Senior / Principal Design Engineer

About the role

We are looking for an experienced, hands-on mechanical design engineer to serve as a senior technical leader for our engineering team. The team currently lacks a seasoned voice to help focus its efforts, mentor less experienced engineers, and establish the processes, procedures, and documentation the organization needs to operate consistently and predictably. This role exists to help move the organization away from a reactive, quality-issue-driven way of working and toward a genuine culture of continuous improvement.

Key Responsibilities

• Technical Leadership, Coaching & Mentoring: Serve as a senior technical resource and mentor for the design engineering team, strengthening the team's design judgment, GD&T fluency, and design-for-manufacturability (DFM/DFA) thinking.
• Planning, Prioritization & Roadmap Alignment: Prioritize the team's tasks and projects based on the company's product roadmap and high-level business priorities and goals.
• Process, Documentation & Continuous Improvement: Design, document, and implement engineering processes and standards where they don't yet exist - including design review, drawing standards, engineering change control (ECR/ECN), and design release checklists.
• Mechanical Design & GD&T: Own and/or review mechanism and mechanical component design work, applying sound engineering judgment for manufacturability, tolerancing, and assembly.
• Supplier, Manufacturing & Quality Partnership: Identify, evaluate, and qualify new suppliers and third-party/contract manufacturers; own the technical side of supplier onboarding.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related field, or equivalent hands-on experience.
• 8+ years of mechanical design experience for Senior level, or 12+ years for Principal level, with a demonstrated track record in mechanism design.
• Deep, demonstrated expertise in GD&T (ASME Y14.5), with the ability to teach and mentor others in its application and interpretation.
• Experience designing go/no-go and functional inspection gaging.
• Strong CAD design and drawing skills; SolidWorks strongly preferred.
• Direct, hands-on experience sourcing, vetting, and managing suppliers and contract manufacturers.
• Demonstrated experience working cross-functionally with Quality, Operations, Procurement, and Manufacturing.
• Comfortable coaching and mentoring other engineers - whether or not the role carries formal management responsibility.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in the firearms industry, or personal interest/familiarity with firearms design, manufacturing, or use.
• Experience building engineering processes and documentation from the ground up in a small- to mid-size manufacturing environment.
• Familiarity with formal continuous improvement methodologies (Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen).

What Success Looks Like

The team has documented, repeatable design and release processes that didn't exist before. GD&T usage and drawing quality across the organization are visibly more consistent and correct. Supplier and vendor relationships are more structured, with clearer specs, gaging, and inspection criteria. The team is measurably shifting from reactive problem-solving to proactive, continuous improvement. Engineers on the team report feeling more focused, supported, and developed.