Senior Mechanical Engineering Manager – Custom Automation

Steven-Dougla; Concord Township (OH); On-site; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Employer-paid medical, dental, vision,

life insurance options

Paid vacation and sick leave

4% employer 401(k) match

Generous parental leave

Employee Assistance Program

Job summary

Steven Douglas Corp. (SDC) designs, engineers, and builds custom automation machines. We seek a Mechanical Engineering Manager to lead the Mechanical Engineering team, own standards, and drive technical excellence while partnering with other departments to deliver high-quality machines on time.

This hands-on leadership role requires developing engineers, creating scalable processes, and ensuring performance against budgets. Travel up to 10% is anticipated to support projects.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or related engineering discipline.
• 10+ years of mechanical engineering/machine design experience, preferably designing custom industrial machinery or complex automated systems.
• 5+ years of experience leading or managing highly skilled engineering professionals preferred.
• Strong knowledge of machine design principles, mechanical components, manufacturing methods, materials, and tolerancing.
• Advanced experience with 3D CAD; SolidWorks strongly preferred.
• Experience developing and implementing engineering standards, processes, and reusable design solutions.
• Strong understanding of designing equipment for manufacturability, assembly, serviceability, reliability, and safety.
• Ability to balance technical excellence with project schedules, budgets, and customer requirements.
• Strong leadership, decision-making, communication, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability and willingness to travel to support projects, up to 10%.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and develop mechanical engineers and designers to improve individual and department performance.
• Plan and allocate engineering resources across projects based on priorities, schedules, workload, and technical requirements.
• Set clear expectations and provide regular feedback, training, and performance reviews.
• Participate in recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and onboarding new team members.
• Build a collaborative team that communicates well, solves problems together, and takes ownership of results.
• Establish, maintain, and continuously improve SDC mechanical engineering standards and best practices.
• Drive standardization and reuse of proven machine designs, components, assemblies, and engineering solutions where appropriate.
• Maintain engineering libraries, design standards, documentation requirements, and release processes.
• Improve department processes to increase engineering quality, accuracy, consistency, and efficiency.
• Provide technical leadership and oversight for mechanical concepts and detailed machine designs.
• Work to build technical experts in various machine types to lean on for advanced technical support
• Ensure designs meet customer specifications, SDC engineering standards, safety requirements, project schedules, and budgets.
• Guide engineers through complex machine design challenges and technical decisions.
• Review machine concepts, layouts, calculations, component selections, materials, finishes, drawings, BOMs, and release packages.
• Participate in and/or lead internal and customer design reviews.
• Support design issues through machine assembly, debug, acceptance testing, installation, and startup.
• Work closely with Project Management to coordinate engineering schedules, priorities, project progress, and resource needs.
• Collaborate with Controls Engineering, Manufacturing, Assembly, Sales, Applications Engineering, and other departments throughout the project lifecycle.
• Support concept development and quoting for new projects as needed.
• Represent Mechanical Engineering in management discussions and company-wide initiatives.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Problem solving

Project management

Travel willingness

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering

Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering or related

Tools

SolidWorks

3D CAD

Job description

Steven Douglas Corp. (SDC) designs, engineers, and builds custom automation machines. We seek a Mechanical Engineering Manager to lead the Mechanical Engineering team, own standards, and drive technical excellence while partnering with other departments to deliver high-quality machines on time.

This hands-on leadership role requires developing engineers, creating scalable processes, and ensuring performance against budgets. Travel up to 10% is anticipated to support projects.