Architecture and validation
Connected product design, requirements, testing, compliance, manufacturing, and launch readiness.
Experience · Daikin · 2020–2024
Daikin Product-to-Portfolio Leadership
Connecting product engineering, regulatory transformation, and enterprise portfolio execution.
Walter's Daikin work progressed from direct product engineering into structured PMO leadership while engineering responsibility continued. The work connected product architecture and validation with investment, governance, global coordination, and executive decision-making at portfolio scale.
Annual product-revenue contextMore than $4B
PMO portfolio OPEX/CAPEXApproximately $600M · 37+ initiatives
Engineering CAPEXApproximately $40M
Engineered-product revenueApproximately $40M
01 · Product foundation
Direct engineering responsibility established the technical foundation.
As Senior Mechanical Engineer in New Product Development and Research, Walter led a four-engineer team working on three 7.5–12.5-ton commercial rooftop product lines: air conditioning with gas heat, air conditioning with electric heat, and heat pump configurations.
The product work progressed through DOE 2018 requirements, 60335-2-40, and the low-GWP/A2L transition. Responsibility extended from design and refrigeration-system decisions through testing, manufacturing production, training, and product-line continuity.
02 · Role continuity
Engineering and PMO leadership overlapped rather than replacing one another.
The engineering role ran from July 2020 through July 2023. PMO responsibilities began in September 2021 and continued through August 2024, creating a concurrent period through July 2023.
That overlap preserved hands-on engineering context as Walter assumed broader program ownership, portfolio governance, cross-functional alignment, investment stewardship, and executive communication. The same product lines later sat inside the broader packaged-product portfolio he helped govern.
03 · Leadership system
Product decisions and portfolio decisions operated as one execution system.
Transition continuity
Carried product lines through DOE 2018, 60335-2-40, and low-GWP/A2L change.
International coordination
Coordinated work across North America, Europe, and Asia inside a major manufacturer.
Governance and investment
Aligned priorities, schedules, resources, risks, OPEX/CAPEX context, and program decisions.
Cross-functional leadership
Integrated directors, managers, engineers, finance, procurement, sales planning, marketing, manufacturing, technicians, and assembly-line teams.
Decision communication
Provided clear weekly program updates and decision context to senior stakeholders and the CEO.
04 · Enterprise scale
Four measures, kept separate.
The work connected product architecture and validation with investment, governance, global coordination, and executive decision-making at portfolio scale.
More than $4B annually
Annual product-revenue context across VRV, light-commercial and residential packaged systems, PTAC, and other product lines.
Approximately $600M across 37+
Combined PMO portfolio OPEX/CAPEX across 37+ major product initiatives within Walter's program-governance scope.
Approximately $40M CAPEX
Engineering CAPEX for three 7.5–12.5-ton rooftop product lines.
Approximately $40M revenue
Revenue produced by those same three engineered product lines.
Enterprise execution
Coordinating products, functions, regions, investment, and deadlines.
The portfolio required coordinated technical and business decisions across product development, compliance, validation, manufacturing, finance, procurement, sales planning, marketing, operations, and executive leadership.
Execution discipline
Accountability improved portfolio performance.
Programs and projects were completed within budget and expected completion dates. Stronger ownership, visibility, decision cadence, and accountability reduced schedule drift and improved execution across the portfolio.
What the work demonstrates
Enterprise decisions stayed connected to product and technical reality.
Walter carried detailed product engineering into portfolio investment, global coordination, executive decisions, and execution accountability. The work demonstrates the ability to operate across both levels of the system: understand the engineering reality and lead the organization around the business objective.