Director, Technical Lead - Legacy

Location: Atlanta, GA 

Travel: 20–35% (supplier and partner sites) 

Direct Reports:  N/A  

Reports To: Dispensed Product Lead  

Role Summary: 

The Director, Technical Lead - Legacy is responsible for innovation and development of new dispense equipment and technical systems for The Coca-Cola Company system in partnership with our Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) across dispensed products and business units.  This individual will act as a leader of technical functional delivery teams consisting of resources from Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Software Engineering, Product Supply Chain, and Procurement.   Develop technical development plans to ensure competitive advantage for The Coca-Cola Company in quality, cost, technical performance, and regulatory compliance across platforms and business units collaboratively. Manages and develops technical resources across dispensed products to deliver innovative solutions. 

Reporting to the Dispensed Product Lead, this position collaborates closely with shared services, product owner, and the Innovation Hub to advance emerging technologies while maintaining domain expertise in critical dispensed disciplines.  Success in this role is measured by the adoption of new solutions across dispensed products, technology adoption within partner manufacturers, and scalable speed to market execution. 

Drive Innovation Adoption with Partner Manufacturers

• Lead Strategic Roadmaps: Develop and execute the innovation roadmap for mechanical systems technologies, ensuring alignment with platform goals and long-term equipment strategies. The roadmap will not only focus on new advancements but will also emphasize expertise in evaluating lifecycle management and refresh timelines of key strategic components to sustain operational excellence. 

• Focus on novel solutions for equipment, ensuring greater precision and long-term reliability. 

• Advance cost down, reliable designs to achieve unprecedented speed and accuracy. 

• Drive innovation to enhance energy efficiency, beverage quality control, and durability. 

• Scout and evaluate emerging technologies to enable new beverage formats and unique customer-driven experiences. 

• Collaborate with the Innovation Hub: Work closely with the Innovation Hub to: 

• Provide technical mentorship during early-stage prototyping and concept validation. 

• Develop and deliver proof-of-concept designs and reference architectures for technology scalability and platform adoption. 

• Intellectual Property Management: Establish and manage an IP strategy to protect innovative solutions and ensure competitive differentiation through patents and cross-licensing opportunities. 

Enable Platform Success

• On-Demand Expertise: Act as a technical subject matter expert for platform teams, offering insights and solutions to complex engineering challenges as they arise. 

• Engineering Standards: Develop, maintain, and continuously improve reusable engineering standards and guidelines reflecting state-of-the-art technologies and best practices. 

• Shared Component Libraries: Create and curate repositories of reusable engineering components and designs that simplify cross-platform integration and maintain consistency. 

• Incorporate innovations into component libraries to accelerate delivery cycles. 

• Rigorous Documentation: Develop and maintain a comprehensive repository of engineering documentation, including CAD files, specification sheets, system diagrams, and interface requirements. This ensures all stakeholders have a clear understanding of the components or systems’ purpose, design, and functionality, fostering better collaboration, reducing errors, and improving long-term maintainability. 

• Seamless Technology Transfer: Ensure a smooth transition from innovation to operational deployment by: 

• Defining clear handoff processes between research teams and implementation groups. 

• Implementing rigorous validation frameworks to confirm technology readiness for large-scale rollout. 

• Technical Training: Facilitate knowledge transfer and ensure platform teams are well-equipped to adopt and deploy innovative solutions efficiently. 

Cost Optimization: Evaluate and implement cost-down measures to ensure solutions are both affordable and scalable while maintaining the highest standards of quality, reliability, and platform performance. 

Maintain Centers of Excellence

• Mechanical Systems: Responsible for integrating components into full system designs, including product and package identification, cleaning and sanitization protocols, and seamless integration of mechanical solutions within the overall platform. 

• Continuous Improvement: Champion initiatives to refine and enhance the performance of core engineering domains, with a focus on: 

• Improving reliability metrics for existing platforms. 

• Accelerating the adoption rate of pre-tested technologies. 

• Reducing time-to-market for validated innovations. 

• Talent Development: Mentor team members within Centers of Excellence, promoting upskilling and staying abreast of cutting-edge technologies in their respective fields. 

People Management & Development: 

• Empower the Team: Foster a high-performing, results-driven team of strategic leaders by enabling autonomy and creating opportunities for ownership of critical priorities. 

• Mentor and Coach Leaders: Provide consistent guidance, coaching, and feedback to direct and dotted-line reports. 

• Promote Accountability: Set clear goals and expectations while holding the team accountable for delivering results with a focus on quality, timeliness, and impact. 

• Measure and Recognize Performance: Regularly evaluate individual and team performance, providing constructive feedback and recognizing outstanding contributions to acknowledge achievement and sustain motivation. 

Skills & Competence 

Required: 

• 10+ years of experience in engineering roles, with a proven history of spearheading innovation and delivering breakthrough technologies. 

• Deep expertise in mechanical systems with significant hands-on ability to guide practical applications. 

• Demonstrated proficiency in translating R&D efforts into commercially viable products. 

• Proven track record in successfully transferring new technologies to product/platform teams in complex, highly technical environments. 

• Experience in building and leading high-performing innovation teams, capable of handling both strategic vision and tactical execution. 

• Strong balance between theoretical technical knowledge and real-world implementation skills to create scalable, market-ready solutions. 

Preferred: 

• Advanced Degree in a relevant engineering discipline or equivalent advanced expertise gained through industry experience. 

• Prior experience in beverage or food equipment technologies, understanding the unique requirements of quality, regulatory compliance, and performance optimization. 

• Working knowledge of IoT systems, connectivity platforms, or advanced materials. 

• Experience in scaling technologies through platform-based organizations or working in Agile-driven environments. 

• Proven ability to influence without authority, leveraging relationships, technical credibility, and value creation to drive results across cross-functional teams. 

Leadership Competencies 

• Technology Vision & Pragmatism: Able to foresee industry shifts and identify how transformative technologies can be practically implemented. 

• Platform-First Mindset: Develops solutions and standards with consideration for the needs of multiple product platforms, ensuring scalable deployment. 

• Influence Through Value Delivery: Utilizes actionable outcomes, tangible benefits, and collaborative engagement to foster alignment without relying on formal authority. 

• Collaborative Innovator: Builds bridges between innovation and execution teams, creating an environment that promotes shared learning and co-creation. 

• Project Prioritization Skills: Objectively evaluates and terminates projects that are unlikely to transition effectively or add measurable value, ensuring optimal resource allocation and focus. 

​What We Can Do For You 

• Iconic & Innovative Brands: Our portfolio represents over 250 products with some of the most popular brands in the world, including Coca-Cola, Simply, Fairlife & Topo Chico. 

• Expansive & Diverse Customers: We work with a diversified group of customers which range from retail & grocery outlets, theme parks, movie theatres, restaurants, and many more each day.