Job Summary:
This position is located at either the PDQ Manufacturing, Inc. facility in De Pere, WI, or at the Belanger, Inc. facility in Northville, MI, and is primarily responsible for performing electrical engineering in the research, development and support of VWS vehicle wash products. Duties include: concept generation and evaluation, design development, analysis, test planning and conduction, component specification and selection, and product documentation. These duties are conducted under the guidance of the Director – New Product Development and other senior engineering staff and at times involves leadership of projects.
Major Responsibilities/Activities:
- Design low-voltage (up to 600VAC) electrical systems such as power distribution, electrical control, motor control, wire harnesses, sensor application and enclosures using fabrication techniques and in-/out-sourced components in a Lean manufacturing environment.
- Use higher level electrical engineering principles to make design decisions in the development of own designs as well as in the role of evaluator of designs generated by others. Make design decisions that maximize profitability to VWS and value for VWS’s customers by considering factors such as feasibility, risk, component cost, assembly time, reliability, and quality.
- Collaborate with all relevant departments such as Operations, Manufacturing Engineering, Marketing, and Sales personnel through the development, release, and support of VWS products. Handle changes and problems related to assigned projects.
- Initiate, conduct, and document design reviews at appropriate points in the development process while including appropriate representatives from VWS departments. Review own and others’ product designs for compliance with electrical engineering principles, safety, company standards, project charter and design specifications, customer requirements as well as applicable specifications and electrical codes, standards, and regulations.
- Coordinate the review and approval/maintenance process for new and existing products to attain and maintain electrical standards compliance (including UL 508A, CSA 22.2#14, UL 48, CSA 22.2#207, and CE certifications). Perform designs and generate design output in accordance with project charter and specifications, safety and applicable national/regional regulatory requirements such as NEC (NFPA-70), NFPA-79, CE and CEC (CSA 22.1).
- Develop component and system test plans. Lead and conduct testing to verify design compliance with specifications. At times participate in a hands-on manner in the building of prototypes.
- Generate product documents needed to communicate designs, including but not limited to one-line drawings, parts lists, bills-of-material (BOM), electrical schematics, engineering design specifications, solid model parts and assemblies, and engineering drawings.
- Participate in all engineering ISO 9001 quality processes from establishing customer’s requirements to releasing products for sale. Generate design and product documents as well as any other appropriate documents to verify and communicate design in accordance with VWS’s design and document control procedures.
- Participate in the research and testing of new products/technologies for VWS. Maintain awareness of changing technology and standards and evaluate these for adoption into our designs.
- Utilize engineering principles to evaluate feasibility of ideas and concepts and generate analysis to support recommendations. Manage risk in proceeding with concepts during the design and development process.
- Act as a technical expert for the company for internal and at times external customers. Provide electrical engineering consultation as needed including but not limited to analysis, opinion, and basic to advanced calculation.
- May directly communicate with customers, collect customer requirements, create product specifications from requirements, and create time estimates based on specifications. Travel to customer locations to perform on-site testing, troubleshooting and technical support when needed.
- Demonstrate and encourage safe work practices in the department.
Experience Requirements:
- 5+ years of experience working in design of electrically operated machinery and/or industrial control systems is required.
- Proficiency with electrical load calculation, safe electrical design practices, NEC and IEC requirements, UL/cUL, CE EMC and Machinery Safety Directive. Experience with standard for industrial control panel, UL 508A, is expected and experience with standard for motor-operated appliances, UL 73, is desired.
- Proficiency in the application of sensors including proximity, photo eye, and ultrasonic, low voltage controls, AC induction motors, variable frequency drives, cable harnesses, distributed control and communication networks including Ethernet and serial.
- Experience with industrial PLC systems is beneficial.
- Proficiency with interpreting and generating electrical schematics.
- Experience in CAD and proficiency with generating engineering drawings. Proficiency with SolidWorks 3D-modeling and its electrical design capabilities is desired.
- Good electrical troubleshooting skills are required. Experience with failure analysis of electrical designs and experience of methods for improving those designs.
- Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering preferred.
- Minimum of an associate degree in Electrical Engineering Technology and equivalent experience considered.
