Joseph Heidenreich

I worked for 17 years at Knowles Electronics across several disciplines of Mechanical Engineering as well as electro-acoustic transducer design and customer interfacing collaboration. Included in this is 10 years of management experience with both domestic and international teams. Covering mechanical design, field applications engineering and electro-acoustic design. I lived in Suzhou China for 2 years setting up a transducer design team and I lived in San Jose for 2 years supporting the largest technical customer of Knowles electronics. I then moved to a tech start up Resonado labs where shortly after I was made Director of Engineering and charged with leading the engineering team (7 people) in speaker design and development. 

Resonado Labs – Chicago, IL 2021 – 2023 Engineering Director

Provided key leadership while creating the engineering development process, ultimately setting up and managing a team of six engineers in addition to establishing a stage gate process, quality control (QC) standards, DFMEA, PFMEA, skill sets matrices, test lab development, and budget parameters.

Maintained key performance indicators (KPIs) to achieve daily action items aligned with business objectives, effectively tracking performance and implementing adjustments as needed.

Leveraged strong interpersonal skills to facilitate collaboration projects with well-known customers.

Developed an internal Wiki knowledge database to create a centralized location for engineering teams

to store and share information, successfully transitioning from tribal knowledge to a set of standards.

Supported seamless offboarding of an engineering team in South Korea, shifting to full in-house

responsibility for speaker and driver development without loss in productivity or efficiency.

Knowles Electronics, LLC – Itasca, IL 2005 – 2021 Senior Manager, Global Applications Engineering 2019 – 2021

Led the Global Applications Engineering team, setting strategy to expand percent share in customer portfolios by implementing a combination of technical with marketing white papers, slide decks, and in-person demos to ensure achievement of revenue targets.

Managed business priorities with local field engineers and R&D across Europe, Asia, and the United States, tracking progress and enabling rapid customer adoption by mitigating technical issues.

Collected and analyzed customer information, details, and datapoints to better inform and adjust target strategy while also adjusting R&D goals and objectives.

Maintained knowledge of industry trends across multiple consumer electronics industries.
Senior Manager, Key Customer Applications Support (Mountain View, CA) 2017 – 2019

Relocated to provide on-site collaboration with a West Coast-based global technology producer, successfully expanding the business portfolio to match adapting customer focus while also working with executive management to escalate and eliminate technical gaps.

Supervised a team of three direct reports while serving as a key liaison for clients, facilitating consistent collaboration within a multimillion-dollar microphone portfolio.

Eliminated costs by recommending a viable hiring alternative post-employment contract with a replacement from local talent rather than subsequent outsourcing.

Senior Manager, Receiver Dev & Applications Engineering (Suzhou, China) 2015 – 2017

Served as an on-site point of contact in China responsible for setting up an engineering development team comprised of 50+ cross-functional personnel for balance armature receivers.

Managed the global applications engineering team across Europe, North America, China, Malaysia, and the Philippines, facilitating the development of five additional speakers.

Implemented vertical integration strategies that reduced product development lead times by 33%, enabling faster time to market on new products.

Expanded the applications engineering support team into a new headphones market, creating higher margin growth through successful execution.

Manager, Electro-Acoustic Development & Applications Engineering 2013 – 2015

Led an international team of 18 personnel across both product development and applications engineering across Europe, Asia, and North America.

Implemented a new system of internal Wiki sites as a knowledge database to identify market trends and new opportunities to support the development team in targeting next generation products.

Senior Engineer, Applications Engineering Team 2010 – 2013

• Oversaw technical and sales support for the department’s largest customer, successfully growing market share with Siemens through technical collaboration and innovative ideation.

Senior Engineer, Balance Armature Design 2009 – 2010

Piloted a role for a new high output receiver, overseeing performance, reliability, and manufacturing of the product with responsibility for both mechanical and acoustical design components.

Collaborated with Chinese factory to meet assembly costs, yield targets, and reliability requirements.

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Science (BS)
Mechanical Engineering | Minor: Mathematics Northern Illinois University