Senior Design Engineer - New Product Development

Rheo Engineering • Peoria, IL

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

On New Product Development, you design the powder handling equipment that becomes Rheo’s standard product line — the equipment pharmaceutical manufacturers rely on to make life-saving medicine. If that kind of ownership excites you, keep reading. Rheo Engineering builds advanced powder handling equipment for the pharmaceutical industry, designed and manufactured on-site to an exacting standard. New Product Development is where those products begin — where a concept becomes a validated, production-ready design that defines what Rheo brings to market. We’re looking for a Senior Design Engineer to be the technical backbone of that work. You’ll have your own product designs while overseeing the quality of other assigned NPD design engineer's output — leading design reviews, running the engineering change process, and mentoring the engineers around you. This is a technical leadership role with room to grow.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related engineering discipline
• Someone who embodies Rheo’s core values: Bold Humility Reliability Competence Collaboration Initiative
• Significant professional experience in mechanical design engineering, with demonstrated ownership of complex design work from concept through production release
• Proficiency in Autodesk Inventor or equivalent 3D CAD
• Experience with FEA software tools
• Proven track record of producing and reviewing engineering drawings, models, and calculations to a high standard of quality
• Experience leading or facilitating design reviews and managing engineering change processes (ECR/ECO)
• History of mentoring junior engineers and contributing to team development
• Experience across the product development lifecycle — prototyping, testing, and validation
• Technical ownership — you take personal accountability for engineering quality and see problems through to resolution
• Cross-functional leadership — you coordinate across engineering, fabrication, assembly, purchasing, marketing, and sales without formal authority
• Proficiency in Microsoft 365 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams)

Nice To Haves

• Professional Engineer (PE) license or active progress toward licensure
• Experience in pharmaceutical, food processing, or other regulated manufacturing environments
• Experience with powder handling or process equipment design
• Working knowledge of ASME codes, GD&T (ASME Y14.5), and fabrication processes
• Knowledge of GMP, cleanability (CIP/WIP), process containment, or OEL/OEB requirements
• Experience with stage-gate product development processes

Responsibilities

• Perform CAD modeling on moderate-to-complex assemblies and components
• Serve as a technical point of contact on your products — communicating directly on technical matters and leading client training and webinars
• Own product maintenance, product testing and validation, and product family standardization
• Lead formal design reviews and drive decisions to closure, with accountability for FMEA execution, prototype testing, and approval submittal sign-off
• Own the engineering change process — triage ECRs, verify and close out ECOs, and create basis-of-design documentation
• Ensure the accuracy and completeness of Design Engineer work across testing, FEA, component specification, customer drawings, and documentation
• Collaborate with controls & automation, fabrication, assembly, and manufacturing engineering to resolve design issues and ensure producibility
• Source and qualify vendors alongside purchasing; review vendor drawings and conduct technical evaluations
• Mentor Design Engineers, build SME expertise, and provide performance-review input for team members
• Generate engineering standards and design calculators, and administer the CAD environment
• Resolve technical obstacles early, ensure standards are followed, and assign and distribute tasks across the team
• Participate in internal and external FATs, new-hire interviews, and feasibility assessments, and support system integration, quality activities (CAPAs/SCARs), sales, and CustomerCare

Benefits

• Leading medical insurance — consistently low rates compared to other businesses in the area
• Health Savings Account with employer contributions (plan-dependent)
• Dental, vision, and life insurance
• Short-term and long-term disability
• Identity theft insurance
• 401(k) with 4% employer match
• Generous PTO
• Paid paternity and maternity leave
• Paid cell phone plan with stipend for a new phone every 2 years
• Employee referral program

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior