Sustaining Structural Engineer

Description

Within the organization, within the GEFCO product line and for other projects based on company needs and as instructed by management, owns the technical health, reliability, and lifecycle performance of released products. This role is the bridge between field reality and product evolution, ensuring that customer issues, manufacturing feedback, and operational data are translated into meaningful engineering and product improvements. The position combines hands‑on mechanical and structural design with working knowledge of the hydraulic and electrical control systems used on GEFCO drilling equipment.

We are looking for a Sustaining Mechanical engineer for our Conroe, TX location. This position would report to the Director of Engineering and Product Management.

• Own engineering support for released products across their full lifecycle, maintaining technical integrity, reliability, and safety from release through end of life.
• Evaluate, triage, and resolve field, customer, and manufacturing issues; determine root cause and define corrective action in design, process, or documentation.
• Serve as a rapid‑response technical resource for Field Service, customers, dealers, and the production floor, balancing customer urgency against technical risk, cost, and long‑term product integrity.
• Determine when an issue can be closed locally and when it must be escalated into the formal engineering or product change process.

• Design and redesign structural and mechanical assemblies — weldments, frames, subframes, masts, decks, guarding, and machined components — for strength, durability, manufacturability, and serviceability.
• Continuously developing and improving the products within the portfolio and integrating new developments from the R&D projects into the sustained portfolio.
• Create and revise 3D models, assemblies, and detailed drawings to company drafting, tolerancing, and welding standards.
• Define and perform testing to verify that design requirements are met, and document results to support product release and change approval.
• Recommend material substitutions and design alternatives in coordination with the engineering team and Supply Chain, weighing performance, cost, lead time, and availability.

• Initiate, own, and drive ECRs/ECOs arising from sustaining issues, from initiation through implementation and closure.
• Ensure changes are properly analyzed, documented, and communicated, and are reflected in drawings, bills of material, service literature, and work instructions.
• Maintain configuration integrity across released products and product families, including change effectivity, interchangeability, and retrofit or service‑kit strategy.
• Recommend product holds, releases, or field mitigations based on technical risk.

• Identify systemic issues across platforms and product families using warranty, failure, and field data.
• Drive reliability improvements and support cost‑reduction initiatives, coordinating rollout of design changes with R&D, Supply Chain, and Production.
• Recommend design, material, or process improvements to Product and Engineering leadership.
• Capture lessons learned from field and manufacturing issues and feed actionable insights back into new product development, design standards, documentation, and training to prevent repeat issues.

• Act as the primary technical interface between Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, and Field Service.
• Lead cross‑functional investigations, corrective action efforts, and high‑impact, time‑sensitive projects that cut across teams.
• Prioritize sustaining work independently based on business impact and risk.
• Escalate issues to the Director of Engineering and Product Management as appropriate, after engaging design engineering directly.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Requirements