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Job Description: Director of Engineering / Chief Engineer

Company: Marine Electric Systems
Location: South Hackensack, NJ
Position Type: Full-Time
Salary Range: $170,000–$210,000, depending on experience
Reports To: Executive Leadership / Ownership

Position Summary

Marine Electric Systems is seeking a hands-on Director of Engineering / Chief Engineer to lead and strengthen our engineering function as we continue expanding our defense manufacturing, repair, sustainment, and legacy product capabilities.

This is a key leadership role for an experienced electrical engineering professional who enjoys solving practical manufacturing problems, supporting legacy defense products, mentoring younger engineers, and helping a growing company move faster. The ideal candidate will bring strong technical judgment, urgency, structure, and a willingness to work directly with engineering, production, sales, business development, procurement, quality, and leadership.

This role is not purely administrative and is not purely R&D. It is a hands-on engineering leadership position focused on sustaining engineering, technical quote evaluation, production support, legacy product knowledge, reverse engineering support, and building a stronger engineering department for the future.

About Marine Electric Systems

Marine Electric Systems is a long-standing defense manufacturer supporting U.S. Navy and defense-related programs. Our work includes electromechanical assemblies, salinity cells, nuclear temperature detection panels, proximity switches, PCB-related work, electrical testing, wire harnesses, machined components, military-grade fasteners, repair work, and other legacy defense products.

Many of our opportunities involve older systems, hard-to-source components, obsolete or discontinued products, legacy drawings, technical data packages, repair requirements, and sustainment needs where larger manufacturers may no longer provide support. We are looking for an engineering leader who can help us turn that opportunity into a faster, more disciplined, and more repeatable process.

Key Responsibilities

Engineering Leadership & Department Development

• Lead the engineering function as a hands-on player-coach.
• Provide technical direction, prioritization, and accountability for engineering work.
• Mentor and develop junior engineers, including creating structured learning, review, and development plans.
• Build a more visible and organized engineering workflow, including task ownership, due dates, priorities, and bottleneck tracking.
• Help reduce dependency on individual tribal knowledge by documenting processes, product history, engineering decisions, and lessons learned.
• Work closely with leadership to identify future engineering staffing, equipment, software, and process needs.

Technical Quote Evaluation & Business Development Support

• Support Sales and Business Development by reviewing new opportunities, solicitations, drawings, specifications, and technical packages.
• Help determine quickly whether Marine Electric Systems can build, repair, reverse engineer, or support a product.
• Provide timely technical feedback to support bid/no-bid decisions, ideally within days rather than weeks wherever practical.
• Identify technical risks, missing information, component concerns, sourcing issues, test requirements, and engineering effort required for new quotes.
• Help establish a faster and more repeatable technical evaluation process for new business opportunities.
• Support the company’s goal of improving quote turnaround speed and increasing the volume of viable quotes submitted.

Sustaining Engineering & Legacy Product Support

• Support existing Navy and defense products, including legacy assemblies, electrical systems, test procedures, and production issues.
• Review and interpret legacy drawings, specifications, test procedures, technical data packages, and customer requirements.
• Troubleshoot PCB, electrical, electromechanical, power supply, and assembly-related issues.
• Support updates to engineering documentation, ECOs/ECNs, drawings, work instructions, and test procedures as needed.
• Provide production engineering support to help resolve issues quickly and keep work moving through the shop.
• Help preserve and organize legacy product knowledge so it can be used by future engineers, production staff, sales, and leadership.

