Sr. Principal Mechanical Design Engineer

Company : Safran Electronics & Defense Job field : Mechanics Location : Rockford , Illinois , United States Contract type : Permanent Contract duration : Full-time Required degree : Bachelor's Degree Required experience : More than 8 years Professional status : Professional, Engineer & Manager Salary range : $125,000 - $170,000 based on experience ITAR : ITAR Controlled position

# 2026-185733

Position Overview:
This position is for a Senior Principal Mechanical Design Engineer – particularly with hydraulic component and system integration experience and a keen interest in the design, analysis, and application of a variety of hydraulic components. This person will demonstrate experience in all aspects of development process and is considered a subject matter expert recognized in Actuation products. The role's primary focus will require significant experience in the design and development of rotary and linear actuation products in the Civil and Military Defense industries. The applicant will principles and techniques of mechanical engineering to ensure design preparation is in accordance with applicable specifications, customer requirements and standard work practices; interfaces with various functional groups to coordinate conceptual, preliminary, and detailed unit design, engineering documentation releases, development testing, qualification testing, and entry into service.
This individual must be an analytical thinker and be disciplined in ing robust design methodologies and engineering principles (modeling, simulation, data acquisition etc.) to develop and realize solutions.
Primary Responsibilities:

• Contribute to the design effort for mechanical and hydraulic actuation products and systems. These designs will be to Aerospace standard including but not limited to RTCA/DO-160.
• Innovates to improve technical solutions and/or processes while working with limited oversight
• Mentors and delegates to junior employees
• Customer focal in certain elements of development
• Evaluate and analyze mechanical hardware to determine relevancy and cost effectiveness for incorporation into current and future products
• Coordinate/Collaborate across the Actuation System Business Units to identify opportunities for commonization and optimization of product and process
• Generate design documentation including requirements specifications, design details, test procedures and reports.
• Support the selection and coordination of product vendors throughout the entire product lifecycle to include vendor qualification, issue resolution, and product acceptance

-Manage, execute, document, and present the results of Relentless Root Cause -Corrective Action investigations crossing functional boundaries

• Prepare and review the drawings and layouts for production parts and test equipment.

Experience/Qualifications

• Hydraulic circuit layout, design, and hydraulic loss / leakage evaluation experience
• Hydraulic valve design, tailoring, and application experience
• Hydraulic motor design and application experience (fixed, variable, over-center)
• CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) experience
• Gearbox, load limiter, drive shaft, asymmetry brake design application experience
• Rotary and linear actuator design and application experience
• NX software experience
• There will be some computer work and drawing interpretation, as well as a familiarity with schematics or Engineering drawings.
• Ability to advanced mathematical concepts.
• Evaluate concepts by creating analytical models and provide direction on which concept will meet component and or system level performance.
• Provide analysis support throughout the development of a product/concept
• Analyze data and performance of designs, recommend actions to create optimized design
• Interact cross-functionally with a wide variety of people and teams. Work closely with engineers to identify opportunities for design improvements.
• Fundamental typing skills as well as familiarity with Microsoft Office Suite and MATLAB.
• Exceptional written and oral communication skills
• Demonstrated ability to stand out, overcome barriers and deliver results.
• Demonstrable critical thinking and analytical skills, including the ability and confidence to make conclusions and recommendations from data
• Work with a team of engineers to design, develop, test and document mechanical components.
• Ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously

Education
Bachelor's degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering and a minimum of 10 years of prior relevant experience unless prohibited by local laws/regulations

• Advanced Degree in a related field and minimum 8 years experience OR
• In absence of a degree, 12 years of relevant experience is required
• U.S. Citizenship required