Engineering Team Manager

Summary:

Alpha consults on, designs, installs, and supports large scale broadcast and AV systems for sports and live events, casinos, secondary and higher education, government, and corporate environments.

The Engineering Manager leads the Engineering team and is accountable for accurate, timely presales designs; delivery within approved project labor estimates; accurate bills of materials; and complete, accurate final deliverables issued when needed. Success means each handoff equips the receiving team to perform accurate, efficient, timely work while protecting customer commitments and Alpha’s profitability.

The manager owns the Engineering employee lifecycle and builds a culture of accountability for downstream success. Teams agree what each recipient needs, when it is needed, and how readiness will be verified; Engineering resolves gaps and learns from downstream results.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Presales design accuracy and timeliness
• Own accurate presales packages delivered early enough for Sales Support to prepare complete, accurate quotes and for Sales to negotiate informed deals. Confirm requirements, scope, site conditions, interfaces, and assumptions with Sales and Sales Support.
• Provide reviewed architecture, equipment and quantities, labor estimates, scope inclusions and exclusions, dependencies, and priced-option requirements. Verify technical integrity and quote readiness with Sales Support so quoting does not require avoidable redesign or reconstruction of missing information.
• Set handoff dates to allow quoting and proposal preparation time. Resolve material gaps before release and escalate input, capacity, and schedule risks with recovery options.
• Delivery within approved project labor estimates
• Own coordinated post-sales design that enables accurate equipment ordering, informed labor assignments, and full, accurate, timely CAD drawing packages. Give each team approved scope, technical decisions, design inputs, work assumptions, and release priorities before its work must begin.
• Validate labor estimates with Project Management and delivery leaders. Review actual and forecast completion hours; prevent engineering savings from shifting avoidable effort, delay, or rework to receiving teams.
• Track downstream clarification, rework, and delay caused by engineering handoffs; resolve causes and support recovery. Record scope changes and secure baseline approvals without concealing overruns.
• Bill of materials (BOM) accuracy
• Own complete, order-ready BOMs with correct equipment, quantities, accessories, licenses, subscriptions, support entitlements, and infrastructure components. Provide clear item identification, approved substitutions, and required release information
• Reconcile BOMs with design, scope, drawings, and Procurement needs before release. Coordinate long-lead decisions and purchasing milestones; communicate revisions and their cost, schedule, and installation impacts to every affected team.
• Engineering deliverable accuracy and timeliness
• Own complete, accurate, usable engineering packages throughout post-sales design and final closeout. Agree contents, receiving owner, acceptance criteria, and need dates for Procurement, labor planning, CAD, Installation, Programming Commissioning and Support.
• Verify coordinated designs and drawings before execution. Ensure final as-builts, BOMs, configuration and programming records, test results, operating documents, and support materials reflect the installed system and contract. Confirm readiness and close material gaps promptly.
• Engineering team leadership and employee lifecycle ownership
• Lead the Engineering team and own all aspects of its employee lifecycle in partnership with Human Resources and the Executive Team. Recruit and hire for technical skill, collaboration and handoff quality. Provide structured onboarding covering the full project lifecycle, receiving team needs and readiness standards.
• Set measurable individual objectives for delivery, quality and the usability and timeliness of work received by other teams. Provide regular informal coaching and documented form performance feedback within required company timeframes; recognize achievement, address concerns promptly and effectively and complete corrective actions with Human Resources as needed.
• Use team feedback in development plans and promotion-readiness assessments; build technical and leadership skills, develop successors, and recommend or execute promotions within approved authority. Support employee engagement and retention and coordinate role changes and employee transitions with appropriate knowledge transfer.
• Additional essential duties
• Establish design and handoff standards with receiving teams, including review checklists, approval gates, revision controls, and response expectations. Review downstream defects, clarification requests, and lessons learned together; verify that corrective actions improve the next handoff.
• Prioritize assignments across concurrent projects. Maintain staffing ad skills forecasts, manage departmental budgets and expenses, and allocate resources for contracted work, internal development, and approved research initiatives.
• Maintain direct communication across operating departments and with customers. Lead technical discussions and key customer presentations, support new business proposals, and resolve issues through sound judgement and constructive conflict resolution.
• Use Q360 and approved document and project systems to maintain accurate BOMs, labor forecasts, assignments, schedules and revision records. Provide leadership with KPI results, major risks, corrective actions, and progress against commitments.
• Demonstrate ethical conduct, personal accountability, and Alpha’s values. Lead continuous improvement, support a positive team culture, and perform other duties and projects as assigned.

Qualifications

Required and Desired Qualifications:

• Demonstrated supervisory experience leading engineers and managing client-facing technical employees
• Experience with a systems integrator, consultant, end user, or manufacturer; strong working knowledge of broadcast, audiovisual, and digital signage system design, operation and integration, including audio and video formats and standards.
• Demonstrated ability to manage technical project planning, labor estimates, system integration, verification and validation, risk management, design reviews, and engineering quality.
• Strong written and verbal communication, organizational, interpersonal, and leadership skills; ability to manage multiple projects and coordinate cross-functional teams.
• Bachelor’s degree in applied engineering, business management, or business communications. Knowledge of CAD as applied to media systems integration projects.
• Achieve and maintain relevant industry certifications, such as SBE, CompTIA, or BICSI. AVIXA CTS certification desired, past or current.

Downstream readiness standard

Engineering work is complete when it meets agreed requirements and gives the receiving team the information, decisions, and time needed to perform its next task well. Internal release alone does not establish readiness. At intake or kickoff, agree each handoff’s contents, owner, receiving reviewer, review window, need date, and acceptance criteria. Schedule engineering releases backward from downstream work, allowing time for quotation, ordering, staffing, CAD production, installation, and support preparation.

A recipient accepts a handoff when work can proceed without material engineering correction, missing inputs, or avoidable clarification that blocks progress or causes rework. Normal coordination and approved scope changes are distinguished from defects. Log reasons for rejection, blocked hours, rework hours, and correction dates. Engineering owns technical content; each receiving team retains ownership of its professional work and final output.

Use the handoff register and project reviews to test whether better inputs improve quote turnaround, order accuracy, CAD completion, labor readiness, and support readiness. These shared outcomes inform corrective action; sales negotiation results and other teams’ productivity are not attributed solely to Engineering.