Reverse Engineering, Repair & Sustainment Growth

• Support reverse engineering and repair-related opportunities involving obsolete or unsupported components.
• Help evaluate Form/Fit/Function replacement opportunities, component substitutions, and obsolescence challenges.
• Support SAR/source approval efforts and related technical documentation where applicable.
• Work with Sales, Business Development, Procurement, Quality, and Production to evaluate repair, rebuild, and sustainment opportunities.
• Help build repeatable methods for assessing whether Marine Electric Systems should pursue legacy product, repair, or obsolete-component opportunities.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with Production, Quality, Procurement, Sales, Business Development, and executive leadership.
• Communicate technical issues clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Help ensure engineering input is available early enough to support quoting, scheduling, purchasing, and production planning.
• Create a culture of urgency, accountability, documentation, and practical problem-solving within engineering.
• Collaborate with legacy employees and long-tenured personnel while helping transition knowledge into repeatable systems.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering or a closely related engineering discipline.
• Significant experience in electrical engineering, sustaining engineering, production engineering, test engineering, or engineering leadership in a manufacturing environment.
• Strong hands-on technical knowledge of electrical and electromechanical systems.
• Experience with PCB troubleshooting, electrical testing, components, assemblies, and production support.
• Ability to read and interpret drawings, schematics, specifications, technical data packages, and test procedures.
• Experience supporting manufacturing, production, repair, or sustainment work.
• Ability to make practical engineering decisions with imperfect information.
• Strong communication skills and ability to work cross-functionally with production, quality, procurement, sales, and leadership.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor junior engineers or technical staff.
• Strong organizational skills and ability to create structure in a fast-moving small-company environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in defense, aerospace, Navy, maritime, or high-reliability electronics manufacturing.
• Experience with legacy systems, sustaining engineering, obsolete components, or repair/rebuild programs.
• Experience with power supplies, sensors, wire harnesses, electromechanical assemblies, PCB assembly, SMT, through-hole components, or test fixtures.
• Experience with ESD requirements, military specifications, quality-driven manufacturing, and controlled production environments.
• Experience supporting technical quote evaluations, bid/no-bid decisions, or customer technical reviews.
• Experience with reverse engineering, component substitution, Form/Fit/Function replacements, SAR/source approval packages, or similar sustainment efforts.
• Familiarity with ERP systems, ECO/ECN processes, document control, engineering task tracking, and structured engineering workflows.
• Mechanical aptitude, including ability to understand mechanical drawings, tolerances, materials, and machined components.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is a practical, hands-on engineering leader who is comfortable working in a small defense manufacturing environment. This person should be technically strong enough to solve problems directly, organized enough to build structure, and patient enough to mentor junior engineers while still creating urgency and accountability.

This person should be comfortable with legacy products, old drawings, incomplete information, production issues, technical quote reviews, and the need to move quickly. The right candidate will not be overly academic or theoretical. They will enjoy getting into the details, helping the team make decisions, and building a stronger engineering function that supports company growth.

First 90 Days — Expected Focus

During the first 90 days, the Director of Engineering / Chief Engineer will be expected to:

• Learn Marine Electric Systems’ core products, legacy systems, capabilities, and engineering bottlenecks.
• Establish a visible engineering task board or equivalent tracking system.
• Create clearer priorities for quote evaluations, production support, engineering changes, and technical reviews.
• Begin mentoring junior engineers through regular technical review and development.
• Start documenting critical legacy product knowledge and recurring technical issues.
• Improve engineering response time to Sales and Business Development for new opportunity evaluations.
• Identify major engineering capacity gaps, process gaps, and documentation needs.
• Build working relationships with production, procurement, quality, sales, and leadership.

Long-Term Success Measures

Success in this role will be measured by the ability to:

• Improve technical quote evaluation speed and responsiveness.
• Reduce engineering bottlenecks that delay new business opportunities.
• Strengthen junior engineering capability and independence.
• Reduce dependency on tribal knowledge held by individual employees.
• Improve production engineering support and issue resolution.
• Support repair, reverse engineering, SAR/source approval, and sustainment growth initiatives.
• Build a more organized, accountable, and scalable engineering department.
• Help Marine Electric Systems turn engineering into a stronger enabler of business growth.

Compensation

Marine Electric Systems offers a competitive compensation package, including:

• Base salary range of $170,000–$210,000, depending on experience.
• Potential performance-based bonus opportunity.
• Health, dental, and vision insurance.
• 401(k) with company match.
• Paid time off and company holidays.

Work Environment

This is a hands-on leadership role in a small but growing defense manufacturing environment. The successful candidate should expect to spend meaningful time on the production floor, in engineering reviews, in technical documentation, and in cross-functional discussions with team members across the company.

Marine Electric Systems is looking for someone who wants to build, improve, mentor, and make a measurable impact.