Strategic Design Engineering, Mechanicals - Program Manager
Cupertino, California, United States
Hardware
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The SDE Mechanicals PM will focus primarily on Home and Accessory products. This role entails close collaboration with engineering and other cross-functional partners early in the lifecycle of NPIs to drive cost-efficient mechanicals components, enabling innovative products to be commercially viable.
Mechanical components define the look, feel and expression of Apple’s unique products; they are also integral to product performance and reliability. This role will be directly responsible for working with engineering to guide design for cost, coming up with cost-efficient alternatives, and working with internal or external partners to validate the alternatives to create true viable solutions.
Description
Successful SDE ME PMs constantly drive excellence across their own responsibilities as well as that of team members and partners. They have the ability to constantly “zoom in” to analyze and challenge detail, and “zoom out” to drive what actually matters.
They leverage strategic internal relationships to effectively collaborate with engineering, operations and other Apple teams. They are able to think and stay focused under pressure, be creative, and communicate concisely and effectively with senior management as well as peers.
- Engage with engineering teams during early product development phases to drive overall architecture towards the right cost by providing quick feedback on baseline architecture, challenging teams on underlying assumptions, and helping evaluate alternatives
- Identify, investigate, and help validate alternative manufacturing processes, materials, designs, and suppliers that optimize cost for our x-functional engineering partners
- Manage overall mechanicals cost BOM, and influence cross-functional teams to implement creative alternatives needed to met cost target
- Investigate and propose off-AVL suppliers and/or vertically integrated supply chains and spearhead the x-functional team to bring them up as a strategic Apple AVL supplier
- Drive product cost optimization and industry/supply chain intelligence through competitive product tear down activities and bottoms up cost estimation
- Develop a cost solutions portfolio overtime to scale across various Apple products
Minimum Qualifications
- Deep expertise with “should cost” modeling and developing a costed BOM
- Product design exposure or experience, with a deep interest in designing for cost
- Strong technical background, with an ability to quickly understand various aspects of product design, and manufacturing processes necessary to materialize the design
- Intimate knowledge / understanding of a typical stage/gate product development process
Key Qualifications
Preferred Qualifications
- Strong PM-ing skills… ability to manage wide and diverse activities with disparate stakeholders, by focusing on key results and effectively driving next steps
- Excellent presentation and interpersonal skills, capable of working in multi-cultural environments
- Excellent soft skills; flexibility to adapt to dynamic and rapidly changing environments
- Top-notch analytical skills, with ability to toggle between detail-orientated and strategic, large-picture thinking
- Factory experience, particularly related to forming and finishing processes related to plastics, composites and metal
- Experience working across functions (Industrial design, Product design, Manufacturing design, Operations), and with suppliers… ability to influence across multi-functional teams
- Managing a costed BOM during early product architecture. Ability to identify, manage, and drive Opportunities and Risks
- Ability to travel ~20% internationally
- BSME or BSIE, or equivalent. MBA a plus.
Education & Experience
Additional Requirements
Pay & Benefits
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