Engineering Design Manager

Residential Solar Engineering Design Manager

Location: Stamford, CT (In-Office)

Type: Full-time
Position Summary
Venture Home is seeking an experienced Residential Solar Engineering Design Manager to lead the technical quality, standards, and workflow of our residential solar plan set operation.
This is a hands-on technical leadership position requiring expert-level AutoCAD skills and extensive experience creating and reviewing residential solar permit plan sets. The ideal candidate will be capable of personally reviewing complex projects, identifying and correcting design issues, establishing drafting standards, and helping improve and automate the plan set production process.
This position will work closely with Engineering, Project Planning, Site Assessment, Operations, and external design partners to ensure plan sets are accurate, constructible, permit-ready, and delivered on schedule.
This position requires the ability and willingness to regularly commute to Venture Home's headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut.
Key Responsibilities
• Oversee the creation, review, revision, and final delivery of residential solar permit plan sets.
• Perform detailed quality-control reviews and ensure plans meet company, AHJ, utility, and permitting requirements.
• Personally review and troubleshoot complex residential solar projects when additional technical expertise is required.
• Serve as the team's AutoCAD subject-matter expert, including the ability to create, modify, troubleshoot, and improve residential solar drawings.
• Develop and maintain AutoCAD templates, blocks, details, notes, and drafting standards.
•Identify opportunities to automate repetitive AutoCAD tasks and improve plan set production efficiency.
• Review residential solar electrical drawings, including single-line and three-line diagrams.
• Review system layouts, electrical equipment, structural requirements, racking systems, roof conditions, and other project-specific design requirements.
• Coordinate engineering requirements, including projects requiring additional structural or electrical calculations, documentation, or PE review.
• Ensure Aurora designs and final permit/construction plan sets remain aligned throughout the engineering process.
• Manage plan set revisions and ensure technical feedback is correctly incorporated.
• Manage and prioritize the plan set pipeline, including workload, turnaround times, quality, and production volume.
• Train, mentor, and provide technical guidance to plan set designers and reviewers.
• Coordinate with and provide technical oversight to third-party plan set providers.
• Track recurring plan set errors, revisions, permitting issues, and installation feedback to improve standards and prevent repeat issues.
• Develop and maintain Plan Set SOPs, technical standards, quality-control procedures, and training materials.
• Work with internal teams to improve Salesforce/CRM workflows and identify additional opportunities for engineering and design automation.
Required Qualifications
• Expert-level AutoCAD proficiency - required.
• Professional experience creating residential solar permit plan sets - required.
• Professional experience reviewing and quality-checking residential solar plan sets - required.
• Strong understanding of residential solar PV system design, construction, and permitting.
• Experience with residential solar electrical drawings, including single-line and/or three-line diagrams.
• Ability to independently identify and correct technical issues within residential solar drawings.
• Strong understanding of drafting standards and plan set quality control.
• Strong technical problem-solving and attention to detail.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines in a high-volume environment.
• Ability to perform effectively and make sound decisions in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment.
• Strong sense of ownership and accountability, with the ability to drive projects and issues through to completion.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to train, mentor, and provide technical direction to designers and other team members.
• Ability and willingness to regularly commute to Stamford, Connecticut.
Preferred Qualifications
• Aurora Solar experience - preferred.
• Working knowledge and understanding of the National Electrical Code (NEC) as it relates to residential solar - preferred.
• Salesforce experience - preferred.
• Google Workspace / Google Suite experience - a plus.
• Experience developing or implementing AutoCAD automation - a plus.
• Experience developing AutoCAD templates, blocks, scripts, or automated drafting workflows.
• Experience managing or providing technical oversight to residential solar designers.
• Experience working with third-party or outsourced plan set production teams.
• Experience with residential solar structural requirements, racking systems, and attachment methods.
• Experience with battery storage systems and residential solar + storage plan sets.
• Familiarity with engineering calculations, PE documentation, and stamped residential solar drawings.
Ideal Candidate
The ideal candidate is more than a people manager. We are looking for a highly experienced residential solar designer and AutoCAD expert who can serve as the technical authority for the Plan Set team. This person should be comfortable taking ownership of a difficult project, opening the drawings themselves, identifying the problem, determining the appropriate solution, and ensuring the issue is resolved. The successful candidate will be technically strong, organized, dependable under pressure, and committed to continuously improving the team's standards, tools, automation, quality, and overall performance.
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