Design Engineer - RD (Precision Tooling)

Location: On-site within the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, United States. Work may include office, engineering, laboratory, and manufacturing areas; PPE is required in designated production areas. Some travel to company facilities, suppliers, customers, industry events, or project partners may be required.

Company

Established, privately owned manufacturing organisation designing and producing highly engineered products and tooling solutions for global industrial markets.

What you will do

• Design and develop precision punches, dies, strippers, guides, and forming tooling for sheet metal fabrication.
• Reverse engineer existing tooling and mechanical components by analysing geometry, materials, dimensions, tolerances, and functional characteristics.
• Create 3D CAD models, manufacturing drawings, specifications, and revision-controlled engineering documentation.
• Evaluate tooling performance, investigate failures, and implement improvements for tool life, accuracy, reliability, and manufacturing efficiency.
• Support prototype manufacture, hands-on testing, validation, troubleshooting, and continuous improvement.
• Collaborate with machining, manufacturing, quality, commercial teams, suppliers, technicians, and customers to move designs from concept through production.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent relevant industry experience.
• Experience designing punch press tooling, turret tooling, precision dies, or related metal-forming components.
• Strong understanding of sheet metal fabrication, tooling geometry, precision manufacturing, machining, grinding, and heat treatment.
• Advanced proficiency with a major 3D CAD platform such as SolidWorks, Inventor, Creo, or equivalent.
• Strong knowledge of Geometric Dimensioning & Tolerancing, tolerance analysis, tooling materials, tool steels, coatings, and wear-resistant materials.
• Strong mechanical problem-solving, root-cause analysis, communication, and prioritisation skills, with the ability to work directly with manufacturing teams.

Nice to have

• Experience with CNC turret punch press tooling systems, SolidWorks PDM, CNC machining, and Design for Manufacturing.
• Knowledge of tool wear mechanisms, material behaviour, and metal-forming processes.
• Experience with dimensional measurement and inspection equipment, prototyping, testing, troubleshooting, and engineering validation.
• Customer-facing engineering experience and exposure to suppliers, global engineering teams, patents/IP, or regulated product environments.
• Broader electrical or electro-mechanical engineering knowledge.

Culture & Benefits

• Permanent, full-time position within an established international manufacturing organisation.
• Hands-on work across the complete engineering lifecycle, from concept and reverse engineering through prototype, validation, and production.
• Exposure to advanced tooling, machining, sheet metal manufacturing, and precision engineering technologies.
• Collaboration with experienced engineering, manufacturing, quality, commercial, and customer-facing teams.
• The position does not typically include direct line management, but may involve coordinating technicians, interns, suppliers, and cross-functional contributors.