Principal Industrial Design Engineer - MHE Automation

About The Role

Veho is building a repeatable, scalable system of motion across our Middle Mile and Last Mile facilities. As we scale, we are shifting from manual flexibility to automated precision, with sorter automation and supporting MHE as a core lever to improve cost per package, throughput, cycle time, and quality.

This role is Veho’s senior-most individual contributor for MHE automation. You will be the hands-on subject matter expert (SME) who can take automation from requirements and business case to vendor selection, design, install, commissioning, go-live, and long-term reliability ownership across multiple sites. You will define the “Veho Standard” for automation so deployments are safe, stable, measurable, and supportable at scale.

This individual will partner tightly with Ground Ops, Facilities, Network Ops, Product, Engineering, Finance, and external integrators. Expect meaningful time on-site, especially during installs, cutovers, early-life ramp, and periods where reliability is being stabilized.

Your Responsibilities Will Include

• Own Veho’s MHE automation technical direction for sortation and conveyance across Middle Mile and Last Mile, including system requirements, standard designs, performance acceptance criteria, and network playbooks for repeatable deployment.
• Lead end-to-end multi-site rollouts of sorter automation and supporting MHE, including site readiness, layout and flow design, installation planning, commissioning, cutover execution, hypercare, and steady-state handoff.
• Design for peak performance and real-world constraints by building capacity and throughput models, translating growth forecasts into equipment sizing and operational staffing assumptions, and validating models with on-the-floor observations and measured performance.
• Champion a design-for-failure mindset by engineering manual bypass workflows, physical rollback readiness, and appropriate redundancy into each deployment, with clear go/no-go gates and contingency plans for cutover.
• Serve as the primary technical point of contact for automation vendors and integrators. Run technical RFPs/RFQs, write specifications vendors can build to, and manage delivery through install, commissioning, punch lists, and performance testing.
• Own Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) and Site Acceptance Testing (SAT) protocols and sign-off criteria. Partner with Procurement and Legal to embed measurable performance guarantees, reliability expectations, and warranty/service terms into vendor contracts.
• Drive reliability ownership for deployed automation by defining and tracking uptime/OEE targets and other reliability metrics (for example, MTBF/MTTR), setting preventive maintenance and spares strategy, establishing root-cause mechanisms, and leading corrective actions that reduce downtime and total cost of ownership.
• Define the operational interface for automation: standard work, SOPs, training plans, escalation paths, safety disciplines, and certification expectations so teams can operate and troubleshoot effectively from Day 1.
• Partner with Product and Engineering on end-to-end integration across WMS/WCS/controls, instrumentation, and data visibility. Ensure operational controls exist for scan quality, divert accuracy, missorts, jam rates, recirculation, exception handling, and throughput performance.
• Provide deep technical support during critical events and ramp periods, including on-site and remote troubleshooting. Coach operations and facilities teams on diagnosing issues across controls, sensors, and mechanical subsystems (conveyors, induction, sortation, scanning tunnels, print-and-apply, and monitoring systems).
• Build the business case and roadmap for automation expansion by quantifying ROI, capacity, labor impacts, constraints, and sequencing, then translating that into an executable, standardized deployment plan across the network.
  
  

What a Great Candidate Looks Like

• You have deep, hands-on experience leading MHE automation deployments at scale, with a track record of delivering stable go-lives across multiple sites. You’ve been accountable for outcomes, not just participation.
• You bring 8–15 years in automation engineering, MHE engineering, operations engineering, industrial/process engineering, or similar, including substantial ownership of sorter automation and high-throughput material flow systems in ecommerce fulfillment, last-mile logistics, parcel networks, 3PL networks, or high-velocity manufacturing.
• You have “deployment scars” and use them productively. You can anticipate failure modes, set realistic cutover plans, insist on measurable acceptance criteria, and design operational guardrails that keep performance from collapsing after launch.
• You’ve led vendor and integrator execution end-to-end. You can run RFP/RFQ processes, write specifications that are testable and unambiguous, and hold partners accountable to schedule, quality, and measurable performance through commissioning, FAT/SAT, and early-life stabilization.
• You think in reliability, not just implementation. You’ve owned uptime/OEE and reliability outcomes, built maintenance and spares strategies, and driven disciplined root-cause programs that reduce repeat failures and improve total cost of ownership.
• You’re fluent in sortation and MHE ecosystems: conveyors and merge logic, induction, scanning and tunnel design, diverts, accumulation, labeling/print-and-apply, and operational monitoring/telemetry (SCADA or equivalent), and you can connect system behavior to on-the-floor workflows.
• You have experience in common sorter types (cross-belt, shoe, tilt-tray, sliding shoe, bomb-bay) and with parcel induction and dimensioning/weighing/scanning systems.
• You can operate across controls and software boundaries. You don’t need to be a full-time PLC programmer, but you can diagnose problems with control partners, understand industrial networks at a practical level, and translate operational requirements into control behaviors and instrumentation.
• You’ve operated in both startups and scaled organizations, especially through rapid growth. You can be scrappy when needed, but you value standards, documentation, and rollout discipline that prevent one-off facility builds.
• You lead change effectively. You’ve driven training discipline, leadership readiness, and frontline adoption, and you have strong instincts for cutover planning, contingency plans, and rollback criteria.
• You are data-driven and comfortable using tools such as Excel, SQL (and/or BI tools) to model throughput, quantify constraints, and analyze reliability and defect trends.
  
  

Preferred (but Not Required)

• Experience creating facility layouts and automation fit plans (AutoCAD or similar), plus flow/capacity modeling and ROI analysis tied to labor, throughput, and service outcomes.
• Experience building reliability programs using CMMS data, OEE dashboards, FMEA/RCM, defect mapping, and preventive/predictive maintenance approaches.
• Familiarity with major vendor ecosystems and integrators (for example, Dematic, Vanderlande, Honeywell/Intelligrated, Bastian, Siemens, Interroll) and experience negotiating service/support models, spares strategies, and performance-based guarantees.
• Relevant certifications (Lean/Six Sigma, PMP, CMRP) and/or an advanced degree in Industrial, Mechanical, Electrical, Controls, Systems Engineering, or equivalent experience.
  
  

Compensation & Benefits

• Base Salary: $180,000 - $220,000
• Equity: Generous ownership package aligned with Veho’s commitment to shared success
• Benefits: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage; 401(k).
• PTO: Flexible paid time off policy.
  
  

Veho is a growth company that looks for team members to grow with it. No matter the location or the role, every Veho teammate shares one galvanizing mission: driving commerce forward with a customer-centric delivery and returns experience that’s built for the modern era. We are deeply value-driven (Team Up, Drive Impact, Take Ownership, Solve Bigger, Obsess Over Experience, Make Today Count) and care tremendously about investing in our high-performers.

Join us in building the future of e-commerce logistics and in doing the work of our lifetime!

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