Product Design Engineer Jobs in Madison, WI (NOW HIRING)

Essential Duties and Responsibilities 

• Product Line Ownership – Manages product line and options that we offer to customers through sales.  Keeps drawings and attributes up-to-date and working with the trailer configurator Ruler quoting tool.  Manages ECRs for Product Line and assigned accounts.  

• Order Release Team Support - Engineering options and defining bill of materials to complete customer orders on time. 

• Manufacturing Support – Support all production lines that build the engineers product.  Direct or coordinate building of prototype systems or products. Work with Manufacturing and Manufacturing Engineering to establish or improve manufacturing processes and procedures. Ensure that products are being made to plan and assist in preventing or eliminating defects. 

• Leads the project definition, planning, and approval of identified projects demonstrating the feasibility of designs considering cost, market requirements, time limitations, planning, existing manufacturing processes and other technical and economic factors. 

• Serve as project leadership for several medium to large product development projects and oversees multiple projects for comprehensive introduction to the facility and product line. 

• Collect cross-functional internal and external voice of customer to establish product specifications, performance requirements, and data used to determine the feasibility of proposals. 

• Conceptual Design – Lead the development of functional designs, involving stakeholder feedback from purchasing, sales, manufacturing, and engineering. 

• Responsible for leading team members across multiple functions to solve complex problems associated with product design, field failures, validation, and production challenges. 

• Demonstrates ability to mentor or train team members in more complex engineering systems or processes related to Design, Analysis, or Testing.  

• Analysis – Intermediate to Advanced capability in structural mechanics.  Understand and apply Finite Element Analysis and strength of materials at the component and system level to ensure structural integrity and regulatory compliance. 

• Sales/Quote Information – Generate materials list for estimating purposes. Provide technical information to sales and marketing for training the sales force. 

• Vendor Interaction – Work with vendors to evaluate and select components. Inspect quality of supplied components for compliance with requirements. 

• Contribute to the team effort to produce a quality product. 

• Perform all assigned tasks in a safe, efficient, timely, accurate and highly productive manner according to Company policy. 

• Maintain good attendance. 

• Follow Company policies and procedures. 

• Other duties may be assigned as required by the Company. 

Above is a list of the most important responsibilities and functions, which are essential to the position.  Employees must be able to perform these essential functions satisfactorily with or without a reasonable accommodation.  Accommodations will be evaluated and provided to eligible employees on a case by case basis, depending on the employee's medical restrictions, work availability, the nature of the position, the position's essential functions and other relevant factors. 

Qualifications 

• Education: Minimum of an Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent 

• Licenses/Certifications: 

• Six Sigma (DMAIC, DFSS, Lean) – Preferred 

• GD+T - Preferred 

Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities: 

• Previous Trailer Design, and/or Dry Van Product Design experience a plus 

• 7+ years of experience in a similar field a plus 

• Intermediate to Advanced in 3D modeling using Solidworks 

• Basic skills in finite element analysis (FEA) and structural analysis  

• Demonstrated ability to Innovate and create. 

• High level of communication – Multilingual English/Spanish preferred 

• Proficient in MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, CAD software (Solidworks), FEA software (Solidworks), project tracking software 

• Project planning techniques 

• 3 to 5 years’ experience in leading medium size cross functional projects (6 month+ duration) 

• Experience designing welded, bolted, riveted, and bonded fabricated assemblies. 

• Knowledge of material science for steel, aluminum, composites

Core Competencies: 

• Critical Thinking 

• Communication 

• Innovation