Design Engineer

Department Overview

The Design Engineering team supports the organization's objectives and continuous improvement by fostering technical product and engineering skills among staff and management. This role requires someone with a strong technical engineering foundation, a commitment to continuous improvement, and excellent organizational skills.

Job Summary and Duties

This non-supervisory position involves performing comprehensive engineering tasks across all stages of new product design, development, manufacturing, testing, and commissioning. Collaboration with Lead Engineers and Project Managers is essential to prioritize workload. The engineer provides subject matter expertise and guidance to peers involved in the same project.

Core Responsibilities

• Convert contractual design requirements and applicable codes into detailed designs for components, subassemblies, and assemblies.
• Prepare and review manufacturing drawings, contractual submittals, engineering calculations and analyses, test plans, procedures, and reports, often working closely with other departments.
• Provide technical assistance during installation and commissioning phases for company-manufactured equipment, and offer support to customers as directed.
• Occasionally support sales and engineering teams by advising on equipment application, specifications interpretation, material selection, compliance, and warranty support.
• Offer technical guidance to manufacturing to ensure contract compliance, manage discrepancy resolutions, and implement improvements through engineering change processes.
• Collaborate with testing teams to create test procedures, define test requirements, analyze results, and approve test documentation; some engineers may specialize as certified Test Engineers.
• Lead or participate in development projects aimed at creating or enhancing products.
• Recommend and implement updates to process documentation and training materials and contribute to training engineers, though this is a smaller part of the role.

Technical Skills and Knowledge

The role demands strong analytical capabilities applied to the design and assessment of rotating mechanical equipment. Candidates must use engineering principles and a broad understanding of design stress calculations, manufacturing methods, rotor dynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, structural design, vibration, root cause analysis, and material selection to tackle complex challenges. Responsibilities include authoring, reviewing, and approving varied contract documents such as calculations, drawings, test reports, quality documents, and bills of materials. The work may involve innovative designs and first-time projects for the company.

Continuous Improvement and Other Duties

All engineers are encouraged to contribute to process improvements such as refining procedures, calculation tools, and training programs. Occasionally, they may be assigned non-engineering tasks that support contract fulfillment.

Minimum Qualifications

• US citizenship required due to federal contracting regulations.
• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering with 4 to 8 years of relevant experience in mechanical design and analysis, especially involving pumps, turbines, compressors, industrial rotating machinery, power generation, or chemical processing.
• Proficiency in SolidWorks or comparable solid modeling software.
• Experience in linear stress analysis using manual calculations or finite element analysis (FEA).
• Familiarity with various FEA types including static, thermal, frequency, transient, and non-linear analyses.
• Knowledge or ability to rapidly acquire knowledge of rotating equipment design codes, regulations, and industry practices; preference for ASME Boiler & Pressure Vessel Code Sections VIII or III experience.
• Able to interpret engineering drawings, standards, specifications, and Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T).
• Preferably comprehensive expertise in centrifugal pump design, analysis, and operation.
• Willingness to travel 10-20% of the time.
• Competence in Mathcad or equivalent engineering calculation software.
• Skilled in Microsoft Office suite.
• Excellent problem-solving capabilities, communication skills, meticulous attention to detail, personal time management, and task perseverance.
• Self-aware, willing to provide input, and open to professional growth.