Senior Product Design Engineer

Watlow; Hillsboro (OR); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Watlow in Hillsboro, OR seeks a Senior Product Design Engineer to redefine the product design process for speed to solution. You will own hands-on design, prototyping, testing, and modifications for thermal products and systems while adopting off-the-shelf CAD/PLM tools and light customization where needed.

You will map and optimize end-to-end design workflows, establish standards, and drive cross-functional collaboration with manufacturing, quality, sales, and IT to deploy new tools and

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering or equivalent hands-on design experience.
• 5+ years of product design experience from concept through production release.
• Experience using design automation tools (parametric/configurable modeling, CAD templates).
• Knowledge of GD&T, DFM/DFA, and documentation control.
• Track record of mapping/improving engineering or manufacturing processes to reduce cycle times.
• Hands-on rapid prototyping including additive manufacturing or quick-turn vendor prototyping.
• Ability to influence cross-functional teams on process changes.

Responsibilities

• Map current product design process end to end and redesign for speed to solution, eliminating rework and duplication.
• Evaluate, select, and implement existing design automation tools to shorten from customer requirement to prototype and released design.
• Configure native CAD/PLM/ERP capabilities and fill gaps with light customization.
• Establish and maintain design rules, standards, and reusable libraries for automated configuration.
• Create/modify designs and manufacturing docs with independent design judgment.
• Compress build-test-learn loop using rapid prototyping and simulation-led design to reach a working solution in days.
• Create test reports and trade-off curves, feed findings back into design rules for wider reuse.
• Translate customer needs into actionable production instructions and streamline procedures.
• Define/track metrics: time to first prototype, design cycle time, quote-to-drawing turnaround, first-pass yield.
• Partner with manufacturing, quality, sales, IT to deploy tools/workflows and coach teams.
• Troubleshoot and repair problems with machines/controls and drive production changes.

Skills

5+ years design experience

Design automation tools

GD&T

DFM/ DFA

Engineering change control

Rapid prototyping

Influence without authority

Lean / Six Sigma

SolidWorks

DriveWorks

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical/Manufacturing/Electrical Engineering or related field

Two-year degree with hands-on design experience

Tools

SolidWorks

DriveWorks

CAD configurators

PLM/ERP integration

Job description

About the Role

As our Senior Product Design Engineer, you will do more than design products; you will redesign how we design them. This role owns the remapping of our product design process around speed to solution: getting from a customer problem to a prototype in hand, and from prototype to a validated, production-ready design, in a fraction of the time it takes today. The emphasis is on adopting and integrating design automation tools that already exist, evaluating and deploying commercially available CAD, configurator, simulation, and rapid-prototyping capability rather than building every tool from scratch, and customizing only where off-the-shelf capability falls short. You will still own hands-on design, prototyping, testing, and design modification recommendations for thermal products and systems.

Watlow understands that you can’t do your best work if you don’t have a real understanding of the Watlow business as well as strong relationships with team members from across the organization. At Watlow you will have many opportunities, both formally and informally, to build and maintain the cross-functional knowledge and relationships that you need for a successful and rewarding career.

In the role of Sr. Product Design Engineer you would be located at our Hillsboro, OR facility.

Your Key Responsibilities

• Map the current product design process end to end, including inputs, handoffs, decision gates, and cycle times, then redesign it around speed to solution by eliminating rework, waiting, and duplicate data entry
• Evaluate, select, and implement existing design automation tools that shorten the path from customer requirement to prototype and released design, including CAD configurators, design tables, rules-based drawing and BOM generation, simulation, and templated manufacturing documentation
• Get the most out of the tools we already own before building anything new, configuring native capability in our CAD, PLM, and ERP systems and closing gaps with light customization rather than custom development
• Establish and maintain the design rules, standards, trade-off curves, and reusable libraries that make automated configuration possible for standard and modified-standard product
• Create and modify designs and manufacturing documentation for new parts and assemblies, applying independent design judgment and proposing modifications where appropriate
• Compress the build-test-learn loop by using rapid prototyping, in-house and vendor additive capability, and simulation-led design to reach a working solution in days rather than weeks, running tests, inspections, and evaluations, and verifying and validating the procedures and standards behind them
• Create test reports and trade-off curves, interpreting results and feeding findings back into the design rules so the same problem is solved once and reused everywhere
• Translate customer needs into actionable production instructions, identifying opportunities to improve or streamline production procedures in the process
• Define and track the metrics that prove the new process works: time to first prototype, design cycle time, quote-to-drawing turnaround, first-pass yield on released documentation, and percentage of designs generated from automated configurations
• Partner with manufacturing, quality, sales, and IT to deploy new tools and workflows, and coach engineers and designers on adopting them
• Troubleshoot and repair problems with machines or controls, and drive procedural change into production

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Manufacturing, Electrical Engineering, other relevant engineering field, or a two-year degree with equivalent hands-on design experience
• 5+ years of product design experience, including ownership of designs from concept through production release
• Demonstrated experience putting existing design automation tools to work, such as parametric and configurable modeling, design tables, CAD templates and libraries, configurators, or rules-driven drawing and BOM generation, including selecting and deploying vendor tools rather than developing them in house
• Working knowledge of GD&T, DFM/DFA, and engineering change and documentation control
• Track record of mapping and improving an engineering or manufacturing process and delivering a measurable reduction in prototype or design cycle time
• Hands-on rapid prototyping experience, including additive manufacturing, machine shop work, or quick-turn vendor prototyping
• Ability to influence without authority and to bring engineering, manufacturing, and commercial teams along on a process change

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with SolidWorks (or equivalent) configurations, design automation add-ins, or DriveWorks-style configurators
• Experience with thermal products, heaters, sensors, or controls
• Familiarity with PLM/ERP integration and automated release workflows
• Lean, Six Sigma, or value-stream mapping experience