Freelance Surface Pattern Design Jobs in Elgin, IL

Location: Remote, United States
Travel: As needed to support customers, foundry partners, and global operational initiatives

Impact in this Role:

The Castings Product Line Director is the entrepreneurial owner of Fictiv's castings line of business, spanning die casting, investment casting, and sand casting. This leader is Fictiv's senior-most castings subject matter expert — someone who has personally designed, launched, or led castings programs from design through production — and serves as the strategic and technical glue across the company, shaping how we quote, how we market, how we win in markets, and what capabilities we build into our manufacturing partner network. The Director applies deep, hands-on castings expertise to make informed decisions on pricing, positioning, capability investment, and partner strategy — and to engage credibly with any partner, customer, or technical team on the hardest castings problems. This role is accountable for vision, strategy, and profitable top-line growth across a technically diverse, tooling-intensive portfolio. Success requires operating with a proactive, business-builder mindset — anticipating risks and opportunities, making bold recommendations, and translating market, technical, and customer insights into decisive action across sales, marketing, solution engineering, program management, and regional General Managers.

Areas of Responsibility:

Operate as the entrepreneurial owner of the castings line of business across die, investment, and sand casting — accountable for vision, strategy, growth, and results.

Proactively synthesize market trends, customer needs, competitive intelligence, and internal inputs to inform strategy, identify opportunities and risks, and drive decisive action.

Define and evolve product line strategy, pricing, and go-to-market positioning across die, investment, and sand casting to deliver profitable top-line growth, strong margin performance, and enhanced customer value.

Shape Fictiv's castings capability roadmap — defining which processes, alloys, tolerance classes, part sizes, certifications, and secondary operations to support; identifying capability gaps in the manufacturing partner network; and setting qualification and onboarding standards — in partnership with Solution Engineering, Program
, and regional General Managers.

Influence and align cross-functional partners across sales, marketing, solution engineering, program management, and customer success to execute on strategy and deliver results.

Serve as Fictiv's internal subject matter expert on castings — covering Design for Casting (DFC), alloy and process selection, tooling considerations, gating and solidification principles, defect modes, tolerance realities, and secondary operations — enabling quoting accuracy, sales engagement, customer-facing technical discussions, and informed review of manufacturing partner inputs and capabilities.

Establish and track key metrics for growth, margin, quote-to-order conversion, on-time delivery, first-article approval, and customer satisfaction; communicate progress and insights effectively to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Foster accountability by driving continuous improvement, challenging assumptions, and ensuring alignment with business objectives.

Preferred Experience/ Minimum Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Materials, Metallurgical, or Manufacturing), Operations Management, or related field; Master's degree preferred.

10+ years of hands-on experience in metal castings — spanning die casting, investment casting, and/or sand casting, with direct foundry, engineering, or process ownership — and 5+ years in a leadership role responsible for growth, operations, or business development.

Deep expertise in casting processes and technologies, including high-pressure die casting (HPDC), low-pressure die casting, investment (lost wax) casting, and sand casting; strong command of alloy selection (aluminum, zinc, magnesium, stainless and carbon steels, ferrous alloys), gating and solidification, tooling and die/pattern design and life, defect mechanisms and controls (porosity, shrinkage, cold shuts, inclusions, misruns), and secondary operations (heat treatment, machining, NDT, surface finishing). Familiarity with ISO 9001, IATF 16949, AS9100, NADCA, ASTM, and environmental standards.

Demonstrated ability to drive business growth, commercial strategy, and customer satisfaction in a multi-process, tooling-intensive environment; comfort operating through a distributed manufacturing partner network is essential.

Strong commercial acumen and entrepreneurial mindset, with experience shaping strategy and influencing outcomes across cross-functional teams.

Excellent leadership, communication, and collaboration skills, with the ability to align and inspire diverse stakeholders.

Skilled in problem-solving and continuous improvement, with knowledge of Lean, Six Sigma, or similar methodologies a plus.

Proven ability to manage multiple priorities, execute effectively, and adapt in a fast-moving environment.

Willingness to travel as needed to support customers, foundry partners, and global operational initiatives.

Salary Range:
$145,000 – $240,000 base salary per year, depending on experience, plus a 25 percent variable compensation potential.

Benefits include, but are not limited to:

• Comprehensive medical and dental coverage
• 401(k) plan
• Generous PTO and leave programs