Director of Engineering Operations (f/m/d)

About Focused Energy Focused Energy is building the future of clean energy through laser-driven inertial fusion. Backed by our $240M Series A - the largest fully secured Series A in the global fusion industry we are scaling rapidly across multiple geographies. Based in Germany and the US, we have brought together the top scientific and engineering minds using proven technologies to unlock fusion power at commercial scale. Focused Energy is working to realize game-changing scientific innovation that promises to deliver a clean, sustainable and abundant source of power globally. Your Role As Director of Engineering Operations, you will build structured, repeatable operating capability across Mechanical, Electrical and Controls. You will own engineering planning and capacity reporting, configuration and release administration, supplier engineering readiness, and end-to-end engineering and supplier quality. This is a functional leadership role: you will set the processes that engineering must follow, while authorised engineers keep design approval, Systems Engineering keeps requirements governance, and Commercial Procurement keeps contracts. What You'll Do • Own engineering planning, workload and capacity reporting so that commitments reflect real capacity. • Lead configuration and release administration, including Inventor licensing, Autodesk Vault and Jama administration, as a controlled and auditable capability. • Define and drive the planning, configuration, release and quality processes that Mechanical, Electrical and Controls are required to follow. • Ensure suppliers receive controlled, revision-correct technical information through readiness coordination with the Supply Chain Engineer. • Build a functioning supplier-quality and nonconformance process, and stand up the Engineering Quality Lead and Supplier Quality Engineer capability as it is approved. • Partner with Systems Engineering, the Systems Integration team, Commercial Procurement and the PMO to keep cross-functional handoffs clean and to give Integration trustworthy readiness evidence. Who You Are Must-Haves • Experience in engineering configuration management, release control and change control in a hardware engineering environment. • Hands-on knowledge of engineering data and release tools such as Jama, Autodesk Vault or Inventor, or comparable PLM/PDM systems. • Experience running supplier technical coordination and quality or nonconformance processes, including auditable conformity records. • Proven ability to plan and manage engineering capacity and workload across multiple disciplines. • Leadership experience managing managers or senior specialists, and building process ownership within a team. • Clear, candid communication with senior leaders, with the judgement to escalate only genuine cross-functional trade-offs. Nice-to-Haves • Background in systems engineering or systems integration on complex hardware programmes. • Experience standing up a new quality function from a small base, including supplier quality engineering. • Familiarity with capacity-based planning methods and planning tools. • Working knowledge of German engineering and supplier environments, and fluency in German. • Experience with Autodesk licensing administration or enterprise engineering tool administration. • Experience reporting engineering readiness and risk to Integration or programme leadership. What We Offer • Innovative Technology & Mission: Be part of a cutting-edge company working on groundbreaking research in clean energy and scientific discovery. • Career Development: We invest in our people. This is an opportunity to join an early, growing company at the forefront of new technology, where you’ll have the opportunity to develop and grow your career. •