Team Lead, Mechanical Design

Samuel, Son & Co.; Southwestern Ontario; On-site; CAD 50,000 - 63,000; Full time

Job summary

Samuel, Son & Co. is seeking a Team Lead, Mechanical Design to guide a group of designers through clear priorities and hands-on engineering execution.

You will provide frontline leadership, balance workloads, and collaborate with multiple teams to deliver high-quality mechanical designs from concept through customer acceptance. You will mentor junior designers, drive design reviews, and ensure adherence to standards while maintaining strong communication with the Mechanical Design Manager and

Qualifications

• Degree or Diploma in Mechanical, Mechatronic, Systems Design, Engineering Physics, Engineering Science, or related discipline.
• Significant experience in industrial automation and custom machine design.
• Strong technical capability in machine design, design reviews, integration support, and project execution.
• Experience working in project-based / ETO environments.
• Proficiency in SolidWorks, PDM, AutoCAD, and related engineering tools.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to coach designers, inform performance and development discussions, support resource planning, and maintain visibility into workload, risk, and technical quality.
• Passion for leading and developing people.

Responsibilities

• Provide first-line leadership through regular 1:1s, workload visibility, coaching, and performance input to the Mechanical Design Manager.
• Own day-to-day technical execution for assigned mechanical design work, ensuring scope, schedule, quality, safety, manufacturability, and customer requirements are met.
• Identify workload constraints, support needs, and capacity risks early to inform resourcing and priority decisions.
• Collaborate with Applications Engineering, Manufacturing, Assembly, Integration, and customer-facing teams where clear execution is needed.
• Drive design reviews, safety assessments, and compliance awareness to reinforce sound engineering judgment.
• Mentor junior designers and co-op students to foster development.

Skills

Leadership

Communication skills

Coaching

Industrial automation

Project-based experience

Machine design

Team collaboration

Education

Bachelor's or Diploma in Mechanical Engineering or related

Tools

SolidWorks

PDM

AutoCAD

Job description

As a Team Lead, Mechanical Design, you provide front-line leadership, coaching, workload visibility, and technical execution support for assigned designers. You help translate department priorities into clear day-to-day execution, ensuring technical issues, workload constraints, and support needs are visible early enough to keep design work moving with quality and confidence.

What You’ll Be Doing

This role combines three expectations: first-line people support, technical delivery leadership, and group-level workload visibility. The responsibilities below describe the daily responsibilities tied to those expectations.

Team Direction & Work Clarity

• Give designers clear priorities, expectations, and technical direction so assigned work moves with minimal confusion.
• Communicate decisions, trade-offs, and risks clearly so project participants stay aligned.

Group Leadership, Coaching & Load Visibility

• Provide first-line leadership through regular 1:1s, workload visibility, coaching, and performance input to the Mechanical Design Manager.
• Identify workload constraints, support needs, and capacity risks early enough to inform resourcing and priority decisions.

Technical Execution & Delivery

• Own day-to-day technical execution for assigned mechanical design work, keeping scope, schedule, quality, safety, manufacturability, and customer requirements on track.
• Resolve technical issues early and guide key design decisions from concept through integration and customer acceptance.

Cross-Functional Delivery Support

• Partner with Applications Engineering, Manufacturing, Assembly, Integration, and customer-facing teams where technical clarity or execution confidence is needed.
• Identify proposal, scope, readiness, and build risks early so downstream teams are not surprised.

Technical Quality & Problem Solving

• Reinforce sound engineering judgment through design reviews, safety assessments, compliance awareness, and practical problem-solving.
• Recommend improvements that strengthen design quality, efficiency, and delivery consistency.

Standards, Review Discipline & Risk Ownership

• Drive consistent use of design standards, review expectations, and technical practices across the assigned group.
• Keep risks, assumptions, release concerns, capacity issues, and quality concerns visible early through disciplined reviews and escalation.

Team Development Support

• Mentor junior designers, new team members, and co-op students through practical coaching and review of real project work.
• Identify capability gaps and development opportunities for discussion with the Mechanical Design Manager.

Team Lead and Mechanical Design Lead Boundary

• Act as Mechanical Design Lead (MDL) on appropriate projects when scope, risk, workload, and development opportunity make sense; the Team Lead role does not automatically own MDL responsibility, and MDL may also be assigned to capable senior, intermediate, or developing designers.
• When acting as or supporting an MDL, clarify scope breakdown, release planning, review readiness, designer coordination, and FAT support needs.

Where This Role Adds the Most Value

• Turning department priorities into clear daily execution for assigned designers
• Keeping technical issues, workload constraints, and delivery risks visible early enough to act on them
• Strengthening design quality, review discipline, and practical engineering judgment within the assigned group
• Creating a first-line support structure that helps designers grow while keeping project execution moving

Working Relationship

• Team Lead, Mechanical Design: responsible for first-line group leadership, day-to-day technical execution, project work clarity, coaching, workload visibility, review discipline, technical escalation, delivery quality, and performance input
• Mechanical Design Manager: accountable for department priorities, hiring, organizational clarity, final escalations, final performance decisions, and department administration

What Great Looks Like

• Design work moves with clarity and minimal confusion
• Technical issues are identified early and addressed constructively
• Projects are supported with strong technical quality and practical execution discipline
• Team members understand what they are working on and what good execution looks like
• Assigned designers feel supported through practical coaching, clear escalation paths, and regular conversations about technical capability and execution habits
• Design reviews, standards, risk visibility, and technical escalation are handled consistently within the assigned group
• Cross-functional partners experience the team as responsive, solutions-oriented, and reliable
• Junior team members are developing through hands-on coaching and support

You’ll Be Great At

• Supporting group-level resourcing, coaching, review discipline, and workload visibility while remaining technically engaged
• Mentoring others while maintaining strong delivery focus
• Creating clarity within fast-moving, project-based environments
• Communicating effectively across design, applications, production, and leadership
• Leading technical execution while remaining hands-on in the work
• Solving technical problems in a practical, structured way
• Balancing urgency with sound engineering judgment

Key Requirements

• Degree or Diploma in Mechanical, Mechatronic, Systems Design, Engineering Physics, Engineering Science, or related discipline
• Significant experience in industrial automation and custom machine design
• Strong technical capability in machine design, design reviews, integration support, and project execution
• Experience working in project-based / ETO environments
• Proficiency in SolidWorks, PDM, AutoCAD, and related engineering tools
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to coach designers, inform performance and development discussions, support resource planning, and maintain visibility into workload, risk, and technical quality
• Passion for leading and developing people

The base salary range for this position is $50.46 - $63.09 per year (CAD). The posted range reflects the expected base salary for this position. Actual base salary will be determined based on factors such as geographic location, skills, education, and experience, as well as internal equity considerations. Offers are typically made within the range and not at the top of the range to support growth and progression. This position is eligible to participate in a short-term incentive plan. Incentive awards, if any, are based on business and individual performance and are not guaranteed.

SAMST