Product Engineer: RCA-driven Sustaining & NPI Expert

Job Description

Job Description
Join Energy Recovery and Help Build a Sustainable Future
At Energy Recovery, we build products that help limit global temperature rise, reduce carbon emissions, provide safe drinking water for millions of people, and bring efficiency and sustainability to a range of industries. Our products help customers avoid approximately 19.7 million metric tons of carbon emissions per year -- equivalent to removing over 4.7 million cars from the road!

In addition to innovating world-class products that help our customers and the environment, our employees enjoy a diverse, collaborative work culture, as well as extensive company benefits that support the overall wellbeing of our staff. This includes everything from generous health plans and time off, paid family leave, subsidized lunches and company events, and opportunities for charitable giving and volunteering in the community.

What You Can Look Forward To:

ERI is seeking an experienced Product Engineer to join our Product and Sustaining Engineering team, reporting to the Product and Sustaining Engineering Manager. This role is central to two complementary missions: driving root cause analysis (RCA) for field failures and production quality escapes, and leading sustaining engineering initiatives that reduce product cost (COGS) and extend product competitiveness. The successful candidate will also support new product introduction (NPI) efforts and cross-functional programs spanning R&D, manufacturing, QHSE, and our business units.

• Lead structured RCA investigations for field failures, production test escapes, and customer quality events — applying methods such as 8D, fishbone/Ishikawa, and fault tree analysis to drive to verified root cause.
• Own the full RCA cycle: failure intake, physical teardown and inspection, data analysis, corrective action development, and closeout documentation suitable for customer and internal review.
• Interface directly with field service, project engineering, and customers to gather failure context and communicate findings clearly and professionally.
• Maintain and continuously improve RCA documentation standards, failure libraries, and lessons-learned processes to build institutional knowledge.

• Lead sustaining engineering projects with explicit COGS reduction targets — including design-for-manufacturability improvements, material substitutions, component consolidation, tolerance optimization, and supplier qualification activities.
• Identify and prioritize cost-reduction opportunities through data-driven analysis of BOM costs, warranty claims, scrap/rework trends, and manufacturing non-conformances.
• Work cross-functionally with manufacturing, supply chain, and procurement to develop and validate cost-engineered solutions that maintain or improve product performance and reliability.
• Manage engineering change orders (ECOs) through drawing/BOM updates, validation testing, and manufacturing release for sustaining improvements.
• Track and report COGS improvement results against project targets and communicate status to engineering leadership.

• Support R&D NPI programs involving fluid machines — including pressure exchangers, centrifugal and reciprocating pumps, turbines, and turbochargers.
• Lead product engineering deliverables for NPI: production drawings, BOMs, performance curves, beta testing, third-party certifications, and manufacturing release.
• Perform prototype validation testing in the lab, including sensor/transducer selection, data acquisition, and test report development.

• Provide engineering support for product customization requests and respond promptly to the engineering ticketing system.
• Collaborate with project engineering, manufacturing, QHSE, and business unit teams on product-related technical issues and initiatives.
• Provide technical support to corporate development, sales, manufacturing, quality, and project engineering teams as needed.
• Other duties & projects as assigned.

• Minimum Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical…