Associate Product Developer Jobs in Madison, WI (NOW HIRING)

Product Design Engineer III - Innovation (Machine Elements & Plastics Focus)

Job Summary

Springs Window Fashions is a leader in the custom window treatment industry since 1939. Headquartered in Middleton WI, we have 6,000 associates with locations in North America, Europe, and Asia.  Our custom window treatments are available under the Bali, Graber, SunSetter and Mecho brands in nearly every major retailer, in thousands of designer showrooms, and showcased in large commercial buildings.

Our company has made significant investments to become a leader in product innovation.  As North America's premier window covering company, we're committed to creating a "Best Experience" for our consumers, channel partners and associates.  We are bringing new innovations to the market at an accelerated pace and have a variety of offerings to consumers who want to improve their home decor.

Springs Window Fashions is seeking a highly creative and technically strong Product Design Engineer III - Innovation to join our Innovation organization. This role is focused on early-stage concept creation and mechanical innovation, with a strong emphasis on machine elements, plastic parts, gears, and mechanisms used in consumer products.

This position plays a critical role in feeding and shaping the innovation portfolio, transforming unmet customer needs into differentiated, manufacturable product concepts. The ideal candidate combines deep mechanical engineering fundamentals with hands-on creativity, strong consumer intuition, and comfort working in ambiguous, early-phase development environments.

Key Responsibilities

Concept Creation & Early Innovation

• Identify unmet consumer needs and opportunity areas through collaboration with Innovation, Marketing, and Voice-of-Customer insights
• Generate innovative mechanical concepts and system architectures, including machine elements (springs, gears, linkages, clutches, dampers, drives), injection-molded plastic parts, and cost-efficient mechanisms.
• Translate early hypotheses about customer needs into functional requirements through rapid consumer testing, prototyping, and tight feedback loops, while applying engineering first principles such as FBDs, kinematics, and trigonometry-based geometry to derive custom motion and force relationships.
• Build and evaluate early-stage prototypes and proof-of-concept models.
• Assess concepts early for performance, durability, cost, manufacturability, and scalability.

• Develop mechanical designs using 3D CAD tools (SolidWorks preferred), including tolerancing and design-for-assembly principles.
• Lead material and process selection for plastic parts, gears, and mechanical subsystems.
• Design components with focus on safety, reliability, value, and durability.
• Collaborate with suppliers and manufacturing partners to evaluate tooling and cost tradeoffs.

Education & Experience

• BS in Engineering with a minimum of 6+ years of relevant engineering experience.
• Must be flexible with assignments, able to work independently, and collaborate effectively in a team environment.
• Must be organized, methodical, able to manage multiple tasks simultaneously, and capable of meeting established timelines.
• Receives direction from the Engineering Manager. Expected to manage multiple large or medium scope projects and must document testing and communicate results clearly.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Strong creative and conceptual thinking skills
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Ability to work effectively with ambiguity and rapidly iterate on concepts.
• Working understanding of basic business cases, including preliminary revenue projections and concept-level value propositions.
• Experience participating in consumer testing activities such as focus groups, clinics, interviews, usability tests, competitive and product benchmarking, or observational research.
• Hands-on, DIY / maker mindset with ability to prototype and build concepts quickly.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills.

How We Work to Deliver a Best Experience: Our Culture

• Our Core Value: We do the right thing, always
• Our Seven Cultural Behaviors
• Empowerment - We trust our people.
• Ownership - We take 100% responsibility for our roles actions, and results.
• Leadership - We all lead by example and talk direct with respect (DWR).
• One Team - We are One Springs Team.
• Customer First - We consider our customers' needs before every decision.
• Continuous Innovation - We are constantly learning, innovating, and improving.
• Speed - We define priorities and operate with a sense of urgency and agility.