Chief Technology Officer

Job Description

Reporting directly to the global President - Automotive, the Chief Technical Officer will provide effective leadership direction and professional expertise in all areas of technology and engineering in the achievement of revenue and profit goals. This executive will be a strategic business partner to the President and an integral member of the senior leadership team that establishes the strategic goals and objectives on behalf of the global automotive segment.

We are looking for someone who demonstrates:

• Intense collaboration
• Passionate customer focus
• Thoughtful, fast, disciplined execution
• Tenacious commitment to continuous improvement
• Relentless drive to win

Here is a glimpse of what you’ll do:

• Have responsibility for the entire automotive product development cycle from the early conceptual phase, through research & development, advanced engineering, product development, application engineering/validation, product launch and post-SOP support.
• Provide leadership to a global team of approximately 350 professionals through an organization that is both solid-line and matrix.
• Possess ‘cradle to grave’ responsibility for the four automotive product families: autonomy, connectivity, clean technology, and electrification. Although all four areas are integral to the success of the business, the areas of autonomy (e.g. V2X and cloud-based technologies) and connectivity are of particular importance for the continued growth of the business.
• Responsible for establishing both the long-term strategy and technology roadmap, as well as the short-term, tactical goals and objectives to ensure annual commitments are delivered. A critical responsibility for the CTO is to serve as the technical visionary for the automotive business, and he/she will work collaboratively with the President, his/her peers and staff to provide a strategy and process to deliver innovative products to the market at the right time.
• It is critical that the CTO build strong relationships with the other segments (e.g. medical, wearable products, etc.) of Flex to leverage existing and future products and technologies for automotive applications. Flex is differentiated from other automotive Tier I’s in that the majority of existing and future technology is outside of mainstream automotive, providing significant opportunities to expand these technologies into automotive applications.
• In addition to building strong relationships internally within Flex, the CTO will forge excellent relationships externally. He/she will have the savvy and executive presence to build trusting, mutually beneficial relationships with customers so that Flex becomes integral to future technology discussions and decisions. The CTO, as appropriate, will build relationships with suppliers and 3rd party technology development partners, and act as the face of the company at relevant industry and trade events.
• In addition to the above points, the CTO’s responsibilities will include, but not necessarily be limited to:
  • The CTO will have a keen understanding of the President’s short and long-term vision, strategy and objectives, and he/she will ensure that the strategy and quantitative objectives are aligned and cascaded down through the rest of the organization.
  • The CTO will passionately drive continuous improvement initiatives across all facets of the engineering function.  He/she will benchmark internally and externally, and will drive the engineering organization towards best-in-class performance.
  • Maintain, manage, and establish as necessary Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to drive continuous improvement.
  • The CTO will be a strong example and mentor for his/her subordinates and will actively engage in the development of his/her direct staff.  Responsible for the development of his/her subordinates by way of performance reviews and management development processes. 
  • Manage the technical/engineering annual budget to ensure objectives are met within financial and resource constraints.

Here is some of what you’ll need (required):

• The ideal candidate will have a minimum of 15+ years of broad-based automotive technology and engineering experience with increasing levels of responsibility. 
• The ideal candidate will have component and system level responsibility with the four Flex product families, but profound experience in autonomy and connectivity is required.’
• The CTO will possess a successful track record across the gamut of the technology life cycle from early concept phase through launch and serial production.
• Candidates must have the ability to define the long-term technology strategy as a member of the senior leadership team, while also addressing the hands-on tactical needs of the business at all levels. 
• The CTO will be described as a proactive, ethical, high energy, hands-on manager, who excels in a fast paced, team-oriented matrix environment.  He/she will have the well-developed interpersonal skills necessary to function across all levels of the organization as well as with external entities.
• Candidates must be organizationally and culturally agile with the ability to work in a large, complex, matrix organization.  The Flex structure differs from the traditional pure-automotive Tier I’s in that the company competes in many other segments outside of automotive.  The CTO must have the curiosity and creative ability to interface with other parts of the company in order to identify and leverage non-automotive technology for vehicle applications.

• The CTO must have proven leadership ability with a track record of building highly functioning technical teams that effectively partner with the other functional areas of the company.  Ideally, the candidate will have multinational or global experience. 
• Candidates will have a demonstrated ability to apply an analytical, process-driven approach to include appropriate KPI’s, in order to be proactive in all technical matters globally.
• Candidates must understand the extended enterprise and have an appreciation for value creation.  He/she must understand the overall vision for the business in order to align the technical strategy with the overall business strategy, and to serve as a partner to the President and his/her peers.
• Candidates will have hands-on experience with typical automotive technology and process development processes such as FMEA’s, PPAP, DVP&R’s, etc.
• Ability to travel regionally and globally up to 30 - 40%.

Here are a few of our preferred experiences:

• Candidates will demonstrate a history of building excellent relationships internally and externally, and the ideal candidate will have existing relationships with relevant decision-makers at the OEM’s, and be well-known in organizations such as OESA, SAE, etc.

Here are a few examples of what you’ll get for the great work you provide:

• Full range of medical benefits, dental, vision
• Life Insurance
• Matching 401K
• PTO
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Employee discounts at local retailers

Job Category

Design & Technology

Flex does not accept unsolicited resumes from headhunters, recruitment agencies or fee based recruitment services. Flex is an Equal Opportunity Employer and employment selection decisions are based on merit, qualifications, and abilities. Flex does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices on the basis of: age, race, religion, color, sex, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, disability, pregnancy status or any other status protected by law. Flex provides reasonable accommodation so that qualified applicants with a disability may participate in the selection process. Please advise us of any accommodations you request in order to express interest in a position by e-mailing: accesibility@flextronics.com. Please state your request for assistance in your message. Only reasonable accommodation requests related to applying for a specific position within Flex will be reviewed at the e-mail address. Flex will contact you if it is determined that your background is a match to the required skills required for this position. Thank you for considering a career with Flex.