Mechanical Engineering Manager

Lead the Team That Designs Machines That Matter

At Steven Douglas Corp. (SDC), we design, engineer, and build custom automation machines that solve complex manufacturing challenges. No two projects are the same, and our engineers regularly solve problems that do not have a standard solution.

As a family-owned and growing company, we combine strong engineering fundamentals with the agility to make decisions quickly, solve problems collaboratively, and keep projects moving without layers of corporate red tape.

We are looking for a Mechanical Engineering Manager to lead our Mechanical Engineering team and take ownership of the department's people, performance, engineering standards, and technical execution.

This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who understands custom machine design, knows how to develop strong engineers, and can create the processes and standards that allow a growing engineering team to work efficiently without sacrificing quality.

What You’ll Do

Lead & Develop the Mechanical Engineering Team

• Lead, coach, and develop mechanical engineers and designers to improve individual and department performance.
• Increase department performance against sold labor budgets by 5% each year
• 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.

Own Mechanical Engineering Standards & Processes

• 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.

Drive Technical Excellence

• 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.

Collaborate Across SDC

• 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.

What We’re Looking For

• 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;
  Solid…