Engineering Manager-Advanced Research & Development - Jobs Laitram

Location

New Orleans, LA, Baltimore/Washington D.C.

Job Category

Engineering

Division

Intralox

Job Description (General Summary)

About the Role

We are seeking an Engineering Manager to build and lead a cross-functional Advanced Research & Development team shaping the future of industrial automation. In this role, you will develop a deep understanding of customer operations, emerging market needs, and adjacent warehouse automation trends to identify the most meaningful opportunities for innovation. You will translate those insights into clear problem statements, a focused technology vision, and a roadmap for pursuing high-value solutions. Working across technical and commercial domains, you will guide the team from early discovery through validated prototypes and successful handoff to the business. The ideal candidate is a commercially oriented engineering leader - someone with genuine technical depth who can turn promising ideas into meaningful business impact. We prefer this person to be based in our Baltimore, Maryland office.

Intralox is a division of Laitram, L.L.C., with an extensive portfolio of innovative conveyance solutions and services that improve lives and optimize businesses worldwide.  

Our global workforce of over 3,000 employees in 20+ countries consist of reliable problem solvers, continuously developing and directly delivering solutions that have driven our customers’ growth worldwide for more than 50 years.

Intralox was founded on the principle of doing the right thing, by treating customers, employees, and suppliers with honesty, fairness, and respect.  We invest heavily in these values and aim to practice our business philosophy principles every day, which is why we have been consistently recognized for innovation and workplace excellence. We believe in the power of a good idea no matter where it comes from, using trust as the foundation to how we work, and that self-managed people are our greatest asset.

We listen objectively, think creatively, and deliver results. To learn more about our company culture, philosophy, and benefits, please visit our company page.

This position is not eligible for work authorization or sponsorship.

Job Responsibilities and Requirements

Key Responsibilities:

Problem Discovery

Identify unaddressed friction points in global logistics and adjacent automation markets, with a focus on the customer pain points most worth solving.

Develop a deep understanding of customer operations, workflows, and unmet needs through direct engagement with customers, commercial teams, and internal stakeholders.
Translate customer pain points into clear, actionable problem statements that can guide technical development.
Identify adjacent market opportunities where new technologies or adaptations of existing capabilities could create value.
Actively track emerging technologies to feed new capabilities into the funnel

Funnel Management

Synthesize inputs from across the business into a coherent technology roadmap aligned with our strategy.

Own the technology idea funnel, ensuring ideas, customer pain points, and market opportunities are captured, evaluated, and prioritized.
Frame technical tradeoffs and work with technical teams to build a complete picture of feasibility, solution cost, and development path.
Maintain strong partnership with commercial teams to ensure sufficient customer access, opportunity discovery, and market input.

Team Leadership

Recruit and protect an elite team focused on needle-moving innovation in industrial automation.

Build and lead a high-performing cross-functional team that may include Mechanical Engineers, Electrical Engineers, Controls Engineers, Project Managers, Business Development Engineers, and other roles as needed.
Create clarity around priorities, roles, and objectives so the team can focus on the most impactful innovation.
Develop team members through coaching, mentoring, and challenging assignments that accelerate both their technical growth and their ability to operate in ambiguity.
Foster a culture of ownership, rapid learning, technical rigor, and thoughtful risk-taking.

Stakeholder Diplomacy

Manage handoff of new technologies to the business for creation of products.

Build strong partnerships across engineering, commercial, product management, and business leadership to keep innovation efforts connected to real customer value and strategic direction.
Engage downstream stakeholders early and often – building confidence, gathering input, and advancing ownership so that handoff feels inevitable, not surprising.
Guard against innovation suffocation by establishing clear boundaries between the Advanced R&D team and the demands of the core business.

Required Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field
10+ years of experience in engineering, product development, application engineering, or a related technical role, with progressive movement into commercial, strategic, or business leadership responsibilities.
Experience in industrial automation, logistics, warehouse automation, or material handling, with exposure to AI, robotics, controls, software-enabled automation, or other emerging technologies.
Demonstrated ability to synthesize customer pain points, market signals, and broad inputs into clear problem statements, actionable requirements, and a coherent technology roadmap.
Strong commercial judgment grounded in genuine engineering experience — able to evaluate technical feasibility, guide development direction, and earn credibility with a highly technical team.
Strong communication and influencing skills, with the ability to align technical, commercial, and leadership stakeholders.
Experience leading cross-functional teams or initiatives through ambiguity, early-stage development, or innovation.
Ability to travel up to 25%, including to customer facilities

Preferred Qualifications:

Master's degree in engineering, MBA, or equivalent advanced education.
Experience building a new team, function, or capability from an early stage.
Experience moving ideas from early discovery through prototype validation and business handoff.
Familiarity with adjacent warehouse automation markets, the broader smart-warehouse ecosystem, and emerging technologies shaping the industry.

What Success Looks Like:

A strong innovation funnel built from real customer problems and credible technology opportunities.
A clear technology roadmap aligned to customer value and business strategy.
A high-performing team capable of rapidly evaluating ideas and advancing the most promising ones, independent of the demands of the core business.
Successful handoff of validated technologies to the business for further development and productization.

Who You Are:

You take ownership and drive results, even when success requires working beyond the traditional boundaries of your role.
You challenge assumptions and push for better ways of working.
You move quickly to test ideas and solve problems rather than waiting for perfect information.
You are comfortable operating in ambiguity, energized by difficult challenges, and willing to take calculated risks.
You learn quickly through feedback, experimentation, and iteration.
You build teams that reflect these same qualities.

Intralox’s benefit program is a major part of an employee’s total compensation from the company. Hired applicants may be eligible for benefits including health, dental, vision, and disability insurance, paid time off, 401K, flexible spending account, life and AD&D insurance, long term care, tuition reimbursement, and additional voluntary benefits.

The salary range provided is a good faith estimate representative of all experience levels. Intralox considers several factors when extending an offer, including but not limited to, the role, function and associated responsibilities, a candidate’s work experience, location, education/training and key skills. Therefore, we encourage all qualified applicants to apply regardless of their salary expectations.

The position is eligible for one of the following: commissions, discretionary incentives, or production incentives according to the terms of those plans

Salary Range $136,700 to $238,700

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