Head Tooling

1. Tooling Strategy & Leadership

• Develop and implement the overall tooling strategy aligned with business and manufacturing objectives.
• Lead and manage the tooling engineering, design, manufacturing, maintenance, and technical teams.
• Establish tooling standards, specifications, processes, and best practices.
• Develop departmental budgets, manpower plans, equipment requirements, and investment proposals.
• Build technical capability through training, mentoring, and succession planning.

2. Tool Design & Development

• Oversee the design and development of molds, dies, jigs, fixtures, gauges, and other production tooling.
• Review tooling concepts for manufacturability, durability, cost, and production efficiency.
• Ensure tooling designs meet product specifications and customer requirements.
• Drive Design for Manufacturing (DFM), Design for Assembly (DFA), and Design for Maintenance principles.
• Ensure effective design reviews, trials, validation, and approval of new tooling.

3. Tool Manufacturing & Project Management

• Lead tooling projects from concept through design, fabrication, trials, validation, and production release.
• Ensure tooling projects meet agreed timelines, quality requirements, and budgets.
• Coordinate with Production, Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Maintenance, Purchasing, R&D, and suppliers.
• Monitor tooling project KPIs, risks, milestones, and corrective actions.
• Manage external tooling suppliers and ensure compliance with technical and quality requirements.

4. Tool Maintenance & Reliability

• Establish preventive and predictive maintenance programs for production tooling.
• Ensure rapid response to tooling breakdowns and production issues.
• Analyze recurring tooling failures and implement permanent corrective actions.
• Improve tool life, reliability, availability, and overall equipment effectiveness.
• Maintain accurate tooling records, drawings, specifications, maintenance history, and spare-part requirements.

5. Cost & Productivity Improvement

• Drive tooling cost reduction through design optimization, standardization, material selection, process improvement, and supplier development.
• Improve tooling utilization, life expectancy, repair turnaround time, and manufacturing efficiency.
• Identify opportunities for automation, digital tooling, simulation, additive manufacturing, and other advanced technologies.
• Establish and monitor tooling-related KPIs, including cost, delivery, quality, downtime, tool life, and maintenance performance.

6. Quality, Safety & Compliance

• Ensure tooling complies with relevant engineering, quality, safety, and regulatory requirements.
• Work closely with Quality teams to resolve tooling-related defects and customer concerns.
• Implement root-cause analysis and structured problem-solving methodologies.
• Ensure safe tooling design, operation, maintenance, lifting, storage, and handling practices.
• Support internal, customer, and external audits as required.

7. Supplier & Stakeholder Management

• Develop and maintain strong relationships with tooling suppliers and strategic partners.
• Evaluate supplier technical capability, capacity, quality, cost, and delivery performance.
• Lead technical discussions, quotations, tooling specifications, and supplier negotiations.
• Develop qualified tooling suppliers and alternative sources where appropriate.

8. Key

• Tooling projects delivered on time and within budget
• Tooling development and maintenance cost
• Tool life / tooling durability
• Production downtime caused by tooling
• Tooling-related quality defects and rejection rate
• Tool repair and turnaround time
• First-time-right tooling acceptance
• New tooling development lead time
• Tooling supplier quality and delivery performance
• Productivity and cost-reduction savings
• Preventive maintenance compliance

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Tool & Die Engineering, or a related discipline.
• 7 - 10 years of relevant tooling/manufacturing experience, with significant leadership experience.
• Strong experience in tooling design, development, manufacturing, maintenance, and troubleshooting.
• Experience with molds, dies, jigs, fixtures, gauges, or other production tooling relevant to the company's manufacturing processes.
• Proven experience managing tooling projects, budgets, suppliers, and multidisciplinary teams.
• Strong knowledge of manufacturing processes, machining, grinding, heat treatment, and tool materials where applicable.
• Experience with CAD/CAM and engineering software.
• Experience with Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, TPM, or structured problem-solving methodologies is preferred.