Sr. Mechanical Designer

Birdon Group; New Orleans (LA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Birdon Group in New Orleans is seeking a Senior Mechanical Designer to lead a small design team supporting the Waterways Commerce Cutter program. You will oversee 3D modeling and 2D drawings for 30 vessels in a contract valued at more than $1.1B, coordinating with an Integrated Product Team to meet aggressive schedules.

The role emphasizes leadership, design governance, and mentoring, ensuring compliance with ABS regulations, USCG CFRs, and industry standards while partnering with vendors and

Qualifications

• Minimum 10 years as a marine designer, with 3D modeling of ship systems and structures.
• Minimum 5 years using ShipConstructor and MarineDrafting.
• Autonomy to work unsupervised efficiently.
• Excellent oral and written communication, teamwork, leadership and critical thinking.
• Experience leading small teams of engineers/designers.
• Familiarity with ABS regulations, USCG CFRs, and shipbuilding standards.

Responsibilities

• Meet daily with design team to identify and elevate roadblocks.
• Manage vessel model hierarchy, metadata, revision tracking and access control.
• Assist Document Control with file structures for internal and external partners.
• Interview, onboard, train, task assign, and evaluate team members.
• Liaise with PLM and CAD providers to fix issues and implement new features.
• Review designs to ensure compliance with standards, customer specs, and contract terms.
• Create, review and release Engineering Change Notifications.
• Initiate Engineering Change Requests for improvements or errors.
• Coordinate with subcontractors and vendors for inputs to design activities.
• Develop ShipConstructor 3D models and 2D drawings per standards.
• Contribute to department improvements with work instructions and mentoring.
• Collaborate with project teams to ensure information is complete and accurate.

Skills

Marine design

3D modeling

Autonomy

Oral & Written communication

Team leadership

Regulatory familiarity

Tools

ShipConstructor

MarineDrafting

Job description

The Waterways Commerce Cutter (WCC) Senior Mechanical Designer will lead a small team of designers and cad analysts with the design support group. The Integrated Product Team (IPT) will deliver the design and build of 30 vessels in a contract valued more than $1.1B. The Coast Guard plans to acquire 16 river buoy tenders (WLR), 11 inland construction tenders (WLIC) and three (3) inland buoy tenders. The WCC Program is working under an accelerated program schedule to reach initial operational capability by 2025. Initial operational capability is achieved following post-delivery availability, test and evaluation, and certification that the first hull of each WCC variant satisfies all key performance parameters, or the threshold requirements without which the service’s aids to navigation (ATON) mission in federal inland waterways cannot be performed. Full operational capability, which will be achieved when the capability has been fully fielded, is planned for 2030.

The Senior Mechanical Designer will work closely with the Systems Design Manager to develop and train the engineers and designers to the design standards. Reviews, comments, releases, and controls designs. Maintains the 3D model and 2D drawing configurations to match the as built vessels.

MAIN DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

• Meets daily with design team to identify and elevate roadblocks to remove the barriers.
• Responsible for the vessel model including hierarchy, unit breakdowns, metadata, revision tracking, archiving, access control, and change control.
• Assist Document Control Coordinator with file structure of various internal project teams as well as external partners and vendors.
• Responsible of the interviewing, onboarding, training, task assigning, and performance evaluating of the assigned team members.
• Liaison to PLM and CAD providers to assist internal team with correcting issues and implementing new features.
• Reviews designs of engineers and designers to ensure they are in accordance with company standards, customer specifications, and terms of the contract.
• Creator, reviewer, and releaser of Engineering Change Notifications to formally define design data.
• Initiates Engineering Change Requests when improvements, modifications, or errors are identified in released designs.
• Coordinates with sub-contractors and vendors to receive inputs to design activities.
• Develop ShipConstructor 3D models and associated 2D drawings/schematics in accordance with company, industry, and project standards.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of the department by creating work instructions for best practices for modelling, metadata inputting; establishing procedures/processes as well as mentoring/training junior engineers/designers.
• Partners with project teams, contractors, suppliers, and other stakeholders to ensure procedures and work processes contain the required level of information.

QUALIFICATIONS & ATTRIBUTES

• Minimum of 10 years’ experience as a marine designer w/ extensive experience in 3D modeling of ship systems and structures.
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience using ShipConstructor and MarineDrafting.
• Autonomy - The ability to work unsupervised efficiently and effectively.
• Oral & Written Comprehension & Expression - Candidate must have excellent communication, teamwork, leadership, conflict management, and critical thinking skills.
• Experience working in leading small teams of engineers/designers.
• Familiarity with ABS regulations, USCG CFRs, and typical shipbuilding industry standards (ASME, ASNE, ISO)