Lead Project Engineer - Micro Hydraulic

FastTek Global; Towson (MD); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical and Dental

Vision

PTO

Long Term Disability

Life Insurance

401(k) with matching

Job summary

FastTek Global is seeking a Micro-Hydraulic Lead Engineer to spearhead the design, development, integration, and validation of micro-hydraulic systems for diverse platforms. You will provide technical leadership across mechanical, electrical, and software teams to meet performance, cost, schedule, and reliability goals.

The role requires 7–10 years of mechanical design experience in micro-hydraulics, strong leadership, and hands-on ability with schematics, drawings, and hydraulic calculations.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent.
• 7–10 years of mechanical design experience in micro-hydraulic systems.
• Experience leading engineering projects or technical workstreams.
• Knowledge of hydraulic system principles, fluid power components, and high‑pressure integration.
• Experience creating hydraulic schematics, drawings, and calculations.
• Familiarity with GD&T, DFMEA, and root-cause analysis.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and development of micro-hydraulic systems for platforms and applications.
• Translate product requirements into architecture, schematics, and specifications.
• Perform sizing, load/pressure/thermal analyses, and performance optimization.
• Drive technical decision-making and risk assessments across projects.
• Collaborate with electrical, software, and manufacturing teams to ensure integration.
• Mentor engineers and deliver on schedules, cost, and quality targets.
• Support supplier reviews, qualification, and component validation.

Skills

Micro-hydraulic design

High pressure hydraulics

System analysis

Cross-functional collaboration

Technical leadership

Prototype development

Root cause analysis

DFMEA

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering

Job description

The Job

The Micro-Hydraulic Lead Engineer is responsible for leading the design, development, integration, and validation of Micro-Hydraulic systems, subsystems, and components for product platforms and customer applications. This role provides technical leadership for handheld and stationary micro-hydraulic system design activities, including architecture definition, component selection, system analysis, prototype development, testing, and production launch support. The position requires strong cross-functional collaboration with electrical, software, motor controls, suppliers, and manufacturing teams to deliver high-quality hydraulic solutions that meet performance, cost, schedule, and reliability objectives. Experience contributing to intellectual property development, invention disclosures, and patent-support activities is highly valued.

• Experience with micro-hydraulic, high pressure compact hydraulic, or electro-hydraulic system applications.
• Familiarity with regulated, safety-critical, or high-reliability product environments.
• Experience supporting supplier qualification and component validation activities.
• Advanced analytical capability in system performance optimization and failure investigation.
• Hydraulic system design and integration; specifically high pressure.
• Technical leadership
• System analysis and troubleshooting
• Product development and validation
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Risk assessment and DFMEA

• Experience with micro-hydraulic, high pressure compact hydraulic, or electro-hydraulic system applications.
• Familiarity with regulated, safety-critical, or high-reliability product environments.
• Experience supporting supplier qualification and component validation activities.
• Advanced analytical capability in system performance optimization and failure investigation.
• Hydraulic system design and integration; specifically high pressure.
• Fluid power engineering
• Technical leadership
• System analysis and troubleshooting
• Product development and validation
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Risk assessment and DFMEA

The Person

As a Lead Project Engineer, you'll be part of our Global Tools & Storage team located in Towson, MD. Specifically, you'll have:

• Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent is required
• 7 to 10 years of mechanical design experience in micro-hydraulic system design and development.
• Demonstrated experience leading engineering projects or technical workstreams.
• Strong knowledge of hydraulic system principles, fluid power components, and system integration with background in high pressure micro-hydraulics.
• Experience creating and interpreting hydraulic schematics and engineering documentation.
• Experience creating and interpreting engineering drawings.
• Proficiency in hydraulic calculations, component sizing, and system troubleshooting.
• Experience with product development processes from concept through production launch.
• Knowledge of GD&T, DFM/DFA, DFMEA, and root cause analysis methodologies.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to work effectively with a global team, including suppliers and manufacturing operations.
• Ability to provide direction and mentorship to engineers and designers and lead project teams independently.
• Lead the design and development of micro-hydraulic systems, subsystems, and components for product platforms and customer applications.
• Translate product requirements into micro-hydraulic architecture, subsystems, documentation schematics, component specifications, and system performance criteria.
• Perform micro-hydraulic system sizing, pressure and flow calculations, load analysis, thermal analysis, and performance optimization.
• Lead technical decision-making for hydraulic system design activities across assigned engineering projects and technical workstreams.
• Develop and execute plans for project sample builds, prototype development, and engineering validation activities.
• Define validation plans and support testing activities to verify hydraulic system functionality, durability, efficiency, and safety.
• Troubleshoot hydraulic performance issues during prototype, testing, pilot, and production phases.
• Lead technical feasibility studies, design reviews, risk assessments, and DFMEA activities.
• Participate in hands-on concept development, prototyping, product testing, and data collection, while providing technical feedback and recommendations.
• Collaborate with motor controls, electrical, and software teams to integrate electro-hydraulic systems and ensure proper system behavior.
• Drive design standardization, modularity, and reuse of proven hydraulic solutions across programs.
• Support supplier selection, technical reviews, and component qualification activities.
• Ensure designs comply with applicable industry standards, regulatory requirements, and internal engineering processes.
• Manage engineering deliverables, schedules, and technical execution for assigned projects.
• Successfully deliver projects that achieve quality, performance, schedule, and cost objectives in a cross-functional environment.
• Participate in cross-functional meetings to communicate technical status, risks, issues, and recommended solutions.
• Support cost reduction, quality improvement, and continuous improvement initiatives related to hydraulic systems.
• Provide direction, mentorship, and technical guidance to project engineers, engineers, and designers, and lead project teams independently

Additional Info

At FastTek Global, Our Purpose is Our People and Our Planet. We come to work each day and are reminded we are helping people find their success stories. Also, Doing the right thing is our mantra. We have been doing this with pride, dedication and plain, old-fashioned hard work for 24 years! FastTek Global is a financially strong, privately held company that is 100% consultant and client focused, operating in nearly half of the states in the U.S., Europe and India. We've differentiated ourselves by being fast, flexible, creative and honest. Throw out everything you've heard, seen, or felt about every other IT Consulting company. We do unique things and we do them for Fortune 10, Fortune 500, and technology start-up companies. FastTek Global was named one of the Top Work Places in Michigan by the Detroit Free Press in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023!

Benefits

• Medical and Dental (FastTek pays majority of the medical program)
• Vision
• Personal Time Off (PTO) Program
• Long Term Disability (100% paid)
• Life Insurance (100% paid)
• 401(k) with immediate vesting and 3% (of salary) dollar-for-dollar match

AI & Hiring Disclosure

We use AI tools to support parts of our hiring process, such as reviewing applications and identifying potential matches. These tools are designed to promote efficiency, consistency, and fairness, and they are always used under human oversight. All personal data collected is used solely for recruitment purposes, and you have the right to know, access, or request deletion of your data at any time, subject to legal limits. If AI will be used in a video interview, you'll be informed in advance and asked for your consent, with the option to opt out. Our tools are regularly reviewed to detect potential bias and to ensure compliance with all applicable laws and our commitment to inclusive hiring. To learn more or exercise your rights, please contact us at [e-mail].