Principal Mechanical Design Engineer

Position: Principal Mechanical Design Engineer – Design for Manufacturing

Industry: Industrial Automation & Packaging Equipment

Term: Contract or Full-Time

Onsite or Hybrid, only

Our client design and manufacture innovative automation equipment for the fresh produce industry. We've successfully developed a working prototype of a next-generation labelling system, and we're looking for an exceptional mechanical engineer to help transform it into a production-ready product.

You'll work directly with the original designer of the prototype to refine and optimize the design for production—not simply document what already exists. This isn't a role where you'll be maintaining legacy equipment or making incremental improvements. We're looking for someone who enjoys questioning assumptions, simplifying complex mechanisms, and turning good designs into exceptional products.

The prototype works. Now we need someone with the experience and confidence to make it better.

What You'll Do

• Evaluate and improve an existing prototype for production.
• Simplify mechanisms, reduce part count, manufacturing cost, and assembly time.
• Improve reliability, serviceability, and overall design quality.
• Refine and optimize components including sheet metal, machined parts, plastic components, shafts, bearings, gears, timing belt drives, vacuum systems, and motion control assemblies.
• Leverage new technologies in additive manufacturing.
• Create production-ready CAD models, manufacturing drawings, bills of materials, and assembly documentation.
• Collaborate with our engineering team through prototype refinement, testing, and production readiness.
• Coordinate with our manufacturing department and vendors to optimize production

Job Requirements

What We're Looking For

• Extensive experience designing industrial machinery, packaging equipment, or custom automation systems.
• A proven track record of taking products from prototype to production.
• Strong Design for Manufacturing (DFM) and Design for Assembly (DFA) expertise.
• Experience designing precision mechanical systems incorporating bearings, shafts, power transmission, timing belts, gears, pneumatics and/or vacuum systems, servo or stepper-driven motion systems, and fabricated and machined components.
• Experience producing manufacturing drawings with appropriate tolerancing and GD&T.
• Proficiency with SolidWorks, Fusion 360, or another professional mechanical CAD platform.

Most importantly, we're looking for someone who isn't afraid to challenge the current design. If your instinct is to ask, "Can this be simpler? More reliable? Easier to manufacture?" you'll fit right in.