Vice President of Engineering

The Position

Reporting to the Chief Operations Officer, the Vice President of Engineering is a senior leadership role responsible for the strategic design, planning, and execution of GEOTEK’s engineering strategy across its PUPI® and Alliance™ composite product lines. This role ensures that GEOTEK’s products, processes, and engineering practices consistently meet or exceed customer expectations while remaining tightly aligned with business objectives and operational priorities.

The VP of Engineering provides overall leadership and oversight of GEOTEK’s engineering organization, which includes product and application engineering, manufacturing and automation engineering, R\&D, and testing laboratories. Leading a team of directors, managers, engineers, and technicians, the VP of Engineering builds organizational capability and technical depth to support 24/7 manufacturing operations, new product development, and long-term growth. Beyond functional leadership, the role serves as an enterprise leader—driving alignment, collaboration, and accountability across cross-functional teams to achieve company-wide objectives.

As the technical authority for GEOTEK’s pultruded and filament-wound composite products at the Stewartville, Minnesota operations, the VP of Engineering ensures the consistent application of best engineering practices, sound judgment, and adherence to industry standards. This leader represents GEOTEK’s Technology, Engineering, and Service value proposition in strategic customer engagements and industry forums by translating complex technical concepts into clear, value-driven messages that reinforce GEOTEK’s reputation for best-in-class engineering.

In close partnership with Commercial, Operations, Quality, and EHS leaders, the VP of Engineering plays a critical role in shaping new product development, application engineering, and go-to-market strategy. By combining deep technical expertise with strong communication skills, business acumen, and a nuanced understanding of customer needs, this role helps define the technical path that aligns customer expectations with GEOTEK’s business objectives – strengthening the company’s external brand of trust, credibility, urgency, and reliability while advancing its market-leading position.

Major elements of the VP of Engineering’s responsibilities include:

• Strategy – Develop and execute GEOTEK’s comprehensive engineering strategy for PUPI and Alliance products, ensuring alignment with business and customer objectives and priorities.
• Team Development – Define and execute a sustainable organizational strategy that ensures the engineering team delivers market leading technology, engineering, and service to customers, while enabling GEOTEK’s 24/7 manufacturing operations. Recruit, develop, and mentor high-performing engineers and technicians that ensure breadth and depth in leadership and technical expertise.
• Engineering Expertise – Provide overall engineering leadership, expertise, and oversight for GEOTEK’s PUPI and Alliance products, processes, equipment, and tooling ensuring all designs meet applicable design/performance standards and GEOTEK’s expectations for safety, quality, and performance/productivity.
• Innovation – Lead value creating innovations in materials, composite/manufacturing processes, and automation that both protects and advances GEOTEK’s market leading position.
• Customer – Provide technical leadership during strategic customer engagements, industry conferences, and product planning activities. Partner with other leaders in Operations and Commercial teams to align customer expectations with GEOTEK’s business objectives. Advance GEOTEK’s reputation of best-in-class Engineering amongst our customers and partners to strengthen our competitive position.
• New Product Development (NPD) – Oversee new product development and partner with other senior leaders to ensure all NPD initiatives are not only technically feasible and commercially viable, but that they also align with GEOTEK’s business priorities. Oversee engineering project management, resource planning, and cross-functional coordination, ensuring that expected outcomes are consistently achieved on-spec, on-time, and on-budget.
• Strategic Messaging – In close partnership with the Commercial Team, provide leadership and technical expertise in extracting and crafting value-creating messages from technical concepts.
• EHS and Quality Support – Partner closely with leaders in EHS and Quality to ensure products, processes, equipment, and tooling are inherently safe, and support GEOTEK’s quality expectations. Model GEOTEK’s safety first culture.
• Operations Support – Partner closely with Operations leaders to ensure product and process designs, including manufacturing processes, are optimized for output and efficiency. Provide leadership, oversight, and situational decision making which ultimately arrive at solutions for technical production issues both in the immediate and long-term.
• Continuous Improvement – Drive continuous improvement in manufacturability, cost reduction, and production efficiency.
• Culture – Create a culture of teamwork, accountability, innovation, collaboration, and technical excellence.
• Quality Assurance – Partner with Quality Assurance to investigate product performance, field issues, and customer feedback.

Candidate Profile

Qualified candidates will have 15 years or more of progressive engineering experience spanning R\&D, product development, and manufacturing environments, including exposure to automation and continuous improvement initiatives. This will include at least 10 years of experience leading and developing engineering teams, with a demonstrated record of increasing scope and responsibility across R\&D, new product development, and manufacturing engineering functions. Experience in composite materials manufacturing and/or other continuous manufacturing processes is highly desirable.

The VP of Engineering will have the proven ability to develop and execute engineering strategies aligned with business objectives, with a track record of delivering measurable results and supporting long-term growth. The individual will have demonstrated experience building scalable engineering organizations—developing talent, succession pipelines, and technical capabilities that meet both current operational needs and future business demands. The successful candidate will have experience leading through direct reports and multi-layered organizational structures, as well as influencing cross-functionally beyond engineering, while being recognized as a trusted leader at the enterprise level.

A bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Materials, Chemical, Composites, or a related engineering discipline is required. An advanced degree and/or professional certification (e.g., MBA, M.S./M.Eng., Professional Engineer) is strongly preferred. Additionally, the VP of Engineering will have strong working knowledge of professional engineering tools and methodologies, including 3D CAD systems (e.g., SolidWorks or equivalent), FEA/simulation tools (e.g., ANSYS or similar), and engineering documentation practices (drawings, BOMs, routings, technical reports). This individual will have demonstrated success applying structured problem-solving methodologies across technical, operational, organizational, and business challenges. Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt certification is preferred.

This ideal candidate will have strong business acumen, including an understanding of financial drivers, operational tradeoffs, and customer value, with the ability to balance technical excellence with commercial and operational priorities. The individual will have exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to clearly convey technical and strategic concepts to diverse audiences ranging from executive leadership and customers to production floor personnel. The successful candidate will have strong executive presence with a proven ability to represent the organization with credibility and professionalism in executive settings, customer engagements, supplier interactions, and industry forums.

Location

The VP of Engineering is an onsite role based at GEOTEK’s headquarters in Stewartville, Minnesota, a small community located immediately south of Rochester near the Rochester International Airport. The role requires 10-20% travel to support customer visits, attend conferences, and collaborate with GEOTEK and Granite Partners leaders at other sites.

Compensation \& Benefits

We offer a competitive base salary in the $200,000 to $250,000 range, based on experience and qualifications, along with an annual bonus and the opportunity to participate in long-term incentives, including a stock appreciation rights (SARs) program.

Beyond pay, our market-leading benefits are designed to support your wellbeing. These include medical, dental, vision, and life insurance, as well as short- and long-term disability coverage. We also provide a health savings account with company match, a retirement plan with employer contributions through Vanguard, and access to the Granite Assistance Fund for support when it’s needed most. We value time for rest and personal growth, offering generous paid time off, including volunteer time off and paid holidays.