About the Role
The Director, Cost & Sustainability Engineering Lead define and execute cost and sustainability engineering strategy across HARMAN Automotive division considering all Region, Business Unit and Customer.
The created strategy is used to define overall profitability, sustainability and growth goals for HARMAN AUTOMOTIVE. The role is responsible to reach the defined goals with driving cross-functional implementation of Technical and Commercial measures in collaboration with mainly but not exclusively with Procurement, Engineering, Customer Account Management, Manufacturing and Suppliers.
The role is responsible for optimizing a multibillion-dollar spend and expected to deliver benchmark performance & defined sustainability goals over multiple years to enable divisional level growth results. The role reports into Best Cost Analytics in the Strategic Procurement and Partnering Function of our global Operations.
Your Team
This position will report to the VP, Best Cost Analytics lead and will have a global team with ~ 15 team direct reports and leading cost improvement strategy and execution from multiple stakeholder groups.
What You Will Do
- Establish the vision, goal, framework, processes and methods needed to enable profitability, sustainability and growth goals with highly accurate cost/ CO2e modeling (TCO) across entire HARMAN Automotive division (all products, regions and customers)
- Establish the vision for Lifecycle Assessment of emissions (CO2e) and build capabilities to achieve carbon neutrality per Harman Automotive Sustainability objectives
- Define divisional profitability, sustainability goal and execution strategy on respective areas (see above) with senior leadership of the division
- Develop, align and execute divisional wide strategy to assemble and enable highly effective cross functional teams (incl Procurement/Engineering/Manufacturing/Account Management...) which create overarching profitability, sustainability strategies and deliver commercial and technical measures.
- Build and enroll strategy with the executive leadership team of HARMAN and Suppliers to identify framework of reaching cost transparency and best cost which ensures HARMANs overall competitiveness on the market.
- Support Make versus buy analysis process to Controlling, category and Operation organization
- Define and deliver advanced sourcing, design to cost,, CO2e reduction & manufacturing and sourcing strategy of current and new HARMAN products in close collaboration with state of the art supply chain partners
- Create and execute supplier and customer cost negotiation strategy with Procurement and Customer Account teams
- Ensure day-to-day development and delivery of cost & CO2e models by establishing required processes and methods to drive consistent practices within the cost engineering team and reflecting industry best practices. This includes the processes necessary to keep the cost & CO2e models up to date with current information and best known methods.
- Develop synergy programs within Samsung group to leverage scale in business
- Lead Component Engineering effort across the Division to create component library which meets HARMAN Automotive’s long term product strategy, profitability, sustainability and growth***
- Build development strategy of internal teams to reach a cost conscious mindset across all teams of Automotive division
- Lead, Coach and Develop staff and through training and succession planning processes to maximize their potential for the benefit of individual and company
What You Need
- Minimum 15+ years of experience in Cost Engineering /Sustainability/ VM / Procurement or Manufacturing / Engineering preferably in the Automotive industry
- Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering or Business Administration or Economy
- Minimum 10+ years of experience in cost engineering / VM / design to cost/manufacturing
- Minimum 10+ years of experience and ability to lead diverse global teams to improve profitability, sustainability growth, innovation, and time to market commitments
- Proven experience with scientifical expertise in Semiconductor as it’s related to chip, device, modem, memory device; more than 10 years in Semiconductor Industry
- Proven track record of outstanding engaging skills in diverse, cross functional teams including executive stakeholders to embrace continuous improvement in a highly competitive environment
- Strong negotiation and relationship building skills.
What is Nice to Have
- Master’s degree
- Experience with automotive electronics is highly desirable
- Demonstrated ability to build cross-functional collaboration models which identify and implement improvements in the area of sourcing, design and manufacturing in automotive electronics
- Experience in corporate level design to cost/manufacturing programs
- Proven team player with excellent communication, collaboration and interpersonal skills
- Change Orientation: Able to adapt to changing demands and conditions
- German, Chinese, and/or Hungarian Language skills are a plus
What Makes You Eligible
- Be willing to travel up to 20%, domestic and international travel
- Be willing to work in an office in EU(Any)/NA(Novi)/APAC(Shanghai) or work remotely full-time with occasional trips to all HARMAN locations (this could be on 24-hour notice)
What We Offer
- Flexible work environment, allowing for full-time remote work one day per week for positions that can be performed outside a HARMAN or customer location.
- Access to employee discounts on world-class Harman (JBL, HARMAN Kardon, AKG, etc.)
- Extensive training opportunities through our own HARMAN University
- Competitive wellness benefits
- Access to HARMAN Campus Fitness Center and Cafeteria
- “Be Brilliant” employee recognition and rewards program
- An inclusive and diverse work environment that fosters and encourages professional and personal development
HARMAN is proud to be an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.
Skills Required
- Minimum 15+ years of experience in Cost Engineering / Sustainability / VM / Procurement or Manufacturing / Engineering preferably in the Automotive industry
- Bachelor's Degree in Engineering or Business Administration or Economy
- Minimum 10+ years of experience in cost engineering / VM / design to cost / manufacturing
- Minimum 10+ years of experience leading diverse global teams
- Proven experience in the Semiconductor Industry
Harman Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Harman and has not been reviewed or approved by Harman.
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage is described as comprehensive, often including medical, dental, and vision plans, with HSAs/FSAs and disability or life insurance also referenced. Wellbeing support such as EAP access and onsite occupational health services is also part of the package in some regions.
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Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits — Lifestyle-oriented benefits include employee product discounts and region-specific perks like free fruit deliveries, Cycle to Work schemes, and meal coupons or allowances. Flexible schedules and work-from-home options are also part of the overall offering where roles and projects allow.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is repeatedly characterized as solid or market-aligned for many roles, with salary payments described as consistent and on time. Compensation is also tied to performance in some accounts, reinforcing a perception of basic fairness for a portion of employees.
Harman Insights
What We Do
Headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, HARMAN (harman.com) designs and engineers connected products and solutions for automakers, consumers, and enterprises worldwide, including connected car systems, audio and visual products, enterprise automation solutions; and services supporting the Internet of Things. With leading brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, Mark Levinson® and Revel®, HARMAN is admired by audiophiles, musicians and the entertainment venues where they perform around the world. More than 50 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and connected car systems. Our software services power billions of mobile devices and systems that are connected, integrated and secure across all platforms, from work and home to car and mobile. HARMAN has a workforce of approximately 30,000 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. In March 2017, HARMAN became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. HARMAN is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action employer. Minorities, women, veterans and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply. HARMAN offers a great work environment, challenging career opportunities, professional training and competitive compensation. Looking for a challenge where your experience is valued? Come see what you can achieve as a leader with HARMAN!
