What does an engineering and operations director do?
The engineering and operations director is the head that supervises staff in the maintenance of electrical and mechanical parts of any infrastructure or a public building. They coordinate with maintenance engineers, contractors, and technicians to provide and improve maintenance procedures to avoid technical difficulties for a while. They work alongside staff to estimate costs and allocate budget, respectively. They will also hire new team members for the fast execution and completion of the maintenance procedures.
Engineering and operations director responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real engineering and operations director resumes:
- Manage and coordinate all hardware/software engineering, installation, and service of HVAC temperature control system projects.
- Obtain ITIL certification for process standards including BS15000 and ISO standards.
- Develop processes for dealing with findings (483 observations) from FDA inspection/audit of 21 CFR 820/ ISO 13485 requirements.
- Develop cloud base solutions for management of cable company customers including credit card payments, upgrades, and all account management.
- Coordinate SDK/API/Middleware development base on Linux with external alliances.
- Create and implement company loyalty program with SaaS application.
- Develop and deploy production-quality HPC Linux through leading company-wide engineeringeffort.
- Support creation of mobile formats from high-definition broadcast source media by designing, implementing and testing new heterogeneous-base server transcoding infrastructure.
- Coordinate and prepare all certification documentation and interface material for the FAA.
Engineering and operations director skills and personality traits
We calculated that 10% of Engineering And Operations Directors are proficient in Direct Reports, Engineering Operations, and Project Management. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Communication skills, and Detail oriented.
We break down the percentage of Engineering And Operations Directors that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Direct Reports, 10%
Directed operations for 310 central offices in Colorado and Wyoming, consisting of 605 technicians and 32 management direct reports.
- Engineering Operations, 9%
Manage the Engineering Operations team responsible for identifying, documenting, auditing and implementing process improvements.
- Project Management, 7%
Trained project managers in project management methods to effectively and efficiently produce innovative new products on schedule and at target costs.
- Continuous Improvement, 7%
Spearheaded support operations of a new functional fixed network equipment organization by establishing a continuous improvement team of senior managers.
- Business Development, 6%
Worked closely with executive management as part of product/business development and strategy team.
- Sigma, 5%
Championed the implementation of Six Sigma strategy project in operations.
Common skills that an engineering and operations director uses to do their job include "direct reports," "engineering operations," and "project management." You can find details on the most important engineering and operations director responsibilities below.
Analytical skills. The most essential soft skill for an engineering and operations director to carry out their responsibilities is analytical skills. This skill is important for the role because "architectural and engineering managers evaluate information to solve problems." Additionally, an engineering and operations director resume shows how their duties depend on analytical skills: "established and operated an efficient data center from shell to carrier-class facility. "
Communication skills. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling engineering and operations director duties is communication skills. The role rewards competence in this skill because "architectural and engineering managers must effectively convey information and expectations related to projects." According to an engineering and operations director resume, here's how engineering and operations directors can utilize communication skills in their job responsibilities: "provided extensive support to the sales and marketing departments in their efforts to sell broadband communications services on a new network. "
Organizational skills. For certain engineering and operations director responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "organizational skills." The day-to-day duties of an engineering and operations director rely on this skill, as "architectural and engineering managers keep track of many workers, schedules, and budgets simultaneously." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what engineering and operations directors do: "championed standardized corporate hr policies to enhance organizational performance. "
Math skills. Another crucial skill for an engineering and operations director to carry out their responsibilities is "math skills." A big part of what engineering and operations directors relies on this skill, since "architectural and engineering managers use calculus and other mathematics to develop new products and processes." How this skill relates to engineering and operations director duties can be seen in an example from an engineering and operations director resume snippet: "managed qualitative and quantitative analysis requirements managed process improvements"
The three companies that hire the most engineering and operations directors are:
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Engineering and operations director vs. Design manager
A design manager is responsible for creating graphic and digital designs, following clients' specifications, and managing project deliverables efficiently. Design managers work closely with the marketing and public relations department, developing strategies to promote the brand to the target audience. They coordinate with the creative team and present the design ideas to the management, ask for final approval, perform revisions as needed, and follow the budget goals. A design manager must have excellent communication and leadership skills to handle the design team's concerns and needs.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of an engineering and operations director are more likely to require skills like "engineering operations," "continuous improvement," "sigma," and "architecture." On the other hand, a job as a design manager requires skills like "sketch," "visualization," "user experience," and "powerpoint." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Design managers tend to make the most money working in the technology industry, where they earn an average salary of $121,279. In contrast, engineering and operations directors make the biggest average salary, $135,749, in the telecommunication industry.The education levels that design managers earn slightly differ from engineering and operations directors. In particular, design managers are 9.1% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than an engineering and operations director. Additionally, they're 0.2% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Engineering and operations director vs. Research and development manager
A research and development manager is responsible for supervising project development procedures to support business operations and identify business opportunities that would pave the way for more revenue resources and profits. Research and development managers monitor the production plans from the conceptualization to the final outputs, inspecting inconsistencies and flaws in every phase and revising strategies as needed to achieve the required specifications and requirements. They delegate tasks to the staff, oversee progress, and conduct research and development programs to maximize productivity and team efforts.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real engineering and operations director resumes. While engineering and operations director responsibilities can utilize skills like "engineering operations," "continuous improvement," "architecture," and "lean six sigma," research and development managers use skills like "customer service," "patients," "c++," and "c #."
On average, research and development managers earn a lower salary than engineering and operations directors. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, research and development managers earn the most pay in the professional industry with an average salary of $143,083. Whereas engineering and operations directors have higher pay in the telecommunication industry, with an average salary of $135,749.In general, research and development managers achieve similar levels of education than engineering and operations directors. They're 0.2% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Engineering and operations director vs. Vice president of engineering
A Vice President Of Engineering manages all aspects of the company's engineering product development activities. They are responsible for strategic planning, production designing, quality assurance, and problem resolution.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, engineering and operations directors are more likely to have skills like "engineering operations," "continuous improvement," "lean six sigma," and "capital projects." But a vice president of engineering is more likely to have skills like "cloud," "infrastructure," "java," and "python."
Vice presidents of engineering earn the highest salary when working in the technology industry, where they receive an average salary of $141,200. Comparatively, engineering and operations directors have the highest earning potential in the telecommunication industry, with an average salary of $135,749.When it comes to education, vice presidents of engineering tend to earn similar degree levels compared to engineering and operations directors. In fact, they're 0.3% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 2.4% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Engineering and operations director vs. Director
Directors work in show business, whether in a film, a television show, or a theatre production. They are responsible for bringing the material to life. They work with the writers to get a clear vision of how the production should look. They lead the production team in planning for the production, identifying filming or rehearsing schedules, casting for roles, and other aspects that need to be decided upon. Directors provide direction to the actors to ensure that the actors understand their role and will be able to effectively convey emotions to the audience. They also manage all other crew members and communicate their expectations clearly so that everyone on the set is working towards one vision.
Even though a few skill sets overlap between engineering and operations directors and directors, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, an engineering and operations director might have more use for skills like "engineering operations," "continuous improvement," "architecture," and "lean six sigma." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of directors require skills like "healthcare," "customer service," "oversight," and "human resources. "
The finance industry tends to pay the highest salaries for directors, with average annual pay of $155,819. Comparatively, the highest engineering and operations director annual salary comes from the telecommunication industry.The average resume of directors showed that they earn similar levels of education compared to engineering and operations directors. So much so that theyacirc;euro;trade;re 1.2% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 2.2%.Types of engineering and operations director
Updated January 8, 2025
