Product Design Engineer

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced Product Design Engineer to develop mechanical products from initial concept through production launch and continuous improvement. This is a hands-on, cradle-to-grave engineering role for someone with direct experience designing products for high-volume, repeat manufacturing. The ideal candidate will have strong SolidWorks skills and proven experience designing both light-gauge stamped or formed sheet-metal components and injection-molded plastic parts. This position is best suited for a product engineer rather than someone whose experience is primarily focused on custom machinery, one-off equipment, prototypes, or welded fabrication.

Responsibilities

• Lead mechanical product development from concept through design, prototyping, testing, tooling, validation, and production launch.
• Create detailed 3D models, assemblies, production drawings, BOMs, and release documentation using SolidWorks.
• Design light-gauge sheet-metal components for stamping, forming, bending, and repeat production.
• Design injection-molded plastic parts using proper material selection, draft, wall thickness, ribs, shrinkage, tolerances, and tooling considerations.
• Apply Design for Manufacturability and Design for Assembly principles to improve quality, cost, cycle time, and production efficiency.
• Perform tolerance stack-ups, basic FEA, stress calculations, and thermal assessments as needed.
• Work with manufacturing, quality, suppliers, and tooling partners to address design and production issues.
• Support prototype builds, testing, mold trials, first articles, pilot production, and product validation.
• Resolve post-launch concerns involving product performance, tooling, quality, assembly, or manufacturing.
• Identify opportunities to reduce material costs, assembly labor, lead times, defects, and production waste.
• Support continuous product improvement using Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, and structured problem-solving practices.

Qualifications

• Proven experience developing mechanical products from concept through production.
• Direct experience designing products for high-volume, repeat manufacturing.
• Direct experience designing light-gauge stamped or formed sheet-metal parts.
• Direct experience designing injection-molded plastic parts and assemblies.
• Strong proficiency with SolidWorks, including parts, assemblies, sheet-metal tools, and production drawings.
• Strong understanding of DFM and DFA principles for metals and plastics.
• Knowledge of injection-molding requirements, including material selection, draft, wall thickness, ribs, shrinkage, tooling, and mold qualification.
• Experience creating drawings, BOMs, specifications, and engineering-release documentation.
• Experience supporting prototypes, product testing, tooling, validation, and production launches.
• Ability to perform tolerance analysis and basic mechanical engineering calculations.
• Understanding of how product design affects cost, tooling, cycle time, assembly labor, quality, and production efficiency.
• Strong communication, problem-solving, project-management, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Ability to work fully on-site.

Preferred Experience

• Mold-flow analysis or experience interpreting mold-flow results.
• Mold trials, first articles, tooling qualification, and production startup.
• PDM or engineering document-control systems.
• Ventilation systems, fans, HVAC components, or similar mechanical products.
• Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, value engineering, or root-cause analysis.

Benefits

• Healthcare premiums paid 100% by the company.
• 401(k) with a 100% company match on the first 8% contributed.
• 100% company match on eligible catch-up contributions for employees age 50 and older.
• Opportunity to join a privately owned, debt-free, all-cash company.
• Stable organization with continued growth and long-term career potential.
• Opportunity to own products throughout their complete lifecycle while working with an experienced engineering team.