Mechanical Design Engineer

UEC Electronic•Hanahan, SC

2h•Onsite

About The Position

UEC Advanced Electronics is seeking a hands-on Mechanical Design Engineer to develop ruggedized battery systems, power electronics assemblies, and related electromechanical products for demanding military, aerospace, industrial, and commercial applications. This engineer will own mechanical design activities from concept through prototype, validation, design release, and transition to production. The role combines detailed mechanical design with engineering analysis, prototype development, hands-on testing, supplier interaction, and close collaboration with electrical, software, systems, manufacturing, and quality engineering. The ideal candidate is comfortable moving between CAD and the hardware itself—developing a design, analyzing it, building it, testing it, identifying problems, and improving the design until it is ready for production.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or a closely related engineering discipline.
2+ years of professional mechanical design experience involving electromechanical products, electronic enclosures, battery systems, power electronics, industrial equipment, or similarly complex engineered hardware.
Strong proficiency with 3D parametric CAD, preferably SolidWorks.
Demonstrated experience creating detailed engineering drawings for manufactured components and assemblies.
Practical understanding of GD&T, tolerance stack-up analysis, fits, fasteners, materials, and manufacturing processes.
Experience designing machined, sheet-metal, molded, and/or additive-manufactured components.
Ability to perform mechanical engineering calculations and apply fundamental principles of statics, dynamics, heat transfer, materials, and structural mechanics to real-world product designs.
Experience developing and testing physical prototypes.
Ability to troubleshoot mechanical problems systematically and use test results to drive design improvements.
Ability to communicate effectively with engineers, technicians, manufacturing personnel, suppliers, and program leadership.
Comfortable working in a fast-paced, hands-on engineering and manufacturing environment where engineers are expected to take ownership of their designs from concept through hardware.
Due to U.S. export control regulations (ITAR/EAR), applicants must be U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents, or individuals lawfully admitted to the U.S. as asylees or refugees.

Nice To Haves

Lithium-ion battery modules or battery pack design
High-power or high-voltage electromechanical systems
Battery cell integration and mechanical retention
Thermal management of batteries or power electronics
Ruggedized military or aerospace electronics
Structural and thermal FEA
Shock and vibration analysis and testing
Environmental qualification testing
MIL-STD-810 or similar environmental requirements
IP-rated enclosure and sealing design
Injection-molded plastic design
DFMEA and formal design-review processes
Prototype-to-production product development
Low- to medium-volume manufacturing
Supplier development and technical supplier management
Product lifecycle/configuration management and engineering change control

Responsibilities

Develop mechanical concepts and detailed designs for battery components, modules, pack-level systems, electronic enclosures, power electronics assemblies, fixtures, and related electromechanical hardware.
Create and maintain production-quality 3D CAD models, assemblies, and detailed engineering drawings using SolidWorks.
Apply appropriate GD&T, tolerance analysis, material selection, fastener design, sealing methods, thermal interfaces, and mechanical design principles to ensure robust and manufacturable designs.
Design components and assemblies utilizing a range of manufacturing processes, including: CNC-machined metal and plastic components, sheet-metal fabrication, injection-molded plastic components, additive-manufactured / 3D-printed components, extrusions and fabricated assemblies, seals, gaskets, adhesives, fasteners, and other mechanical joining methods.
Perform engineering calculations and thermal and structural analysis, including FEA where appropriate, to evaluate design alternatives and predict mechanical and thermal performance.
Design for demanding environmental conditions including shock, vibration, temperature extremes, ingress protection, mechanical loading, and transportation/handling environments.
Support development and qualification testing in accordance with applicable customer requirements, internal specifications, and military or industry standards.
Develop prototype hardware and take an active role in prototype assembly, instrumentation, testing, troubleshooting, teardown, and design iteration.
Translate product and system requirements into mechanical design requirements and ensure that the design can be objectively verified and validated.
Participate in and contribute to formal and informal design reviews, clearly communicating design decisions, tradeoffs, risks, analysis results, and test findings.
Develop and maintain mechanical portions of DFMEAs and participate in engineering risk identification and mitigation.
Work directly with manufacturing engineering and production personnel to ensure designs are manufacturable, repeatable, cost-effective, and practical to assemble and test.
Apply Design for Manufacturability (DFM), Design for Assembly (DFA), and Design for Test (DFT) principles throughout product development.
Work directly with suppliers on component design, manufacturability, material selection, tooling, tolerances, technical questions, prototype parts, and production readiness.
Create, release, and maintain bills of material, drawings, specifications, and other engineering documentation.
Initiate and implement Engineering Change Orders (ECOs/COs) to release new designs and maintain configuration control of existing products.
Support production during pilot and early production builds, rapidly resolving mechanical design, fit, assembly, supplier, and manufacturing issues.
Participate in failure investigation and root-cause analysis and implement technically sound corrective actions when hardware does not perform as intended.
Collaborate closely with electrical, battery, software, systems, manufacturing, quality, supply-chain, and program-management personnel throughout the product-development lifecycle.