Lead Design Engineer

Description

Lucifer Lighting Company is a privately held San Antonio-based designer and manufacturer of precision-engineered architectural lighting fixtures. You’ll find our products everywhere from SF MOMA to the Nike Headquarters. We’re in the campuses of 4 of the 5 largest tech companies and 5 of the top 10 tallest towers in the U.S. Our customers are the world’s leading architects and designers who look for minimalist industrial design and place a premium on service, quality, and innovation.  Our people make magic happen; we are passionate, smart, hard-working, committed, and creative.  We like to make work enjoyable and engaging.

We light the world’s most beautiful spaces.

Position Summary:  Responsible for product development from concept through production. Leads electro-mechanical product design and/or redesign, part assembly and detailed part drawings. Leads prototyping, testing, and assembly of samples. Leads various Product Design/development projects and teams. Must be able to collaborate with and influence all cross functional members of the design team. Must be able to present and communicate project status updates to senior management. Conducts daily management meetings with the cross-functional team. Must be able to mentor/lead other engineers.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Involved in various aspects of the design process including, but not limited to, the development of part geometry, assembly design and drawing generation. Design work varies form new product development to product enhancements and may involve work with problem jobs or field fixes. Develops and distributes engineering data in the form of Engineering Change Notices, bills of material and parts tracking.
• Spends time in direct/indirect training. Approximately half of this time will be spent learning about project management and how other departments including marketing, manufacturing, and lighting technology work within the process.
• Attends or leads team meetings on the product delivery system for each major product. When heading a project, the lead design engineer is expected to run these meetings.
• Concept Development- initiating and developing concepts for new products from Market Requirement Specification (MRS) provided by the VP of Product and other avenues such as reviewing competitor's samples and documentation, and free design techniques. These concepts must be agreeable with standard manufacturing methods utilized by the onsite manufacturing facility or supply chain.
• Continuously look for areas of process improvement directed at improving process productivity including quality, purchasing, and manufacturing. This includes sourcing new or alternate processes, equipment, and training of manpower. Look for advancements or changes in technology through tradeshows, technology councils and vendors.
• Teaches/supports Lean Transformation by actively participating on, or leading, Kaizen teams and leading the completion of post-Kaizen activity.
• Develop and document thermal, photometric, regulatory testing plans. Submits test request follow-up with the testing group. Submits prototyping requests, works with machine shop and external vendors in production of prototypes and assembly of samples.
• Understand and adhere to the appropriate established industry and safety Standards.
• Generating and revising CAD drawings and models, component inspection, prototype build and product testing.
• Utilize best practices, including DFM, DFA, and tolerance stack analysis in collaboration with manufacturing, supply chain, and vendors to ensure designs are optimized for cost, quality, and performance.
• Coordinate with the engineering team and other functional areas to drive design and development activities and ensure that projects are completed within budget and in a timely manner.
• Coordinate design and innovation efforts to develop optimal solutions through equipment specification, material flow, process design, site capabilities, and intellectual property considerations.
• Manages relationships with internal manufacturing facilities and external vendors to resolve issues and schedule and conduct pre-pilot/pilot runs, tool run-offs and plan for production release.
• Champions and schedules concept development by initiating and developing concepts for new products. Ensures all concepts are agreeable with standard manufacturing methods utilized in the appropriate manufacturing facility
• Write technical reports, create design spreadsheets, manage bills of material, and perform statistical analysis of test data
• Prepare or direct preparations of product or system layout and detailed drawings and schematics
• Simultaneously manage multiple projects and tasks while effectively influencing, negotiating, and communicating with internal and external business partners, contractors, and vendors to generate high quality, cost effective solutions
• Coordinate with Quality, Purchasing, and Production departments to resolve any product issues. Passionate in finding resolutions to problems and articulate in expressing solutions

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Experienced in 2D, 3D CAD software (AutoCAD, SolidWorks, Unigraphics NX)
• Prior experience in the lighting industry, especially architectural downlighting
• Experience with Project Management
• Ability to successfully work on multiple projects / programs.
• Demonstrated understanding and application of GD&T (ASME Y14.9-2009)
• Excellent communication skills- both verbal and written
• Strong teamwork skills to lead a cross-functional team, but also able to work independently
• Able to travel domestically and internationally (up to 20%) for company exhibits and to interact with internal and external business and technical leaders
• High sense of urgency with ability to prioritize multiple projects
• Ability to operate within tight project time frames
• Waterfall/gate style product development experience.  Experience with Agile a secondary priority.
• Knowledge of Lean with examples of experiences with Kaizens, continuous improvement, poka-yoke, 5S
• Highly proficient with Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
• Experience in test plan creation and end-to-end product development

Qualifications

Required Education and Experience:

• 5 years’ experience with lighting product development
• Detailed knowledge of UL and CSA standards and the NEC standards
• Detailed knowledge of some or all the CE, NOM, IEC standards
• Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering
• Detailed knowledge of castings (die and investment), forgings, plastic injection moldings, extrusions, machining, heat sink design, sheet metal, surface treatments (powder coating, painting, plating), stamping, drawing
• Detailed knowledge in light sources and LED Technologies, including LEDs, COBs, PCBs, Drivers, Control Systems, thermal management (simulation and testing) and computational fluid dynamics
• Detailed knowledge of Thermal Simulations using Flow Simulations and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
• Detailed knowledge or exposure to LEAN & Six Sigma methodology and practices
• Previous ERP software experience
• Detailed knowledge of electrical circuits, reliability, wiring, control protocols (ELV, 0-10, DALI, DMX, PoE)
• Proven experience with mentoring/leading less experienced teammates
• Demonstrated understanding and application of GD&T (ASME Y14.9-2009)
• Proficient in 2D, 3D CAD software SolidWorks and Unigraphics NX

Preferred Education and Experience:

• 7 years’ experience with lighting product development
• 4 years’ experience with architectural down lighting, track product development for the North American and European markets
• Detailed knowledge of the UL, CSA, NOM, and IEC standards related to lighting and the NEC
• Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electromechanical field
• Detailed knowledge in light sources and LED Technologies, including LEDs, COBs, PCBs, Drivers, Control Systems, thermal management (simulation and testing)
• Highly proficient in LEAN & Six Sigma methodology and practices such as standard work, time study, cause & effect, 5WHY analysis and other tools of DMAIC
• Extensive experience with IP testing, gasket design, thermal simulations, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
• Previous ERP software experience, specifically Syteline
• Detailed knowledge of electrical circuits, reliability, wiring, control protocols (ELV, 0-10, DALI, DMX, PoE)
• Moderate knowledge of IoT lighting specific landscape
• Proven record of innovative design/conceptualization within the lighting market
• High experience with IP portfolio development and management
• Experience with mentoring and leading less experience team mates on parallel projects

Working Environment:

• Smoke free workplace.

Lucifer Lighting is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer.