Product Development Engineer - Mechanical

About SGW Designworks

SGW Designworks is a product design and engineering firm that helps companies build hardware that endures. Our team has delivered more than one hundred commercialized products across consumer, industrial, medical device, defense, and enterprise markets.

Clients come to us when they need a full team, not a single contractor. We typically start at concept and carry the work through iterative design, prototyping, testing, and manufacturing startup.

The Role

You will own mechanical design and engineering across client projects. That means mechanism design, enclosure engineering, machine and equipment design, and hands-on prototype builds, carried from early concept through DFM and manufacturing release.

Team members that excel here have depth in one area (e.g machine design), but also are able to execute high-quality work in adjacent areas (e.g. injection molded part design).

You will work directly with clients, suppliers, and our electrical, firmware, and industrial design teams. Clear communication and steady judgment matter here as much as CAD skill.

What You Will Do

Design and engineering

• Lead mechanical design for products and equipment involving plastics, sheet and formed metal, machined parts, mechanisms, sealing schemes, and production assemblies.
• Design mechanisms with real kinematic and load analysis behind them, including linkages, drives, latches, actuation, and motion control.
• Design machines and equipment: fixtures, test rigs, material handling, including structural sizing, drive selection, and HMI considerations.
• Package embedded system components into manufacturable assemblies, including considerations for PCBAs, connectors, displays, batteries, sensors, antennas, and wire harnesses.
• Develop mechanical architecture that accounts for function, usability, assembly, cost, serviceability, and reliability.

Rigor and risk reduction

• Run DFMA reviews with suppliers at multiple stages in the development process.
• Perform tolerance stack-up analysis and produce data packages that shops can actually quote from and build from.
• Lead or contribute to FMEA and translate the findings into design changes and test plans.
• Use hand calculations, FEA, simulations, and physical prototyping appropriately throughout development.
• Document design progression using company systems, that hold up under client review.

Prototyping and builds

• Own prototype builds end to end: plan the build, source parts, assemble, debug, and document what you learned.
• Work hands-on in the shop with 3D printing, machining, and fabrication, and know when to send it out instead.
• Design and build test fixtures, then run the tests and iterate based on findings.

Projects, clients, and launch

• Scope and estimate mechanical work, then deliver against it.
• Communicate scope, progress, risk, and tradeoffs to clients directly.
• Support pilot builds and early production ramp, and resolve the mechanical issues that surface during the handoff to manufacturing.

What You Need

• Degree in Mechanical Engineering or a closely related field.
• 4 years designing production-intent hardware: products, enclosures, industrial equipment, machines, medical devices, or defense hardware. More experience maps to a more senior scope of responsibilities.
• Depth in at least two of: mechanism design, enclosure and sealing design, machine design, or high-volume plastic part design.
• Working command of injection molding, machining, and sheet metal, and the DFM constraints that come with each.
• Demonstrated tolerance analysis and GD&T practice.
• Strong hands-on prototyping. You should be comfortable in a shop, not only at a workstation.
• High proficiency in SolidWorks and PDM, or a close equivalent.
• Direct experience working with contract manufacturers, machine shops, tooling vendors, and prototype suppliers.
• Comfort using AI tools to move faster on analysis, documentation, and workflow.
• Clear writing and clear speech. You will be in front of clients.

Nice to Have

• Sealed and IP-rated products: gaskets, adhesives, potting, venting, environmental durability.
• Embedded packaging depth: PCB constraints, connector strategy, EMI and EMC awareness, thermal paths, service access.
• Motion and controls exposure: motor and actuator sizing, pneumatics, sensors, and working alongside a controls engineer.
• Test and validation capability, including fixture design, environmental testing, and data-driven iteration.
• Consulting or agency experience, and the context switching that comes with it.
• Familiarity with UL, CE, FCC, FDA, or IEC requirements as they affect mechanical architecture.
• Project management experience or certification.

Why SGW Designworks

You will not be assigned to one product for three years. Our engineers touch consumer devices, industrial equipment, hardware, and medical products, often in the same quarter, and your decisions carry directly into what gets built.

Pay: $81,679.15 - $111,000.69 per year

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Retirement plan
• Vision insurance

Experience:

• Product Development: 4 years (Required)

Location:

• Garden City, ID 83714 (Required)

Work Location: In person

Salary : $81,679 - $111,001