Manager - Structural Design

Jordan Sitter Associates • Virginia Beach, VA

13d

About The Position

Hands-on engineering leader to own the full structural design lifecycle for the company's ultra-class rigid-frame haul trucks (250 to 375 ton machines) built for the world's most demanding mining environments. This is not a caretaker role. The mandate is to elevate a tenured team and set a higher bar for engineering rigor, while personally engaging with the technical challenges that make this work genuinely interesting: fatigue life, weld design, and structural weight optimization.

Requirements

• Hands-on structural engineering experience with welded fabrications, castings, and/or heavy machined structures; must have designed or co-designed real hardware
• Fatigue life analysis depth: cyclic loading, S-N curves, finite fatigue life design
• Weld design knowledge: full-penetration welds, joint selection, and fatigue impact of geometry decisions
• Free body diagram fluency; can trace force flow independently from software output
• Proficiency in 3D modeling (Creo/Pro-E, SolidWorks, CATIA, or Siemens NX)
• Minimum 2 years directly managing technical staff (reviews, coaching, personnel decisions)

Nice To Haves

• Heavy equipment structural experience: mining, construction, crane, agriculture, or similar cyclic-loading environment
• Material selection experience with HSLA steel - weldability, tensile strength, and cold-weather properties
• Top-down 3D modeling methodology - must be able to discuss and demonstrate approach
• Sand casting design experience with wall thickness and fatigue geometry considerations
• Ability to write clear business cases and engineering justifications

Responsibilities

• Lead the Structural Design department (4–6 engineers), including performance reviews, coaching, and personnel decisions
• Own full structural system design: superstructure, dump body, front/rear running gear, castings, and weld design
• Drive fatigue life analysis using cyclic load profiles and S-N curves; designing to finite fatigue life, not just static ultimate load
• Develop and review weld joint designs, including full-penetration welds, fillet vs. groove tradeoffs, and toe geometry
• Apply 3D modeling using PTC Creo (preferred) or equivalent platform; strong preference for top-down methodology
• Mentor engineers to understand the physics behind FEA outputs, not just produce results
• Develop business cases and written justifications to unlock resources and support across the organization
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams and international counterparts; up to 20% travel
• Contribute to root cause analysis, failure analysis, and field warranty investigations as needed

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Education Level: No Education Listed