Lead Project Engineer Micro Hydraulic

Lead Project Engineer - Micro Hydraulic #1067115

Direct Hire in Towson, Maryland

HYBRID: Onsite 2-3 days per week

This candidate will lead Microhydraulic tooling on the product roadmap (6 to 10 tons of force). Design, manufacturing, and supply. A true lead. 21 months from inception to delivery is the goal. PATENTS!!! More patents the better! This person is standing up a new part of the business. They'll need to learn our Product while preparing to lead a brand team.

Target Salary: $145-154K + bonus

Job Description:

The Job:

The Micro-Hydraulic Lead Engineer is responsible for leading the design, development, integration, and validation of Micro-Hydraulic systems, subsystems, and components for product platforms and customer applications. This role provides technical leadership for handheld and stationary micro-hydraulic system design activities, including architecture definition, component selection, system analysis, prototype development, testing, and production launch support. The position requires strong cross-functional collaboration with electrical, software, motor controls, suppliers, and manufacturing teams to deliver high-quality hydraulic solutions that meet performance, cost, schedule, and reliability objectives. Experience contributing to intellectual property development, invention disclosures, and patent-support activities is highly valued.

· Experience with micro-hydraulic, high pressure compact hydraulic, or electro-hydraulic system applications.

· Familiarity with regulated, safety-critical, or high-reliability product environments.

· Experience supporting supplier qualification and component validation activities.

· Advanced analytical capability in system performance optimization and failure investigation.

· Hydraulic system design and integration; specifically high pressure.

· Fluid power engineering

· Technical leadership

· System analysis and troubleshooting

· Product development and validation

· Cross-functional collaboration

· Risk assessment and DFMEA

The Person:

As a Lead Project Engineer, you'll be part of our Global Tools & Storage team located in Towson, MD. Specifically, you'll have:

· Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering or equivalent is required

· 7 to 10 years of mechanical design experience in micro-hydraulic system design and development.

· Demonstrated experience leading engineering projects or technical workstreams.

· Strong knowledge of hydraulic system principles, fluid power components, and system integration with background in high pressure micro-hydraulics.

· Experience creating and interpreting hydraulic schematics and engineering documentation.

· Experience creating and interpreting engineering drawings.

· Proficiency in hydraulic calculations, component sizing, and system troubleshooting.

· Experience with product development processes from concept through production launch.

· Knowledge of GD&T, DFM/DFA, DFMEA, and root cause analysis methodologies.

· Excellent communication skills with the ability to work effectively with a global team, including suppliers and manufacturing operations.

· Ability to provide direction and mentorship to engineers and designers and lead project teams independently.

· Lead the design and development of micro-hydraulic systems, subsystems, and components for product platforms and customer applications.

· Translate product requirements into micro-hydraulic architecture, subsystems, documentation, schematics, component specifications, and system performance criteria.

· Perform micro-hydraulic system sizing, pressure and flow calculations, load analysis, thermal analysis, and performance optimization.

· Lead technical decision-making for hydraulic system design activities across assigned engineering projects and technical workstreams.

· Develop and execute plans for project sample builds, prototype development, and engineering validation activities.

· Define validation plans and support testing activities to verify hydraulic system functionality, durability, efficiency, and safety.

· Troubleshoot hydraulic performance issues during prototype, testing, pilot, and production phases.

· Lead technical feasibility studies, design reviews, risk assessments, and DFMEA activities.

· Participate in hands-on concept development, prototyping, product testing, and data collection, while providing technical feedback and recommendations.

· Collaborate with motor controls, electrical, and software teams to integrate electro-hydraulic systems and ensure proper system behavior.

· Drive design standardization, modularity, and reuse of proven hydraulic solutions across programs.

· Support supplier selection, technical reviews, and component qualification activities.

· Ensure designs comply with applicable industry standards, regulatory requirements, and internal engineering processes.

· Manage engineering deliverables, schedules, and technical execution for assigned projects.

· Successfully deliver projects that achieve quality, performance, schedule, and cost objectives in a cross-functional environment.

· Participate in cross-functional meetings to communicate technical status, risks, issues, and recommended solutions.

· Support cost reduction, quality improvement, and continuous improvement initiatives related to hydraulic systems.

· Provide direction, mentorship, and technical guidance to project engineers, engineers, and designers, and lead project teams independently.