Sr Manager Design Development

Position Overview

The Sr. Manager of Design and Development (D&D) serves as the functional leader for the product design and engineering development team within Wanzl North America. Operating in a matrixed organizational structure, this Sr. Manager ensures that D&D processes, engineering standards, methods, and technical competencies are consistently applied across all business segments and product portfolios.

In accordance with the matrix style of organization, the Sr. Manager of D&D is responsible for team capability, functional excellence, and technical execution, while the Head of each Segment will maintain primary ownership of program priorities, budget decisions, product roadmaps, and final project approvals.

The Sr. Manager of D&D supports multiple concurrent new product and product enhancement initiatives across various business segments. This role collaborates cross-functionally with Sales, Product Management, Operations, Quality, Manufacturing Engineering, Supply Chain, and global Wanzl engineering teams to drive successful project execution. The Design & Development function is tightly integrated into the Sales process, playing a key role in delivering customer-specific solutions, especially for Engineer-to-Order (ETO) offerings and product enhancements within the portfolio. The D&D team regularly engages with customers to understand their needs, ensure requirements are met, and deliver tailored solutions, making them vital to achieving customer fulfillment and satisfaction.

This position will be located at Wanzl’s North American headquarters in Denver, NC and will require infrequent travel to the manufacturing plants in North America including Newton, NC and Queretaro, Mexico, Wanzl’s Group headquarters in Germany (WDE) as well as visits to customers and global manufacturing facilities.

Company and Opportunity Overview

WNA’s vision is to be a leading entrepreneurial player in terms of market share, agility, and game-changing solutions. WNA is a solution provider, creating value along the supply chain of our customers, from online purchase to their customers.

WNA is headquartered in the Charlotte Metro Area, North Carolina. With around 500 employees and ~$200M of sales, WNA focuses on the retail and distribution market segments with marquee customers such as Walmart, Amazon, and the majority of large grocers and retailers.

In addition to being the largest manufacturer of shopping carts in North America, WNA has three additional main product segments as well as a Service business, providing turnkey solutions for customer guidance (Access Systems), Shelving & Fixtures, and Material Handling products.

Access Solutions provides sophisticated customer guidance and loss prevention systems for major retailers. With German-engineered products and a strong installed base, this segment focuses on protecting existing market share while expanding into adjacent opportunities in smart retail, autonomous store technology, and digital integration.