Design Engineering Manager

The businesses of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany•Breinigsville, PA

18h•$118,500 - $177,700

About The Position

The Mechanical Design Engineering Manager leads the CAD design and mechanical engineering team supporting EMD Electronics equipment and delivery-system products. The role is accountable for design quality, engineering execution, people leadership, and developing scalable, modular product designs that meet customer, manufacturing, safety, and regulatory requirements. Based in Breinigsville, Pennsylvania, the manager partners with Product Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Applications, Project Management, Supply Chain, Quality, and Operations across global sites. The role establishes CAD and drawing practices, ensures disciplined design release and change control, and develops team capabilities to support new product development, configure-to-order (CTO), engineer-to-order (ETO), and product sustaining priorities.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering Technology, or another engineering discipline.
At least 8 years of progressive experience in mechanical engineering, equipment design, or manufacturing engineering.

Nice To Haves

Experience managing 3D CAD design, detailed drawings, bills of material, and design release for complex equipment or engineered products.
Proficiency with SOLIDWORKS for parts, assemblies, configurations, drawings, design tables, and reusable design libraries.
Experience with product lifecycle management (PLM), product data management (PDM), ERP, and formal document-control systems.
Knowledge of piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs), process flow diagrams (PFDs), pressure-containing components, thermal systems, and equipment packaging.
Familiarity with applicable equipment safety, pressure, electrical-interface, and machinery standards in a regulated manufacturing environment.
Ability to communicate clearly and work effectively in a fast-paced, cross-functional, and global environment.

Responsibilities

Lead, coach, and develop mechanical design engineers and CAD designers, including hiring, objective setting, performance management, succession planning, and technical capability development.
Own mechanical design execution and CAD deliverables from concept through design release, manufacturing support, validation, and lifecycle changes.
Establish and sustain CAD standards, drawing practices, model structures, libraries, templates, design checklists, and peer-review processes.
Drive development of reusable, modular 3D designs and product platforms that improve CTO and ETO speed, quality, and manufacturability.
Ensure drawings, bills of material, specifications, and technical documentation are accurate, complete, configuration-controlled, and released on schedule.
Provide technical oversight for mechanical layouts, frames, enclosures, piping assemblies, sheet metal, machined components, thermal considerations, and equipment interfaces.
Ensure application of ASME Y14.5 geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T), tolerance-stack analysis, design-for-manufacture and assembly (DFMA), and sound mechanical design principles.
Partner with Quality and cross-functional engineering teams on design risk management, including DFMEA, verification planning, root-cause analysis, and corrective actions.
Champion engineering change request and engineering change order (ECR/ECO) governance, including impact assessment, approvals, documentation, and implementation readiness.
Develop capacity plans, workload forecasts, priorities, delivery metrics, and recovery actions to achieve schedule, quality, and budget commitments.
Support technical quotations and early project definition with design concepts, effort estimates, risk inputs, and engineering assumptions.
Collaborate with manufacturing teams in Allentown and Chandler to resolve design-related production issues and improve first-time-right execution.
Drive continuous improvement and use appropriate digital tools, automation, and CAD/PLM practices to improve engineering productivity and design reuse.