Harness Design Engineer for Safety-Class Systems

antares; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 125,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Antares is seeking a Harness Design Engineer in Los Angeles to own harness CAD design, schematics, and BOMs for safety-class electrical systems. You will manage supplier coordination, toolchain improvements, and the release process, ensuring first-pass qualification on every build.

You will lead design reviews, maintain documentation, and drive cost-efficient, compliant harness assemblies from design to on-site production.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
• 2+ years designing production wire harnesses and cable assemblies, taking designs from schematic through a released, buildable package
• Experience in a dedicated electrical/harness CAD tool such as Zuken E3.series, Siemens Capital, Mentor VeSys, SolidWorks Electrical, CATIA Electrical, or Rapid Harness.
• Demonstrated experience with harness component selection: wire construction and derating, connector families, contacts, backshells, sealing, and the crimp tooling that terminates them
• Demonstrated knowledge of IPC/WHMA-A-620 and harness workmanship, inspection, and electrical test practice (continuity, insulation resistance, hipot)
• Experience designing and releasing hardware under a formal quality program, NQA-1, 10 CFR 50 Appendix B, AS9100, or comparable, including revision control, traceability, and nonconformance handling
• Experience directing technicians or build teams, and comfort spending real time on the shop floor
• Direct experience working with external harness or electrical panel suppliers

Responsibilities

• Own harness CAD design: Route, bundle, and constrain every harness in the 3D model: interface harnesses between systems and internal harnesses for each electrical system and distribution cabinet. Manage bend radii, service loops, strain relief, clearance to thermal and moving hardware, and connector accessibility for both assembly and field service.
• Own harness schematics: Develop and release wiring diagrams, wire lists and from-to charts, connector pinout tables, splice topology, and shield and grounding schemes for every harness.
• Own component selection: Choose wire type and gauge against current, derating, voltage drop, insulation, temperature, radiation, and flex requirements. Select connectors, contacts, backshells, and sealing. Specify and qualify the crimp tooling, dies, and calibration and pull-test regime that go with them.
• Design to safety-class requirements: Apply physical separation and independence between redundant divisions, respect qualification envelopes for cable and terminations, and maintain the design records and requirements traceability that support I&C classification and licensing.
• Own the harness design review and release process: Define what a review gate looks like, what a complete package contains, and how changes move through ECO and PLM under our QA program. Then improve it, including the software integrations that make release faster and less error-prone.
• Be the responsible engineer for our harness design software: Partner with our software applications engineers to improve how we build harnesses: connector and part library management, schematic-to-3D data flow, design rule checks, and automation of repetitive deliverables. Own license administration, version upgrades, and escalation with the tool vendor.
• Support supplier selection and qualification: Work alongside supply chain and quality to evaluate harness houses and electrical panel builders, capability assessments, supplier audits and approved supplier list entry, RFQ technical packages, quote reviews, and DFM feedback that lowers cost and build time.
• Own build packages and supplier technical communication: Hand off the package, resolve drawing questions, disposition deviations and nonconformances, support first article and source inspection, and drive workmanship and quality escalations to closure.
• Own the harness BOM and material readiness: Keep the BOM accurate and released, and work with supply chain and quality so parts land on site on time and clear receiving inspection, including certificates of conformance, lot traceability, and commercial grade dedication where hardware is destined for safety-class use.
• Manage in-house harness builds: Direct our harnessing technicians day to day: prioritize the queue, prepare formboards and work instructions, run operator training and crimp certification, set the workmanship bar, maintain inspection and test records, and be on the bench when something doesn't go together the way the model said it would.

Skills

Harness CAD design

Schematic design

Component selection

Safety-class standards

Vendor coordination

PLM/QA processes

Tool ownership

Electrical systems integration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering

Tools

Zuken E3.series

Siemens Capital

Mentor VeSys

SolidWorks Electrical

CATIA Electrical

Rapid Harness

Job description

Antares is seeking a Harness Design Engineer in Los Angeles to own harness CAD design, schematics, and BOMs for safety-class electrical systems. You will manage supplier coordination, toolchain improvements, and the release process, ensuring first-pass qualification on every build.

You will lead design reviews, maintain documentation, and drive cost-efficient, compliant harness assemblies from design to on-site production.