Application Engineer

Yeo & Yeo HR Advisory Solutions•Wixom, MI

About The Position

The Application Engineer is responsible for translating customer applications into safe, manufacturable, testable, and certifiable high-pressure gas storage solutions. You will work with customers and a cross-functional internal team to define engineering requirements and lead or coordinate product development activities from concept through design release, validation, certification, and customer integration. The role combines customer-facing technical leadership with hands-on mechanical design, engineering analysis, design-risk management, prototype development, test planning, and technical documentation.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or a closely related engineering discipline.
Demonstrated experience in application engineering, product engineering, mechanical design, or product development, preferably involving pressure-containing equipment, fluid systems, composite structures, or other safety-critical products.
Strong understanding of mechanical engineering fundamentals including mechanics of materials, pressure loading, fatigue, thermal effects, material behavior, and mechanical interfaces.
Hands-on experience designing and building mechanical systems and prototypes, with the ability to move effectively between CAD, hardware, test equipment, data, and technical documentation.
Experience using 3D CAD software for engineering design and creating production-ready drawings; working knowledge of GD&T and tolerance analysis is strongly preferred.
Experience with structured product-development and design-control tools including DFMEA, DVP&R, requirements traceability, design reviews, engineering change control, verification reports, and root-cause/corrective-action methods.
Ability to interpret engineering analysis and test data and present findings, conclusions, risks, and recommendations clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Proficiency with MS Office and MS Teams or equivalent tools for analysis, documentation, communication, and collaboration.
Strong analytical, problem-solving, organizational, and time-management skills with the ability to work effectively in a fast-moving, cross-functional environment.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with FEA and/or CFD methods and the ability to define analysis inputs, understand assumptions, and apply simulation results to design decisions is preferred.
Experience working with engineering standards, certification requirements, third-party laboratories, or regulated products is preferred.
Experience with hydrogen, CNG, industrial gases, high-pressure components, composite pressure vessels, polymer liners, or fiber-reinforced structures is a plus.

Responsibilities

Work directly with customers to understand the use case and define technical requirements including gas species, working pressure, required storage capacity, temperature range, fill and discharge profiles, service life, packaging envelope, interfaces, mounting, mass, cost, and environmental requirements.
Translate customer language and use cases into clear, measurable engineering requirements, product specifications, acceptance criteria, and critical-to-quality characteristics.
Develop application-level interface definitions and coordinate mechanical, fluid, electrical/instrumentation, mounting, and vehicle or system integration requirements as applicable.
Develop and evaluate high-pressure gas storage vessel and system concepts using 3D CAD, engineering calculations, internal design tools, and structured trade studies.
Perform and/or coordinate engineering analyses including pressure-load calculations, stress and strain assessment, fatigue and pressure-cycle life, thermal effects, tolerance stack-ups, material compatibility, permeation, weight, volumetric efficiency, and system-level load cases.
Work with analysis specialists as required to apply FEA, CFD, and other simulation tools to evaluate structural margins, local stress concentrations, thermal behavior, gas flow, filling/emptying behavior, and other design risks.
Lead design studies and design reviews to optimize safety, durability, weight, packaging efficiency, manufacturability, cost, serviceability, and certification margin.
Create, facilitate, and maintain Design Failure Mode and Effects Analyses (DFMEAs) throughout the development process; use identified risks to drive design actions, test coverage, critical characteristics, and verification priorities.
Develop and maintain Design Verification Plan and Report (DVP&R) documentation that links requirements and DFMEA risks to analysis and test methods, sample quantities, test conditions, pass/fail criteria, and final results.
Plan and coordinate prototype builds and test articles, including configuration, instrumentation, sample requirements, test fixtures, test sequences, data-acquisition needs, and acceptance criteria.
Coordinate certification testing with internal test personnel, customers, test laboratories, regulatory bodies, and third-party providers, maintaining clear configuration control and traceability of test specimens and results.