with distributed team collaboration across sites and time zones is a plus.

Show full description ↓

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 an Engineering Manager, Electrical, to join our Apex NC team. You will lead the electrical engineering discipline for Pentair Pool's connected-product portfolio and partners closely with the IoT Engineering organization to deliver connected pool products that set the standard for reliability, performance, and user experience.

You will

•Team Leadership & Talent Development
•Lead, coach, and develop a team of 4-6 Electrical Engineers designing new-product hardware for connected pool equipment.
•Serve as a player-coach — set technical direction, review designs, and remain hands-on in architecture and design-review discussions.
•Own hiring, onboarding, performance management, career development, and succession planning for the electrical engineering team.
•Foster a culture of engineering excellence, design ownership, and continuous improvement across the electrical discipline.
•Electrical Design & Technical Execution
•Direct end-to-end electrical design of mixed-signal PCBAs for microcontroller-based control boards, power electronics, motor drives, sensor interfaces, and safety-critical circuits.
•Oversee integrated RF/wireless design across Wi-Fi, BLE, Thread/Matter, and Sub-GHz technologies for connected pool products.
•Establish and maintain electrical design standards, schematic and layout best practices, component selection guidelines, and design-review discipline aligned with IPC and industry norms.
•Guide the team through architecture trade-offs across cost, performance, reliability, EMC, safety, and manufacturability.
•Cross-Functional Partnership
•Partner tightly with the IoT Engineering organization — home of the embedded firmware function — to align hardware architecture, peripheral selection, communication interfaces, and integrated system behavior for connected products.
•Collaborate with Mechanical Engineering, Systems Architects, Industrial Design, and Product Management to translate product