About Spartanics Spartanics designs and manufactures industrial equipment for precision laser converting, card counting, material handling, and custom automation. Our engineering strategy emphasizes modular product platforms, proven standard solutions, customer value, and disciplined execution.
Position Summary:
The Mechanical Design Engineer designs, improves, and releases Spartanics industrial machinery and configurable product platforms. This role combines hands-on machine design with product-platform thinking, with primary emphasis on modularity, value engineering, reliability, manufacturability, serviceability, and speed to market. The engineer owns assigned mechanical work from requirements and concept development through release, build, testing, commissioning, and continuous improvement.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:- Own the mechanical design of new equipment, machine modules, configurable options, and product improvements from requirements and concept development through design release and validation.
- Create and maintain CAD models, assemblies, configurations, manufacturing drawings, bills of material, revision history, and other controlled engineering documentation within the Onshape PDM environment.
- Develop modular machine architectures, reusable subassemblies, standardized interfaces, and common component strategies that reduce one-off engineering and support scalable product platforms.
- Lead and participate in value-engineering, design-to-cost, DFM, and DFA activities that improve margin, manufacturability, assembly time, lead time, quality, reliability, and serviceability.
- Design precision mechanisms, servo-driven assemblies, material-transport and web-handling systems, pneumatic functions, guarding, enclosures, cooling, extraction, and service-access features.
- Select and specify bearings, linear guides, actuators, gearboxes, pneumatics, sensors, purchased components, materials, and manufacturing processes in collaboration with Controls Engineering and suppliers.
- Apply calculations, tolerance analysis, GD&T, risk assessment, and structured design reviews to ensure safe, repeatable, and buildable machine performance.
- Collaborate with controls, electrical, software, manufacturing, procurement, service, project management, sales, suppliers, and customers to resolve technical requirements and risks.
- Support prototype builds, machine assembly, checkout, factory acceptance testing, installation, commissioning, and field troubleshooting as business needs require.
- Lead root-cause analysis and corrective design action, and document reusable standards, lessons learned, and engineering practices that reduce future effort and recurring issues. Measures of Success
- Accurate, complete design releases that support on-time machine builds with minimal avoidable rework.
- Increased reuse of common modules, interfaces, and components across Spartanics product platforms.
- Documented improvements in equipment cost, lead time, manufacturability, reliability, or serviceability through value engineering.
- Timely resolution of build, test, and field issues, with corrective actions captured in drawings, standards, and lessons learned.
Required Qualifications:- Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics Engineering, or a closely related discipline.
- Three to five years of experience designing industrial machinery, OEM capital equipment, custom automation, converting equipment, packaging machinery, robotics, or comparable electromechanical systems.
- Proficiency with Onshape or another professional parametric 3D CAD platform, with the ability and willingness to become productive in Onshape quickly.
- Demonstrated experience applying modularity, standardization, design reuse, platform thinking, value engineering, DFM, or DFA to improve equipment cost, scalability, delivery, or performance.
- Strong understanding of machine design, precision mechanisms, motion components, pneumatics, material handling, tolerances, manufacturing processes, and component selection.
- Experience preparing complete design releases, including detailed drawings, BOMs, assembly routings, engineering changes, and manufacturing documentation.
- Hands-on problem-solving ability, sound engineering judgment, project ownership, and clear communication with cross-functional teams, suppliers, and customers.
- Familiarity with project management software is required; experience with Asana is strongly preferred.
Preferred Qualifications:- Experience with industrial laser systems, optics or beam-delivery interfaces, laser-safety enclosures, or galvanometer-based scan-head systems.
- Experience with roll-to-roll converting, web handling, tension control, registration, or precision material transport equipment.
- Experience converting highly customized machinery into configurable, modular, and repeatable product platforms.
- Knowledge of machine-safety practices and standards such as ANSI B11, NFPA 79, ISO 12100, CE requirements, or related risk-assessment methods.
- Experience with tolerance-stack analysis, FEA, supplier development, cost reduction, or product lifecycle and revision-control processes.
- Experience with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Great Plains, or other manufacturing ERP/MRP platform
- Familiarity with Lean manufacturing principles, Kaizen, and 5S, with an understanding of how continuous improvement practices can be applied to machine design, engineering standardization, manufacturability, assembly, testing, and troubleshooting.
Physical Requirements and Work Environment
Work is performed in both an office engineering environment and an active manufacturing/assembly setting. Regular computer and CAD use is required, along with periodic standing, walking, bending, reaching, climbing, and work around operating equipment. The position may occasionally require lifting or moving items up to approximately 30 pounds, use of required personal protective equipment, and domestic or international travel of up to approximately 15%, with or without reasonable accommodation.
Equal Employment Opportunity and Job Description Notice
Spartanics is an equal opportunity employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable law. Reasonable accommodations will be provided to qualified individuals with disabilities, as required by law.
This description summarizes the general nature and level of work expected and is not an exhaustive list of duties or qualifications. Responsibilities may change based on business needs. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals to perform the essential functions.
