Community Development Engineer Jobs in Des Moines, IA

Join us at Kreg Tool!

Kreg Tool manufactures a wide variety of tools, accessories, and equipment for woodworkers and do-it-yourselfers. As an employee-owned company, we strive to provide our team members opportunities for personal growth and success and are committed to serving our surrounding communities. Guided by a unique purpose and values, Kreg is dedicated to providing high-quality products to our customers by working together in a motivated, team-based environment.

Headquartered in Ankeny, Iowa (just off I-35 north of Des Moines), we create products that are available throughout North America in the nation’s major home improvement stores, such as Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Menards. Kreg emphasizes the importance of a healthy work-life integration through its flexible schedule and competitive benefits package. Besides medical, vision, and dental benefits, we also offer a “dress for your day” dress code, onsite fitness center, annual bonus opportunity, and volunteer time off, as well as paid parental leave, and wellness reimbursement. Each employee is a valuable member of the Kreg Team, and we are always looking for our next employee-owner to begin building their career with Kreg.

Senior Product Development Engineer

The Senior Product Development Engineer is an experienced product development professional responsible for designing and developing products from concept through production. This role serves as a key contributor on cross-functional product teams, providing strong engineering expertise and sound judgment within assigned projects. The Senior Product Development Engineer owns complex product development activities, mentors developing engineers, and collaborates closely with internal and external partners to deliver high-quality solutions that meet customer, business, and technical requirements.

So, What’s the Gig?Product Development and Technical Execution

• Exercise sound engineering judgment when requirements, data, or development paths are incomplete, conflicting, or evolving.
• Develop complex products, subsystems, mechanisms, assemblies, and interfaces.
• Translate product requirements into practical engineering solutions and production-ready designs.
• Develop and maintain key engineering deliverables and applicable product safety and compliance requirements through design release.
• Evaluate technical tradeoffs and make recommendations that balance performance, cost, manufacturability, quality, and risk.
• Drive the engineering development of products through the full product development lifecycle, from concept generation and prototyping to validation and production launch.
• Represent the Product Development Engineering perspective in discussions with Product Management, Quality, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Industrial Design, and other business stakeholders.
• Partner with external development firms, domestic and international suppliers, and manufacturing partners throughout development and production activities.
• Clearly communicate technical decisions, risks, trade-offs, and recommendations.
• Work cross-functionally to resolve technical questions, risks, and tradeoffs.

Apply Design for Manufacturing Expertise

• Incorporate Design for Manufacturing (DFM) and Design for Assembly (DFA) principles throughout product development.
• Apply knowledge of tolerances, tooling, materials, manufacturing processes, and assembly methods to improve product quality and efficiency.
• Serve as a key technical resource in supplier selection, design reviews, manufacturing readiness assessments, and tooling decisions.
• Collaborate with suppliers and manufacturing partners to support successful production implementation.
• Contribute expertise in designing for manufacturing processes such as injection molding, die casting, and related production methods.

Solve Complex Technical Problems

• Investigate and resolve product performance, testing, quality, tooling, supplier, and manufacturing issues through root-cause analysis.
• Analyze available data and evidence to identify underlying causes and develop corrective actions.
• Implement and validate solutions to ensure issues are resolved effectively and sustainably.
• Drive technical issues to closure while balancing risk, timing, quality, and business objectives.

Advanced Development and Research Efforts

• Lead assigned R&D and Advanced Development initiatives within established priorities and constraints, partnering with Product Management and other stakeholders to refine scope, requirements, and success criteria.
• Translate the agreed scope into an executable technical plan, including workstreams, tasks, experiments, milestones, decision points, and schedule.
• Own execution of the initiative, adapting the plan as learning occurs and delivering technical conclusions or solutions that reduce uncertainty and inform future product direction.

Technical Leadership and Mentorship

• Provide technical coaching and guidance to developing engineers.
• Share expertise in design methodology, engineering judgment, problem solving, and product development best practices.
• Participate in and, when appropriate, lead design reviews and technical evaluations to support engineering excellence across the team.
• May provide direction to interns, Associate Engineers, or other developing technical resources as organizational needs warrant.

What We’re Looking For:

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related engineering discipline, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 5-7 years of experience in product development and mechanical design.
• Highly proficient in SolidWorks or other 3D CAD software across components, assemblies, mechanisms, and interfaces.
• Strong understanding of mechanical systems, design principles, and product development processes.
• Experience applying DFM/DFA principles and manufacturing best practices.
• Proven ability to independently solve complex technical problems and make sound engineering decisions.
• Strong analytical, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills.

Other Skills and Abilities We’re Looking For:

• Experience designing products that utilize injection-molded plastics and/or die casting preferred.
• Experience working directly with global suppliers, tooling vendors, and manufacturing partners.
• Experience leading advanced development, research, or innovation projects.
• Interest or experience in woodworking preferred.
• Proficient in engineering decision making, and evaluating how decisions impact cost, timeline, and the quality of the final product. Ability to provide oversight and feedback to other engineers on the impacts of their decision making.
• Proficient at the innovation process of brainstorming, refining, and iterating on concept ideas. Can collaborate with the product development team to create product ideas from basic customer needs and refine into a production-worthy product. Experience creating mechanisms and multiple-component assemblies to solve complex problems.