Director of Engineering
Quick Overview
My client is an ultra-high-end architectural millwork company based between Denver and Boulder, building $2M to $9M projects in the country's most elite mountain resort markets. Aspen, Jackson Hole, Telluride, and Big Sky among them. They are hiring a Director of Engineering to own both engineering functions, Design Engineering and Production Engineering, leading a team of roughly 10 plus offshore drafting partners. This is a people-and-process leadership seat with a structured, phased onboarding alongside the outgoing engineering leader.
THE WHO
An ultra-high-end architectural millwork company, established for decades, operating a large, modern facility between Denver and Boulder. State-of-the-art machinery, in-house veneer and finishing departments, and dedicated installation crews. The work spans complex staircases, paneling, custom cabinetry, closets, wine rooms, doors, and specialty furniture for some of the most elite homes in the country. In these markets, millwork is typically the single largest subcontracted scope on the project. The company is the craft flagship of a three-company manufacturing platform in a sustained growth phase. The platform runs on EOS, and its growth goal is explicitly a people goal. Developing exceptional leaders is treated as the binding constraint on growth, and this role is part of that investment.
THE WHAT
You will own both of the company's engineering functions. Design Engineering runs drafting and submittals through field dimensioning. Production Engineering releases data to the shop floor. You lead a team of roughly 10 plus offshore drafting partners. Success is measured by how well the team performs: scheduling engineering resources against a large and growing backlog, holding a quality standard across internal and offshore work, and developing the engineers themselves.
THE WHY
This is a people-and-process leadership seat, not a drafting-table role. You do not need to be the deepest technical expert in the room. You need to lead the people who are. And you will not be handed a department and told to figure it out. The outgoing engineering leader remains with the company and serves as an active co-pilot through a structured, phased onboarding. Design Engineering ownership comes first, with Production Engineering oversight layering in over the following months.
THE WHERE
On-site in the Denver-Boulder area, leading this team in person every day. Travel to active project sites in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Utah as needed.
The Role
You lead, schedule, and develop the internal Design Engineering and Production Engineering teams through standing 1:1s, daily and weekly queue reviews, scorecard oversight, and annual reviews. You own the initial drawing submittal process, from broad-scope suite drawings (ceiling and wall elements, cabinetry, doors) through client approval, and the detail book that turns approved submittals into a reusable standard. You run scheduling and quality oversight for outsourced offshore drafting teams, including annotating architect and designer drawings against the detail book before release. You sequence DE and PE work in INNERGY (millwork ERP) against shop capacity, managing the 2 to 3 month submittal-to-release buffer around production bottlenecks. You own scheduling of the Faro point cloud scanner across active projects and the internal workflow for correcting drawings to field dimensions. You stand up and run a Lead Engineer program for cross-project QC and consistency, and you drive completion of the new Microvellum library implementation.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead, schedule, and develop the internal DE and PE teams with standing 1:1s, queue reviews, scorecard oversight, and annual reviews
- Own the initial drawing submittal process from broad-scope suite drawings through client approval
- Own the detail book that turns approved submittals into a reusable standard
- Run scheduling and quality oversight for outsourced offshore drafting teams
- Annotate architect and designer drawings against the detail book before release to offshore partners
- Sequence DE and PE work in INNERGY against shop capacity, managing the 2 to 3 month submittal-to-release buffer
- Own Faro point cloud scanner scheduling and the workflow for correcting drawings to field dimensions
- Stand up and run a Lead Engineer program for cross-project QC and consistency
- Drive completion of the new Microvellum library implementation
- Run EOS Level 10 meetings for the engineering team and co-lead the semi-weekly DE/PE scheduling meeting with the PM team
- Represent engineering in production meetings, including long-range bottleneck forecasting
Requirements
Must Haves
- Proven experience leading a drafting or engineering team in architectural millwork, custom cabinetry, or comparable complex manufacturing
- You have led a team of at least five drafters, designers, or engineers inside a shop or manufacturer of meaningful scale, so a ten-person department plus offshore partners is a step, not a leap
- A genuine people leader, you get energy from developing engineers, resolving conflict, and holding a standard
- Humility and curiosity, the leaders who thrive here show up wanting to understand the whole system
- Working fluency, or a clear appetite to build it, with AutoCAD, Microvellum, and ERP-driven scheduling (INNERGY)
- Passion for the product, this level of craft cannot be led by someone who only loves the process
- No degree required, real-world experience carries more weight here than credentials
Preferred
- Experience managing outsourced or offshore drafting resources
- Familiarity with point cloud and laser scanning workflows
- High-end architectural metalwork and similar craft-adjacent industry backgrounds translate well
Compensation
Benefits & Perks
- •Structured, phased onboarding with the outgoing engineering leader as an active co-pilot
- •Medical coverage with a Health Savings Account option, dental, and vision
- •Basic and voluntary life insurance, short and long term disability
- •Paid family medical leave, an Employee Assistance Program, and identity theft protection
- •Benefits begin the first of the month following 30 days of employment
- •10 days of accrued paid time off and 7 paid holidays
- •Core values treated as a real behavioral standard rather than wall art: ownership, grit, humility, a growth mindset, a pursuit of excellence, and genuine care for people
About Flowstate
Flowstate Search is executive recruiting for construction, restoration, and property services. Founded by an operator, not a recruiter. We show up like it matters, because it does.
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