Design Engineer Jobs in Muskegon, MI (NOW HIRING)

POSITION: Design Engineer Supervisor

Full Time/Salary

General Summary

The Design Engineer Supervisor plays a key role within the Engineering Team and reports to the Engineering Manager. This position oversees day-to-day mechanical design execution, engineering standards, design quality, drawing review, workload coordination, and continuous improvement to ensure conveyor and material handling products are complete, manufacturable, accurate, and delivered on time. The individual in this role will also contribute to product development, design standardization, team capability growth, and the ongoing improvement of engineering processes and product performance. The Design Engineer Supervisor implements departmental priorities, standards, resource plans, and strategic direction established by the Engineering Manager.

The Design Engineer Supervisor is expected to leverage strong mechanical design expertise and leadership skills to guide the team through complex engineering challenges, establish consistent design and documentation practices, and foster a high-accountability, solutions-oriented culture. This role works closely with the Engineering Manager and across departmental teams to ensure customer requirements are effectively translated into reliable, cost-effective, and production-ready designs.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

1. Leadership & Team Development

• Lead, mentor, and develop the Design Engineering team, providing daily technical coaching and professional development support.
• Coordinate day-to-day work assignments, workloads, and priorities for the Design Engineering team in alignment with project priorities established by the Engineering Manager.
• Establish clear expectations for design quality, productivity, timing, ownership, and accountability.
• Provide ongoing performance feedback, coaching, and development to support performance evaluations, goal setting, and career-development planning.
• Identify team training and capability gaps and recommend plans to strengthen technical knowledge, design practices, and overall engineering effectiveness.

2. Product Design & Engineering Standards

·        Review engineering drawings, 3D models, bills of material, calculations, layouts, and released designs to ensure accuracy, completeness, manufacturability, and compliance with company standards.

• Implement, maintain, and enforce department-approved engineering design, drawing, documentation, CAD, and design-review standards.
• Ensure designs meet safety, sanitation, quality, customer, and applicable regulatory requirements.
• Serve as a senior technical resource for complex mechanical design challenges, providing guidance and solutions to the Design Engineering team and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Drive consistent design-review practices to identify design risks, recurring errors, and sources of rework before release.
• Support troubleshooting and root-cause analysis for field, production, and design-related issues; recommend and implement practical corrective actions.
• Evaluate design alternatives to improve product reliability, manufacturability, cost, and performance.

3. Engineering Execution & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Monitor the status of design work and proactively identify schedule, quality, scope, or resource issues across active projects.
• Ensure designs are complete, properly documented, and released on time to support project, procurement, and production requirements.
• Manage day-to-day team priorities and escalate material resource, schedule, scope, or technical risks to the Engineering Manager.
• Collaborate closely with Applications Engineering to ensure customer requirements are properly interpreted and translated into effective engineering requirements and product designs.
• Work with Controls Engineering to ensure mechanical and controls systems are effectively integrated.
• Partner with Manufacturing, Procurement, and Sales teams to support successful project execution, production readiness, and customer outcomes.
• Support design-for-manufacturing, cost-reduction, and production-improvement initiatives across the organization.

4. Product Development & Enhancement

• Provide technical recommendations and implementation support for product enhancements, design improvements, and new product-development initiatives.
• Identify opportunities to improve product consistency, performance, reliability, and ease of manufacturing through design innovation and standardization.
• Support the development and reuse of proven designs, components, templates, and engineering details.
• Incorporate feedback from customers, production, field service, and internal stakeholders to improve existing products and guide future design decisions.

5. Continuous Improvement

• Identify sources of engineering rework, delays, inefficiency, and manufacturing issues attributable to design; recommend and implement approved corrective actions.
• Recommend and implement approved improvements to design-engineering systems and processes that support departmental scalability and consistent execution.
• Support the development and use of meaningful Design Engineering performance metrics to measure execution, quality, standardization, and team performance.
• Keep abreast of relevant technologies, design methods, materials, and industry practices.

6. Other Duties

• Perform other duties to support the goals and growth of the organization.

Preferred Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

1. Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
2. 7+ years of mechanical engineering experience, preferably involving conveyor systems, material handling equipment, food processing equipment, or automation machinery.
3. Prior leadership or supervisory experience managing engineers or technical teams.
4. Strong mechanical design aptitude, technical judgment, and troubleshooting ability.
5. Advanced proficiency with 3D CAD software, engineering drawings, bills of material, and product documentation practices.
6. Strong knowledge of engineering design principles, manufacturing processes, design-for-manufacturability practices, and mechanical system integration.
7. Ability to review and interpret engineering calculations, layouts, drawings, and technical documentation.
8. Knowledge of relevant safety, sanitation, quality, FDA, USDA, or sanitary equipment standards is highly desirable.
9. Experience with ERP and PDM systems, as well as Microsoft 365 Suite and other engineering or project-management tools.
10. Familiarity with finite element analysis, GD&T, advanced mechanical calculations, or related engineering-analysis methods is desirable.
11. Lean manufacturing, continuous-improvement, or process-improvement experience.
12. Exceptional ability to analyze complex problems, identify root causes, develop practical solutions, and make sound, data-informed decisions.
13. Strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to clearly communicate technical concepts to engineering, production, sales, and other cross-functional audiences to drive successful engineering, manufacturing, and customer outcomes.
14. Proven ability to coach, mentor, and develop emerging engineering talent.
15. Ability to manage multiple, concurrent projects and priorities while maintaining quality, timeliness, and attention to detail.
16. Detail-oriented, highly organized, and capable of balancing leadership responsibilities with direct engineering contributions.
17. Self-driven and proactive in identifying opportunities for process improvements, product enhancements, and team development.

Key Behaviors

1. Adaptability and Learning Agility: Stays current on engineering methods, product technologies, manufacturing practices, and industry standards. Actively seeks opportunities to strengthen technical and leadership capabilities and adapts effectively to changing business, project, and customer needs.
2. Effective Collaboration and Leadership: Communicates technical expectations clearly, leads the Design Engineering team with accountability and respect, and collaborates effectively cross-functional stakeholders.
3. Analytical Thinking and Problem Solving: Uses practical, data-informed approaches to diagnose design, production, and field issues. Identifies root causes, evaluates alternatives, and implements solutions that improve product quality, reliability, manufacturability, and efficiency.

1. Ownership and Accountability: Takes responsibility for day-to-day design-engineering execution, team performance, design quality, and on-time release of engineering work. Manages team priorities and escalates material risks to the Engineering Manager to support delivery of departmental and organizational objectives.
2. Proactive Initiative: Anticipates challenges, drives approved process and product improvements, and promotes standardization and reuse of proven engineering solutions. Takes the lead in developing team capabilities and implementing scalable engineering practices in alignment with departmental direction.