Innovation Product Design Engineer III
On-siteMiddleton, Wisconsin, United States
Job Summary
Identify unmet consumer needs and generate innovative mechanical concepts for machine elements, plastic parts, and consumer product mechanisms. Translate early hypotheses into functional requirements through rapid prototyping, consumer testing, and feedback loops while applying engineering first principles. Develop mechanical designs using 3D CAD tools, lead material and process selection, and collaborate with suppliers to evaluate tooling and cost tradeoffs. Build and evaluate early-stage prototypes, assessing concepts for performance, durability, cost, and manufacturability. Manage multiple large scope projects, document testing results, and communicate findings clearly to the Engineering Manager.
Required Qualifications
- BS in Engineering
- 6+ years of relevant engineering experience
- Must be flexible with assignments
- Able to work independently
- Collaborate effectively in a team environment
- Must be organized
- Methodical
- Able to manage multiple tasks simultaneously
- Capable of meeting established timelines
- Receives direction from the Engineering Manager
- Expected to manage multiple large or medium scope projects
- Must document testing
- Communicate results clearly
- Strong creative and conceptual thinking skills
- Excellent analytical and problem-solving abilities
- Ability to work effectively with ambiguity
- Rapidly iterate on concepts
- Working understanding of basic business cases
- Preliminary revenue projections
- Concept-level value propositions
- Experience participating in consumer testing activities
- Focus groups
- Clinics
- Interviews
- Usability tests
- Competitive and product benchmarking
- Observational research
- Hands-on, DIY / maker mindset
- Ability to prototype and build concepts quickly
- Strong communication and collaboration skills
- Develop mechanical designs using 3D CAD tools
- SolidWorks
- Including tolerancing
- Design-for-assembly principles
- Lead material and process selection
- For plastic parts
- Gears
- Mechanical subsystems
- Design components with focus on safety
- Reliability
- Value
- Durability
- Collaborate with suppliers
- Manufacturing partners
- Evaluate tooling
- Cost tradeoffs
- Machine elements (springs, gears, linkages, clutches, dampers, drives)
- Injection-molded plastic parts
- Cost-efficient mechanisms
- FBDs
- Kinematics
- Trigonometry-based geometry
- Custom motion and force relationships
- Build and evaluate early-stage prototypes
- Proof-of-concept models
- Assess concepts early for performance
- Durability
- Cost
- Manufacturability
- Scalability
Desired Qualifications
- Machine Elements & Plastics Focus
- Early-stage concept creation
- Mechanical innovation
- Deep mechanical engineering fundamentals
- Hands-on creativity
- Strong consumer intuition
- Comfort working in ambiguous, early-phase development environments
- Transforming unmet customer needs
- Differentiated, manufacturable product concepts
- Feeding and shaping the innovation portfolio
- Creating a Best Experience
- Channel partners
- Associates
- Locations in North America, Europe, and Asia
- Bali, Graber, SunSetter and Mecho brands
- Major retailer
- Designer showrooms
- Large commercial buildings
- Product innovation
- Consumer products
- Home décor
- Early-phase development environments
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