Equipment & Tool Engineer 3

PDS Defense, Inc.; Auburn (WA); On-site; USD 85,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

PDS Defense, Inc. in Auburn, WA is seeking an Equipment & Tool Engineer 3 to join the Production Engineering team on the shop floor. The role emphasizes asset reliability, safety, and efficiency across production assets and processes.

The engineer will develop and implement asset reliability systems, perform health assessments, and manage maintenance plans while coordinating with suppliers and cross-functional teams to deliver compliant, high-quality production solutions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science degree in engineering or related field.
• 3+ years related work experience or equivalent.
• Experience with asset reliability, preventive maintenance, and production systems.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement asset reliability systems for production assets.
• Manage asset lifecycle, documentation, and preventative maintenance plans.
• Lead projects from design to testing and commissioning of complex automated systems.
• Coordinate with suppliers and cross-functional teams to meet schedules and budgets.
• Ensure compliance with safety, reliability, and regulatory requirements.

Skills

Project management

Automation and robotics

Technical writing

Hardware & software documentation

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor of Science in Engineering

Tools

Configuration management systems

Job description

Engineering

Equipment & Tool Engineer 3 Auburn, WA Posted: 6/22/2026

Job Description

Job ID#:

218644

Job Category:

Engineering

Position Type:

Associate - W2

Duration:

26

Shift:

1

Positions Available:

4

PDS Defense, Inc. is seeking an Equipment & Tool Engineer 3,in Auburn, WA Job ID#218644

Job Description

A successful candidate in this role will have passion, creativity, and an insatiable desire for process improvement and efficiency. They will also have a strong desire to be on the production floor interacting with operators and troubleshooting with technicians & mechanics to support the production system. In Production Engineering, we need highly responsible professionals committed to upholding the highest standards of safety, quality, and integrity.

Primary Responsibilities

This is an equipment development, implementation, and improvement role. This role involves ensuring the reliability, safety, and integrity of critical production assets. This includes developing and implementing asset reliability systems, conducting equipment health assessments, and ensuring compliance with regulations and standards. The role involves managing asset lifecycle, asset documentation, and preventative maintenance plans. Additionally, the role requires project management, testing, and commissioning of complex automated system projects (new acquisitions and modifications). A success equipment engineer:

• Evaluates business unit and project requirements, develops complex equipment concepts and designs solutions for the Production System
• Coordinates with suppliers, cross-functional teams, and procurement agents to manage tight schedules and budgets for equipment projects
• Generates complex equipment specifications & corresponding verification/validation test protocols for production system assets
• Addresses reliability and obsolescence issues by analyzing maintenance & spare parts usage records to optimize performance and reduce costs
• Optimizes high precision milling, forming, and other metal processing equipment for safety, ergonomics, quality, flow, reliability, or maintainability
• Ensures compliance with safety, producibility, maintainability, reliability, ergonomic factors, and regulatory requirements
• Validates contractual performance milestones, maintains configuration control, conducts reviews, prepares plans for productions readiness, preventative maintenance, and spares
• Develops and implements basic work-arounds and maintains configuration of hardware, software and documentation.

Required Skills

Bachelor of Science degree from an accredited course of study in engineering, engineering technology (includes manufacturing engineering technology), chemistry, physics, mathematics, data science, or computer science

3 or more years related work experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience

Preferred Skills

• Project management experience supporting complex technical projects, evaluating/selecting equipment solutions, and assessing spare parts inventory in a production environment
• Experience working with hardware, software, and documenting configuration management
• Experience working to industry standards including compliance with hardware and safety codes
• Technical writing experience
• Knowledge of various manufacturing techniques
• Experience in automation and robotics
• Ability to learn in a fast paced environment
• Strong communication skills
• Motivated self-starter that may be asked to train less experienced engineers
• Ability to collaborate with a variety of skill levels and personality types

Education / Experience: Education/experience typically acquiredthrough advanced technical education from an accredited course of study in engineering, computer science, mathematics, physics or chemistry (e.g. Bachelor) and typically 5 or more years' related work experience (e.g. PhD, Master+3 years' related work experience). In the USA, ABET accreditation is the preferred, although not required, accreditation standard.

Benefits offered to vary by the contract. Depending on your temporary assignment, benefits may include direct deposit, free career counseling services, 401(k), select paid holidays, short-term disability insurance, skills training, employee referral bonus, affordable medical coverage plan, and DailyPay (in some locations).

Job Requirements

Minimum Security Clearance

No Clearance

Military connected talent encouraged to apply.

VEVRAA Federal Contractor / Request Priority Protected Veteran Referrals / Equal Opportunity Employer / Veterans / Disabled

To read our Candidate Privacy Information Statement, which explains how we will use your information, please visit http://www.tadpgs.com/candidate-privacy/ or https://pdsdefense.com/candidate-privacy/

The Company will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records in accordance with federal, state, and local laws and/or security clearance requirements, including, as applicable:

• The California Fair Chance Act
• Los Angeles City Fair Chance Ordinance
• Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers
• San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance

VEVRAA Federal Contractor / Request Priority Protected Veteran Referrals / Equal Opportunity Employer / Veterans / Disabled