Tooling Engineer

About the role

The Senior Tooling Development Engineer plays a critical role in the design, fabrication, and commissioning of fixtures, pallets, jigs, and custom tooling used across all manufacturing, assembly, and test processes at Milwaukee Electronics. Reporting to the Engineering Manager, this role serves as the senior technical voice on tooling design and fabrication, collaborating with various departments to ensure efficient, reliable, and scalable manufacturing solutions.

Responsibilities

• Technical Ownership & Decision-Making: Serve as the senior technical voice on tooling design and fabrication, representing tooling in cross-functional discussions with engineering, operations, quality, and program leadership. Own assigned tooling projects end-to-end, making final technical decisions based on input from NPI, Manufacturing Engineering, Test Engineering, Program Management, and production personnel.
• Design & Problem Solving: Develop creative, often non-standard mechanical solutions to ambiguous tooling and fixturing problems, analyzing design trade-offs across cost, manufacturability, lead time, durability, and end-use functionality to select the right approach for each project. Apply first-principles technical judgment, including material behavior, tolerance stack-ups, mechanism design, and failure mode analysis, to tooling that must perform reliably in a production environment. Design with the end user in mind, iterating on designs through prototyping, fitting, and field feedback to converge on robust final solutions.
• Tooling Design: Design fixtures, pallets, jigs, and custom tooling in SolidWorks to support PCB assembly, box-build assembly, electrical and functional test, and mechanical processes across the facility. Translate PCBA design data into accurate 2D and 3D representations to support fixture design, using tools such as GerbView and SolidWorks.
• Cross-Functional Partnership: Collaborate closely with Test Engineering to develop test fixture mechanicals, including but not limited to PCBA/DUT locating features, tooling-pin selection, pogo pin layout, single- or dual-sided board access, test actuation mechanism, and enclosures for test equipment. Partner with NPI Engineering during new product introductions to define and deliver the tooling required to bring new processes online. Support Manufacturing Engineering with fixture refurbishment, modification, and updates as products evolve over their lifecycle.
• In-House Fabrication: Program and operate CNC equipment to fabricate tooling components directly from CAD models, using CAM software and manual G-code/M-code programming. Fabricate completed designs in MEC's machine shop using a full complement of manual and additive equipment, including manual mill and lathe; shear and manual press brake for sheet metal; FDM and SLA 3D printers; bandsaws, drill presses, tapping machine, hydraulic knockout punches, surface grinder, and a wide range of hand tools. Produce one-off mechanical components and short-run parts for internal teams as needed, including lifetime-buy quantities for end-of-life programs and supply-chain mitigation builds.
• Commissioning & Documentation: Commission and validate completed tooling on the production floor in collaboration with the operators and technicians who will use it, confirming intended function and ease of use before production handoff. Maintain technical documentation, drawings, and revision history in accordance with MEC document control practices.

Qualifications

• Education and experience: Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Engineering Technology, or related discipline, with 5+ years of relevant hands-on tooling design and fabrication experience; OR Associate's degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology, Tool & Die, Manufacturing Engineering Technology, or related discipline, with 8+ years of relevant hands-on experience; OR 12+ years of demonstrated hands-on experience designing AND fabricating production tooling, fixtures, and jigs, supported by a portfolio of work.
• Senior-level Experience: Demonstrated track record of owning mechanical design projects independently from concept through release, with minimal day-to-day technical oversight. Proven experience serving as the primary technical voice on tooling, fixture, or comparable mechanical projects in a cross-functional manufacturing environment. Demonstrated ability to make and defend technical decisions when cross-functional stakeholders disagree, and to drive alignment toward a final approach.
• Technical Skills & Capabilities: Strong creative problem-solving skills, with the ability to develop unique, non-standard solutions to ambiguous or highly constrained design problems. A genuine willingness to be hands-on in the machine shop and on the production floor. Proficiency in SolidWorks for parametric solid modeling, assembly modeling, and 2D drawing creation. CAM software experience for programming CNC mills from CAD models. Fluent operation of manual mill and lathe. Proven CNC mill setup, operation, and programming experience. Demonstrated ability to read and apply GD&T to interpret customer drawings. Willingness and eagerness to learn new tools, software, and processes as the role evolves. Strong written and verbal communication skills.

Required Qualifications

• S. person status required per ITAR (see below).