Mechanical Design Engineer

Description

Position Summary

UEC Advanced Electronics is seeking a hands-on Mechanical Design Engineer to develop ruggedized battery systems, power electronics assemblies, and related electromechanical products for demanding military, aerospace, industrial, and commercial applications.

This engineer will own mechanical design activities from concept through prototype, validation, design release, and transition to production. The role combines detailed mechanical design with engineering analysis, prototype development, hands-on testing, supplier interaction, and close collaboration with electrical, software, systems, manufacturing, and quality engineering.

The ideal candidate is comfortable moving between CAD and the hardware itself—developing a design, analyzing it, building it, testing it, identifying problems, and improving the design until it is ready for production.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop mechanical concepts and detailed designs for battery components, modules, pack-level systems, electronic enclosures, power electronics assemblies, fixtures, and related electromechanical hardware.
• Create and maintain production-quality 3D CAD models, assemblies, and detailed engineering drawings using SolidWorks.
• Apply appropriate GD&T, tolerance analysis, material selection, fastener design, sealing methods, thermal interfaces, and mechanical design principles to ensure robust and manufacturable designs.
• Design components and assemblies utilizing a range of manufacturing processes, including: 
  • CNC-machined  metal and plastic components
  • Sheet-metal  fabrication
  • Injection-molded  plastic components
  • Additive-manufactured  / 3D-printed components
  • Extrusions  and fabricated assemblies
  • Seals,  gaskets, adhesives, fasteners, and other mechanical joining methods
• Perform engineering calculations and thermal and structural analysis, including FEA where appropriate, to evaluate design alternatives and predict mechanical and thermal performance.
• Design for      demanding environmental conditions including shock, vibration,      temperature extremes, ingress protection, mechanical loading, and      transportation/handling environments.
• Support development and qualification testing in accordance with applicable customer requirements, internal specifications, and military or industry standards.
• Develop prototype hardware and take an active role in prototype assembly, instrumentation, testing, troubleshooting, teardown, and design iteration.
• Translate product and system requirements into mechanical design requirements and ensure that the design can be objectively verified and validated.
• Participate in and contribute to formal and informal design reviews, clearly communicating design decisions, tradeoffs, risks, analysis results, and test findings.
• Develop and maintain mechanical portions of DFMEAs and participate in engineering risk identification and mitigation.
• Work directly with manufacturing engineering and production personnel to ensure designs are manufacturable, repeatable, cost-effective, and practical to assemble and test.
• Apply Design for Manufacturability (DFM), Design for Assembly (DFA), and Design for Test (DFT) principles throughout product development.
• Work directly with suppliers on component design, manufacturability, material selection, tooling, tolerances, technical questions, prototype parts, and production readiness.
• Create, release, and maintain bills of material, drawings, specifications, and other engineering documentation.
• Initiate and implement Engineering Change Orders (ECOs/COs) to release new designs and maintain configuration control of existing products.
• Support production during pilot and early production builds, rapidly resolving mechanical design, fit, assembly, supplier, and manufacturing issues.
• Participate in failure investigation and root-cause analysis and implement technically sound corrective actions when hardware does not perform as intended.
• Collaborate closely with electrical, battery, software, systems, manufacturing, quality, supply-chain, and program-management personnel throughout the product-development lifecycle.

Requirements

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or a closely related engineering discipline.
• 2+ years of professional mechanical design experience involving electromechanical products, electronic enclosures, battery systems, power electronics, industrial equipment, or similarly complex engineered hardware.
• Strong proficiency with 3D parametric CAD, preferably SolidWorks.
• Demonstrated experience creating detailed engineering drawings for manufactured components and assemblies.
• Practical understanding of GD&T, tolerance stack-up analysis, fits, fasteners, materials, and manufacturing processes.
• Experience designing machined, sheet-metal, molded, and/or additive-manufactured components.
• Ability to perform mechanical engineering calculations and apply fundamental principles of statics, dynamics, heat transfer, materials, and structural mechanics to real-world product designs.
• Experience developing and testing physical prototypes.
• Ability to troubleshoot mechanical problems systematically and use test results to drive design improvements.
• Ability to communicate effectively with engineers, technicians, manufacturing personnel, suppliers, and program leadership.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, hands-on engineering and manufacturing environment where engineers are      expected to take ownership of their designs from concept through hardware.
• Due to U.S. export control regulations (ITAR/EAR), applicants must be U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents, or individuals lawfully admitted to the U.S. as asylees or refugees.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience in one or more of the following areas is highly desirable:

• Lithium-ion battery modules or battery pack design
• High-power or high-voltage electromechanical systems
• Battery cell integration and mechanical retention
• Thermal management of batteries or power electronics
• Ruggedized military or aerospace electronics
• Structural and thermal FEA
• Shock and vibration analysis and testing
• Environmental qualification testing
• MIL-STD-810 or similar environmental requirements
• IP-rated enclosure and sealing design
• Injection-molded plastic design
• DFMEA and formal design-review processes
• Prototype-to-production product development
• Low- to medium-volume manufacturing
• Supplier development and technical supplier management
• Product lifecycle/configuration management and engineering change control

Work Requirements/Conditions

• Work performed in a manufacturing and production environment.
• Extended periods of standing may be required; seating is available at all workstations.
• Must be able to lift and move materials up to 25 pounds independently.
• Frequent use of hands for operating equipment, computers, and hand tools.
• May require bending, reaching, and repetitive hand movements.
• Required to wear appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), including safety glasses in designated areas.
• Must wear company-issued smock or ESD-protective garments where required.
• Compliance with all company safety policies and procedures is mandatory.

What Success Looks Like

A successful Mechanical Design Engineer at UEC does more than produce CAD models. You will understand the requirements, develop a technically sound design, evaluate the risks, work with suppliers and manufacturing to make it buildable, participate in assembling and testing the hardware, learn from the results, and carry the design through to a reliable production solution.

You should be comfortable taking ownership of your hardware and working across disciplines to solve difficult engineering problems.