Vice President, Engineering & Technology - Thermo King EMEA

The Company

At Trane Technologies® we Challenge Possible. Our brands – including Trane® and Thermo King®  - create access to cooling and comfort in buildings and homes, transport and protect food and perishables, connect customers to elevated performance with less environmental impact, dramatically reduce energy demands and carbon emissions, and innovate with a better world in mind. We boldly challenge what’s possible for a sustainable world.   

The Role

The new VP, Engineering and Technology will provide thought leadership, influence and hands-on engagement in order to develop, direct, and implement the technology innovation agenda for Thermo King EMEA strategic business unit (SBU) at Trane Technologies.  This role will report to the SBU President for Thermo King EMEA and work very closely with the EVP, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer for the company as well as the VP Engineering Operations & PMO.  This role will be on both the Thermo King EMEA and Enterprise Engineering Leadership Teams.

This role will oversee the full spectrum of the technology and engineering continuum within Thermo King EMEA, from advanced technology development to product, system and solution design and development, electrification, value engineering and product/service commercialization in the areas of refrigerated transport and cold storage.  The VP, Engineering and Technology will be the driving force for engineering excellence to achieve the long-term business objectives and business growth aspirations globally.  The VP will be expected to elevate the innovation and project execution capabilities internally to the SBU and Trane Technologies and through alliances, partnerships and with other external constituents.

This position can be based in our EMEA Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium or in one of our Thermo King engineering facilities in Galway, Ireland, Barcelona, Spain or Essen, Germany.

Principal Responsibilities

•    Working closely with the SBU President, EVP, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer as well as the VP Engineering Operations & PMO, this leader will create and gain coalescence behind a robust and actionable global technology strategy and roadmap. 
•    Manage strategies to decrease the SBU’s new product development cycle time, increase the innovation pipeline, and work as a business leader working with SBU Product Management to maximize Thermo King’s competitive position, top line margin expansion, productivity gains, free cash flow, meet customer growth objectives and deliver world-class operational metrics.
•    Lead Horizon Management for the SBU, which includes the development of the strategic technology roadmap, investments and appropriate resource commitments.

•    Work closely with Trane Technologies Networks of Excellence (NoE) to identify and foster key alliances with academic institutions, outside labs, partner companies and suppliers in order to enhance the advanced technology thinking and capabilities of the business.  Evolve the business to a more “open innovation” mindset and an outside-in capability to seize compelling ideas and opportunities from anywhere and everywhere.
•    Provide a linkage between the SBU New Technology Introduction (NTI) organization, the corporate Systems Engineering & Advanced Technology function, in creating a coordinated network of technology and engineering capabilities for competitive advantage.  Work to strengthen the linkage between engineering design centers, the engineering organization at large including corporate Engineering & Technology Centers (ETC), product management and marketing functions.
•    Manage a direct team of engineering leaders.  Direct reports include leaders responsible for new product development, new technology introduction and life-cycle productivity.  
•    Participate in, and often lead, the planning, evaluation and execution of key SBU and regional new product development initiatives including the enablement of the regions to develop local products with autonomy.
•    Work with functional lead to set world-class Environmental Health and Safety systems, processes and standards for the function with particular emphasis on the engineering test lab facilities.  Monitor performance tracing and target setting, and field expertise for performance remediation.  Comply with enterprise-wide environmental and safety programs as well as internal and external reporting.
•    Promote Trane Technologies global engineering processes that result in value creation in the form of increased speed to market, reduced costs, improved technologies, and innovative products.  Drive Value Analysis/Value Engineering.
•    Work closely with the SBU Integrated Supply Chain leader and the manufacturing team to ensure products are designed for manufacturability using leading Operational Excellence tools and processes (Lean).
•    Adopt and promote the modular product architecture initiative underway to drive flexibility to meet customer demand, reduce cycle time and accelerate new technology introduction.
•    Provide leadership to ensure the continued improvement in availability and competence of technology personnel throughout the corporation.  Work toward a best-in-class technology and engineering capability through improved succession planning, organizational assessment, the identification of key skill gaps, and overall talent acquisition and talent development strategies that link with business goals.
•    Continue to integrate, align and focus the company’s footprint of global design centers with particular focus on achieving enhanced design/development capabilities in emerging markets.
•    Participate actively on enterprise technology and innovation initiatives; represent SBU on enterprise technology and engineering leadership team.

Candidate Profile

•    Senior Leadership experience from a company known for innovation and engineering excellence
•    15+ years experience in global companies in advanced technology, engineering and product management functions.  Experience working with emerging markets and ideally in companies that derive a portion of revenue from, services, solutions management or contracting
•    Excellent personal leadership, change management and ability to collaborate and influence cross-functionally—can conduct a dialogue that is intellectually honest, brings out diversity of ideas and creates the appropriate integration/connectivity
•    Developer of talent and capabilities; great people leader.  Can select and lead both people with deep expertise and people with breadth
•    Excellent ability to represent the Company externally and build alliances
•    Technical degree, Ph.D. or Masters in Engineering from a leading academic institution, plus business education (MBA preferred); professionally active in societies, professional associations and networks
•    Prior experience with electrification preferred

Key Measures of Success
•    Develop a cohesive, highly functioning team of engineering leaders in a complex, matrixed organization.
•    25% of revenues from new products
•    Increase in speed to market
•    Margin enhancement – margins on new products exceed existing margins
•    Cross sector progress on advanced technologies
•    Increase in number of successful alliances.

We offer competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits and programs that help our employees thrive in both their professional and personal lives. We are proud of our winning culture which is inclusive and respectful at its core. We share passion for serving customers, caring for others, and boldly challenging what’s possible for a sustainable world.

We are committed to achieving workforce diversity reflective of our communities. We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identify, national origin, pregnancy, age, marital status, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any legally protected status.