Mechanical Engineer

Summary The Mechanical Engineer designs, specifies, and validates the mechanical hardware and systems the plant runs on. This covers custom fabrication and change parts, modifications to existing equipment, conveyance and material handling, machine guarding, drive systems, and the mechanical utilities that support production. Where the Manufacturing Engineer defines how a product is made, this role defines the physical means of making it and is accountable for whether that hardware is sound, sanitary, serviceable, and safe. A design that runs but cannot be cleaned, cannot be maintained, or cannot be reproduced from the drawing has not met the standard. Duties and Responsibilities Mechanical Design and Fabrication Produce three dimensional models and detailed fabrication drawings for change parts, tooling, fixtures, guards, transitions, chutes, hoppers, frames, and platforms, with tolerances and finishes specified rather than left to the fabricator. Perform the engineering calculations that support a design, including loads, stress, deflection, fatigue, torque, drive sizing, and power transmission selection. Select materials and finishes appropriate to a food environment, accounting for product contact, cleaning chemistry, temperature, corrosion, and wear. Apply sanitary design principles to all custom fabrication, including radii, surface finish, drainability, avoidance of crevices and hollow bodies, and appropriate fastener and joint selection. Manage fabrication through internal shop resources and outside vendors, including drawing release, quoting, progress review, inspection, and acceptance of finished work. Maintain drawing control, revision history, and bills of material so a part can be reordered years later without being reverse engineered. Equipment Modification and Machine Systems Design and validate modifications to existing production equipment, and assess the effect of any modification on machine safety, sanitary status, warranty, and original equipment manufacturer support before it is made. Design and lay out conveyance and material handling systems, including transfers, accumulation, elevation changes, and product handling that protects product integrity. Size and select drive components including motors, gear reducers, belts, chains, bearings, and couplings, and document the basis of selection. Design machine guarding and access to the applicable safety standard, and support machine safety risk assessments. Design pneumatic and hydraulic circuits and specify components for the application and the environment. Design for maintainability, so that wear parts can be reached, serviced, and replaced without disassembling unrelated equipment. Mechanical Utilities and Facility Systems Provide engineering support for mechanical utility systems including refrigeration, steam and condensate, compressed air, process water, wastewater, and heating and ventilation. Perform load, capacity, and sizing calculations for utility systems and distribution, and identify where capacity constrains production or where a system is oversized and wasteful. Specify piping, valves, pumps, and heat transfer equipment appropriate to the service, including sanitary service where product contact applies. Support Process Safety Management activities where ammonia refrigeration is present, including process hazard analysis, mechanical integrity, and management of change. Asset Integrity and Reliability Engineering Analyze mechanical component failures to determine the mechanism, including wear, fatigue, misalignment, lubrication, overload, or material selection, and correct the design or specification rather than reordering the same part. Specify predictive and condition monitoring strategy for mechanical assets, including vibration analysis, thermography, oil analysis, and alignment standards. Engineer the critical spare parts strategy, including interchangeability, standardization across equipment and across sites, and identification of single source risk. Assess equipment condition and remaining life, and develop replacement and rebuild recommendations with a supporting technical and financial case. Standards, Documentation, and Technical Support Develop and maintain mechanical engineering standards for design, materials, fasteners, guarding, and documentation, so work is consistent across projects and across sites. Maintain accurate mechanical documentation including assembly drawings, part drawings, layouts, and equipment files. Provide engineering support to Maintenance on mechanical problems that exceed routine repair, and to Manufacturing Engineering on the hardware requirements of process and capital work. Support internal, customer, regulatory, and third party audits by producing design documentation and technical justification on request. Provide technical direction to designers, drafters, fabricators, and outside vendors, and verify their work against the specification. Other duties as assigned. Qualifications and Requirements Required Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, or equivalent demonstrated design engineering capability and experience. Three or more years of mechanical design experience in a manufacturing environment. Demonstrated proficiency in three dimensional computer aided design and in producing complete, dimensioned, buildable fabrication drawings. Working knowledge of geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, fits, and surface finish specification. Ability to perform and document the engineering calculations that justify a design, and to state the assumptions behind them. Working knowledge of materials, coatings, and elastomers suitable for food contact and washdown service. Working knowledge of power transmission and drive component selection. Working knowledge of machine safety standards, guarding design, and risk assessment. Ability to work with fabrication shops and vendors, including reading their constraints back into the design. Willingness to be present on the floor and on off shifts during installation, trials, and startup, since a design is proven at the machine and not at the desk. Preferred Experience with SolidWorks. Familiarity with 3-A Sanitary Standards and with ASME BPE requirements. Experience with ammonia refrigeration systems and Process Safety Management requirements. Vibration analysis, alignment, or other predictive maintenance certification or training. Working knowledge of welding and fabrication processes sufficient to design for the shop that will build it. Familiarity with applicable pressure piping and pressure vessel codes. Professional Engineer license, or progress toward it. Bilingual in English and Spanish. Expectations and Measures of Success Performance in this role is measured by whether the hardware works, holds up, and can be lived with. The following describe what success looks like. Designs install and run as intended, without field rework to make them fit or function. Custom fabrication cleans, drains, and passes sanitation and audit scrutiny. Drawings and bills of material are complete and current, so parts can be reordered or rebuilt from the documentation alone. Mechanical failures are analyzed and designed out rather than replaced repeatedly. Spare parts complexity decreases over time through standardization across equipment and across sites. Maintenance regards the designs as serviceable, which is a judgment they make and not one this role can assert. Supervisory Responsibility Typically none. This role provides technical direction to designers, drafters, fabrication shop personnel, vendors, and contractors without formal supervisory authority. Some sites may assign designers, engineering technicians, co ops, or interns to this position. Work Environment This role divides time between an office or design environment, the maintenance and fabrication shop, and the production floor of a food manufacturing facility. On the floor and in the shop, the employee is exposed to moving mechanical parts, welding and grinding operations, wet and slippery surfaces, cleaning chemicals, and loud noise requiring hearing protection, in refrigerated, ambient, or mixed temperature areas depending on the site. Time on the floor increases substantially during installation, trials, commissioning, and shutdowns. Presence on off shifts, weekends, and during planned shutdowns is expected, since installation work occurs outside of normal production hours.