Cost Estimation Manager

In the role of Cost Estimator Manager, you will lead and motivate a team of 4 responsible for initiating and reviewing proposals, bids, quotations, and related documents that articulate HFI’s products and services in response to inquiries from customers. Collaboration will be a cornerstone of your work, as you partner closely with colleagues from Sales, Engineering, Program Management, Finance, and product teams to guarantee that our content is comprehensive, precise, and delivered promptly.

Your contributions will extend beyond document creation. You will play a pivotal role in enhancing our products and services, driven by both prior experience and HFI specific activities. Additionally, your strategic input will shape decisions that impact our functional area of responsibility. Your leadership will be instrumental in maintaining and updating estimating systems ensuring that our responses to customers align with our organizational goals and contribute to our overall success.

Duties & Responsibilities:

• Manages and develops quotations staff, defines each employee’s primary and secondary responsibilities, manages performance and how each relates to others within group.
• Coordinates receipt of information for preparation of final quotation submittal.
• Communicates and follows up with account representatives and account executives and inside sales representative to ensure quotes and resulting orders are complete.
• Responsible for cost data integrity.
• Effectively communicate both within the group and with members of other internal and external groups.
• Provide timely and accurate cost estimates to incoming RFQ’s and internal cost sheets.
• Understanding and prioritizing RFQ’s strategically to allocate resources.
• Delivering cost estimates on all interior trim incoming RFQ’s into HFI and eventually support seat trim, headrest and armrests.
• Developing material and purchased content cost estimates accurately and timely.
• Developing labor minute estimates accurately and timely.
• Estimating the tooling costs for each RFQ.
• Maintaining and growing margins on new business awards.
• Work closely with purchasing and engineering teams for final hard quotes to ensure final round RFC’s are complete, accurate.
• Meet as required with Sales team members as needed to establish RFQ assumptions and customer requests.
• Occasional trips to HFI manufacturing plants completing time studies confirming estimating assumptions and accuracy.
• Providing updates to awarded programs as information changes.

• Improving process flows to minimize waste in the organization.
• Determine preferred production location based on capacity studies and other factors.
• Work strategically to redesign processes to provide the most value to HFI.
• Attend Business Case reviews to provide insight into specific programs and answer questions of senior mgmt.
• In conjunction with sales help facilitate explanations to customers when required.

Qualifications/Education/Training:

• Intermediate to Advanced proficiency with computer skills and industry cost software knowledge, advanced Excel skills.
• Proven management experience to include training, leading and development of assigned employees.
• Bachelor’s degree in business, Engineering, Accounting, or applicable experience may be substituted for the degree requirement.
• 5+ years’ experience in Manufacturing (Automotive preferred)
• Must illustrate a knowledge in manufacturing project costs, budgets, and advance cost analysis.
• 3-5 years’ experience leading teams