Working at Watlow Watlow is a global technology and manufacturing leader who provides world class engineering expertise through innovative thermal products and systems, enabling our customers to thrive. We are making a positive impact every day as our solutions enrich the lives of people everywhere. We have been providing breakthrough thermal solutions for over 100 years! Our corporate values guide us uncompromisingly to always do the right thing, continually learn and improve, respect everyone, and lead with service and humility.
About the Role
As our Senior Product Design Engineer, you will do more than design products; you will redesign how we design them. This role owns the remapping of our product design process around speed to solution: getting from a customer problem to a prototype in hand, and from prototype to a validated, production-ready design, in a fraction of the time it takes today. The emphasis is on adopting and integrating design automation tools that already exist, evaluating and deploying commercially available CAD, configurator, simulation, and rapid-prototyping capability rather than building every tool from scratch, and customizing only where off-the-shelf capability falls short. You will still own hands-on design, prototyping, testing, and design modification recommendations for thermal products and systems.
Watlow understands that you can't do your best work if you don't have a real understanding of the Watlow business as well as strong relationships with team members from across the organization. At Watlow you will have many opportunities, both formally and informally, to build and maintain the cross-functional knowledge and relationships that you need for a successful and rewarding career.
In the role of Sr. Product Design Engineer you would be located at our Hillsboro,OR facility.
Your Key Responsibilities
- Map the current product design process end to end, including inputs, handoffs, decision gates, and cycle times, then redesign it around speed to solution by eliminating rework, waiting, and duplicate data entry
- Evaluate, select, and implement existing design automation tools that shorten the path from customer requirement to prototype and released design, including CAD configurators, design tables, rules-based drawing and BOM generation, simulation, and templated manufacturing documentation
- Get the most out of the tools we already own before building anything new, configuring native capability in our CAD, PLM, and ERP systems and closing gaps with light customization rather than custom development
- Establish and maintain the design rules, standards, trade-off curves, and reusable libraries that make automated configuration possible for standard and modified-standard product
- Create and modify designs and manufacturing documentation for new parts and assemblies, applying independent design judgment and proposing modifications where appropriate
- Compress the build-test-learn loop by using rapid prototyping, in-house and vendor additive capability, and simulation-led design to reach a working solution in days rather than weeks, running tests, inspections, and evaluations, and verifying and validating the procedures and standards behind them
- Create test reports and trade-off curves, interpreting results and feeding findings back into the design rules so the same problem is solved once and reused everywhere
- Translate customer needs into actionable production instructions, identifying opportunities to improve or streamline production procedures in the process
- Define and track the metrics that prove the new process works: time to first prototype, design cycle time, quote-to-drawing turnaround, first-pass yield on released documentation, and percentage of designs generated from automated configurations
- Partner with manufacturing, quality, sales, and IT to deploy new tools and workflows, and coach engineers and designers on adopting them
- Troubleshoot and repair problems with machines or controls, and drive procedural change into production
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Manufacturing, Electrical Engineering, other relevant engineering field, or a two-year degree with equivalent hands-on design experience
- 5+ years of product design experience, including ownership of designs from concept through production release
- Demonstrated experience putting existing design automation tools to work, such as parametric and configurable modeling, design tables, CAD templates and libraries, configurators, or rules-driven drawing and BOM generation, including selecting and deploying vendor tools rather than developing them in house
- Working knowledge of GD&T, DFM/DFA, and engineering change and documentation control
- Track record of mapping and improving an engineering or manufacturing process and delivering a measurable reduction in prototype or design cycle time
- Hands-on rapid prototyping experience, including additive manufacturing, machine shop work, or quick-turn vendor prototyping
- Ability to influence without authority and to bring engineering, manufacturing, and commercial teams along on a process change
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with SolidWorks (or equivalent) configurations, design automation add-ins, or DriveWorks-style configurators
- Experience with thermal products, heaters, sensors, or controls
- Familiarity with PLM/ERP integration and automated release workflows
- Lean, Six Sigma, or value-stream mapping experience
Benefits: The Watlow Total Compensation Plan The health, well-being and financial stability of you and your family is a high priority to us.The Watlow Total Rewards Plan includes competitive compensation and a
full range of life and career enhancing benefits:
- Annual Incentive Program
- 401(k) plan that includes a company match on your contribution and an annual company contribution that is tied to company performance
- Wellness incentives
- Employee Personal Assistance Program
- Dental, medical, vision and short-term and long-term disability insurance
- Paid holidays, personal time, and vacation
- Parental leave
- Tuition reimbursement
Diversity & Inclusion We proactively embrace diversity in all its dimensions across our company and cultivate a culture of inclusion and forward thinking that respects and reflects each team member's individual strengths, views, and experiences. Watlow takes pride in being an inclusive equal opportunity employer and considers for employment qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.
Please let us know confidentially if you need or require any special accommodations to participate in our recruiting process by emailing us at
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