Wayfinding Designer, Mid-level

Position Overview
The Senior Product Engineer at Wendover Art Group is a hands-on product innovator responsible for turning bold creative ideas into fully engineered production-ready products. Working across signage, lighting, sculpture, mirrors, dimensional art, and custom installations, this role owns the product development lifecycle from ideation and material exploration through engineering, prototyping, testing, and successful manufacturing execution.

This is not a role focused solely on drawings or engineering behind a desk. The Senior Product Engineer will design, build, test, troubleshoot, and refine. This individual will determine how a concept should be constructed, what materials and processes will deliver the best result, how components come together, and how the product can be repeatedly manufactured at Wendover's standards for design, quality, cost, and craftsmanship.

Operating within Wendover's vertically integrated manufacturing environment, the Senior Product Engineer has the unique opportunity to move rapidly from an idea on the screen to a physical prototype on the production floor. The ideal candidate combines the creative instincts of a product designer, the technical depth of an engineer, and the hands-on problem-solving mindset of a maker.

Key Responsibilities
1. Product Design Development:
• Create What's Next: Generate, develop, and engineer new product concepts across materials, categories, and manufacturing capabilities, translating creative opportunities into tangible products.
• Own Concept Through Execution: Take products from initial sketch and ideation through detailed design, material selection, engineering, prototype development, testing, refinement, and production launch.
• Engineer the Details: Define dimensions, construction methods, hardware, joinery, attachment systems, finishes, tolerances, assembly sequences, and other technical requirements necessary to successfully produce the product.
• Balance Design & Function: Protect the original design intent while solving for structural integrity, functionality, manufacturability, installation, durability, cost, and repeatability.
• Drive Custom Solutions: Engineer one-of-a-kind and highly customized products where an existing manufacturing solution may not yet exist.

2. Engineering & Production Development:
• Develop complete 3D models, CAD files, production drawings, specifications, BOMs, assembly details, and manufacturing documentation required to take a product into production.
• Translate complex creative concepts into clear, executable manufacturing instructions with specific materials, dimensions, tolerances, hardware, finishes, and construction methods.
• Design around Wendover's internal capabilities while identifying when new tooling, fixtures, equipment, vendors, or processes are required.
• Engineer products for efficient fabrication, assembly, finishing, packaging, installation, and repeat production.
• Partner directly with manufacturing teams to identify constraints early and solve technical challenges before production launch.

3. Material & Manufacturing Innovation:
• Serve as a technical resource for material selection, construction methods, fabrication techniques, and product performance.
• Research, test, and specify materials including metals, woods, acrylics, glass, composites, substrates, lighting components, hardware, adhesives, coatings, finishes, and emerging materials.
• Understand how materials interact and perform, including considerations around weight, strength, heat, expansion, structural load, finish compatibility, durability, attachment, and long-term product performance.
• Explore new manufacturing processes, technologies, materials, and equipment that expand Wendover's product capabilities.
• Evaluate solutions through the lens of aesthetics, performance, quality, scalability, lead time, and cost.

4. Hands-On Prototyping & Testing:
• Personally drive prototype development, moving beyond digital design to physically prove that concepts can be successfully manufactured.
• Build and/or directly oversee functional prototypes, mockups, samples, and first articles using the actual or representative materials and manufacturing processes intended for production.
• Work hands-on with production equipment, tooling, materials, and manufacturing teams to troubleshoot designs in real time.
• Test prototypes for structural integrity, functionality, assembly, installation, durability, finish quality, and overall design intent.
• Identify failure points, diagnose root causes, and rapidly iterate designs until the product meets expectations.
• Establish the validated construction methodology and specifications necessary to transition a successful prototype into repeatable production.
• Remain engaged through first production runs, ensuring what was engineered can be consistently executed at scale.

5. Quality Leadership & Continuous Improvement
• Be 100% engaged and accountable for the quality of the product, serving as an active team contributor and providing leadership and direction to the Quality team to ensure standards, inspection processes, and reporting align with engineering and manufacturing requirements.
• Provide leadership and direction to the Quality team, ensuring quality standards, inspection processes, and reporting are aligned with engineering and manufacturing requirements.
• Partner directly with Quality, Production, Supply Chain, and other team members to investigate defects, failures, rework, returns, and recurring production issues.
• Drive root cause analysis and corrective actions that address the source of quality problems.
• Modify product designs, materials, tolerances, tooling, assembly methods, or manufacturing processes to permanently eliminate recurring quality issues.
• Use production defects, QC findings, customer feedback, and manufacturing data to continuously improve product design and production processes.
• Ensure quality expectations are clearly documented, understood, measurable, and consistently executed across manufacturing.

6. Technical Design & Visualization:
• Utilize advanced CAD and 3D modeling platforms such as SolidWorks, Rhino, AutoCAD, or comparable software to develop accurate product models and production files.
• Create detailed technical drawings that clearly define dimensions, tolerances, materials, hardware, fabrication requirements, assembly, and installation.
• Develop visualizations and digital models that effectively communicate product concepts before physical development.
• Use 3D scanning, modeling, and digital fabrication technologies where appropriate to recreate, modify, preserve, or develop complex forms and dimensional assets.

7. Manufacturing Partnership & Problem Solving:
• Work directly with production leadership, operators, artisans, quality, supply chain, and industrial design teams throughout the development process.
• Be highly visible on the manufacturing floor during prototype builds, first articles, and new product introductions.
• Respond quickly when a design does not perform as expected, owning the problem through resolution rather than transferring it downstream.
• Identify opportunities to simplify construction, reduce touch time, improve yield, eliminate waste, strengthen quality, and increase repeatability.
• Capture manufacturing feedback and convert lessons learned into stronger future designs and engineering standards.

8. Product Launch & Project Ownership:
• Own engineering deliverables, prototype milestones, testing, revisions, and production readiness against established launch timelines.
• Drive projects forward with urgency while maintaining technical rigor and attention to detail.
• Coordinate cross-functionally to ensure materials, tooling, documentation, prototypes, and manufacturing requirements are ready for launch.
• Establish clear production standards before releasing products into manufacturing.
• Evaluate finished products against engineering requirements, quality expectations, and original design intent.

9. Documentation & Product Standards:
• Maintain complete technical documentation throughout the product lifecycle, including CAD files, drawings, BOMs, specifications, prototype revisions, test results, and approved production standards.
• Document key learnings from prototype development and production trials to build organizational engineering knowledge.
• Maintain accurate digital assets and technical records that enable products to be reproduced, modified, scaled, or improved over time.
• Create clear engineering standards that reduce ambiguity and allow manufacturing teams to execute consistently.

Conclusion
Wendover Art Group offers something uncommon in product engineering: the ability to design it, engineer it, build it, test it, and see it manufactured all within the same organization.

The Senior Product Engineer will have direct access to the people, equipment, materials, and manufacturing processes that turn an idea into a finished product. Rather than handing a design off and hoping it works, this individual will be empowered to walk onto the production floor, build the prototype, solve the problem, refine the design, and ultimately see the finished product come to life. This visibility also creates accountability to identify root causes, resolve quality issues, and engineer out the conditions that allow them to recur.

For an engineer who is energized by creating things that have never existed before, experimenting with materials, solving difficult manufacturing challenges, and seeing their ideas become physical products, this role offers the opportunity to have a tangible impact on both Wendover's product portfolio and the future of its manufacturing capabilities.