Principal Mechanical Engineer

Job Description

Independently designs and develops mechanical systems including components, enclosures, and packaging, ensuring reliability, performance, and manufacturability. Utilizes advanced computer aided design (CAD) tools to develop 3D models and detailed designs in collaboration with cross-functional teams. Reviews and evaluates mechanical strength and reliability of materials and components, identifies failure points, and works closely with operations and suppliers to support prototype-to-production transitions. Conducts testing and reliability assessments, resolves defects, and integrates new materials to improve hardware products. Manages mechanical design aspects of engineering projects, ensuring alignment with project timelines, quality standards, and design goals.

Job Description

Independently designs and develops mechanical systems including components, enclosures, and packaging, ensuring reliability, performance, and manufacturability. Utilizes advanced computer aided design (CAD) tools to develop 3D models and detailed designs in collaboration with cross-functional teams. Reviews and evaluates mechanical strength and reliability of materials and components, identifies failure points, and works closely with operations and suppliers to support prototype-to-production transitions. Conducts testing and reliability assessments, resolves defects, and integrates new materials to improve hardware products. Manages mechanical design aspects of engineering projects, ensuring alignment with project timelines, quality standards, and design goals.

Responsibilities

Key Responsibilities

Design and Development

• Independently designs and develops electronic parts, components, board layout and board planning, mechanical systems, equipment, and packaging, ensuring reliability, performance, and manufacturability.
• Contributes to setting thermal cooling strategies and designs mechanical architecture for server generations, from feasibility studies to production.
• Utilizes advanced computer assisted design (CAD) tools (e.g., ProE, SolidWorks) to develop 3D models and detailed mechanical designs, collaborating with cross-functional teams to refine solutions.
• Contributes to the mechanical design of electronics enclosures or embedded systems, ensuring alignment with hardware systems and design requirements.

Structural and Reliability Analysis

• Reviews the results of stress analysis, strain analysis, and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to evaluate the mechanical strength and reliability of materials and components, addressing challenges independently.
• Identifies and addresses potential points of failure, conducting root cause and corrective action analysis to refine designs and improve reliability.

Manufacturing and Production Support

• Ensures that designs are manufacturable within cost and quality constraints, working closely with Operations and External Manufacturers to support the transition from prototype to production.
• Guides the design development process, ensuring alignment with project timelines and collaborating across teams to optimize manufacturing processes.

Product Testing and Quality Assurance

• Conducts reliability assessments of materials and designs, ensuring products meet company standards.
• Oversees prototype build and testing processes, ensuring designs meet functional and performance goals while identifying areas for improvement.
• Analyzes test data to detect bugs, defects, and failure trends.

Research and Innovation

• Researches and implements next-generation technologies to optimize data center and cloud application products.
• Evaluates and integrates new materials, processes, and mechanical design techniques, contributing to continuous innovation and product improvement.

Collaboration with Cross-functional Teams

• Collaborates with electrical engineers, component engineers, operations teams, and other internal stakeholders to contribute to design optimizations that enhance product performance, reliability, and manufacturability.
• Engages with suppliers to develop high-quality components and assemblies, ensuring they meet performance and cost goals.
• Works with manufacturing to transition designs to production.

Project Management

• Manages the mechanical design aspects of engineering projects in coordination with program schedule requirements.
• Begins to coordinate resources, timelines, and design reviews for their portion of the project to ensure successful delivery.
• Maintains detailed documentation of design processes and decisions, providing clear communication to stakeholders and ensuring alignment with project objectives and schedule.

Additional Responsibilities (as Needed)

Thermal Management

• Conducts detailed thermal analysis and design using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools like FloTHERM or Icepak, ensuring optimal thermal management for electronic devices.
• Develops and executes airflow measurements, environmental testing, and thermal validation tests for products, ensuring compliance with internal and external standards (e.g., ASHRAE Data Center Standards) and correlation with simulation results.

Environmental Test Engineering

• Leads efforts to ensure mechanical product designs meet global regulatory and industry standards by independently managing standards activities throughout the development lifecycle.
• Oversees environmental testing, collaborating with internal teams or third-party labs to ensure designs fully comply with required standards.
• Leads communication with design engineers and program managers to align test results and issues, providing guidance on how to address constraints in product development.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related technical field; advanced degree is a plus.