Senior Design Engineer - New Product Development

Senior Design Engineer – New Product Development

New Product Development  |  Peoria, IL  |  Full-Time

Compensation: $95,000 – $145,000

On New Product Development, you design the powder handling equipment that becomes Rheo’s standard product line — the equipment pharmaceutical manufacturers rely on to make life-saving medicine. If that kind of ownership excites you, keep reading.

Rheo Engineering builds advanced powder handling equipment for the pharmaceutical industry, designed and manufactured on-site to an exacting standard. New Product Development is where those products begin — where a concept becomes a validated, production-ready design that defines what Rheo brings to market.

We’re looking for a Senior Design Engineer to be the technical backbone of that work. You’ll have your own product designs while overseeing the quality of other assigned NPD design engineer's output — leading design reviews, running the engineering change process, and mentoring the engineers around you. This is a technical leadership role with room to grow.

What You’ll Do

• Perform CAD modeling on moderate-to-complex assemblies and components
• Serve as a technical point of contact on your products — communicating directly on technical matters and leading client training and webinars
• Own product maintenance, product testing and validation, and product family standardization
• Lead formal design reviews and drive decisions to closure, with accountability for FMEA execution, prototype testing, and approval submittal sign-off
• Own the engineering change process — triage ECRs, verify and close out ECOs, and create basis-of-design documentation
• Ensure the accuracy and completeness of Design Engineer work across testing, FEA, component specification, customer drawings, and documentation
• Collaborate with controls & automation, fabrication, assembly, and manufacturing engineering to resolve design issues and ensure producibility
• Source and qualify vendors alongside purchasing; review vendor drawings and conduct technical evaluations
• Mentor Design Engineers, build SME expertise, and provide performance-review input for team members
• Generate engineering standards and design calculators, and administer the CAD environment
• Resolve technical obstacles early, ensure standards are followed, and assign and distribute tasks across the team
• Participate in internal and external FATs, new-hire interviews, and feasibility assessments, and support system integration, quality activities (CAPAs/SCARs), sales, and CustomerCare

What Success Looks Like

• Product designs under your oversight are thoroughly validated and transition smoothly from development into production with minimal issues
• The Design Engineers you mentor show measurable growth in technical capability, independence, and design quality over time
• Cross-functional teams — fabrication, assembly, controls & automation, purchasing, marketing — view you as a reliable, responsive technical partner
• Technical obstacles on your projects are identified and resolved early, avoiding downstream schedule or quality impacts

What We’re Looking For

• Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related engineering discipline
• Someone who embodies Rheo’s core values:
  • Bold Humility
  • Reliability
  • Competence
  • Collaboration
  • Initiative
• Significant professional experience in mechanical design engineering, with demonstrated ownership of complex design work from concept through production release
• Proficiency in Autodesk Inventor or equivalent 3D CAD
• Experience with FEA software tools
• Proven track record of producing and reviewing engineering drawings, models, and calculations to a high standard of quality
• Experience leading or facilitating design reviews and managing engineering change processes (ECR/ECO)
• History of mentoring junior engineers and contributing to team development
• Experience across the product development lifecycle — prototyping, testing, and validation
• Technical ownership — you take personal accountability for engineering quality and see problems through to resolution
• Cross-functional leadership — you coordinate across engineering, fabrication, assembly, purchasing, marketing, and sales without needing formal authority
• Proficiency in Microsoft 365 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams)

Preferred Qualifications

• Professional Engineer (PE) license or active progress toward licensure
• Experience in pharmaceutical, food processing, or other regulated manufacturing environments
• Experience with powder handling or process equipment design
• Working knowledge of ASME codes, GD&T (ASME Y14.5), and fabrication processes
• Knowledge of GMP, cleanability (CIP/WIP), process containment, or OEL/OEB requirements
• Experience with stage-gate product development processes

Why Rheo

• Privately owned and operated for 30 years and counting
• Excellent benefits - see section below
• Smaller team (~100 team members) with a strong, in-person work culture
• High-impact work — the equipment you design helps make life-saving medicine, built to a standard you can be proud of
• Ownership from concept to production — you’ll see your designs go from a model on your screen to a finished system on the floor
• A growing company in a stable, regulated industry where precision engineering matters
• Vertically integrated - see what you design be built in the same building

Benefits

• Leading medical insurance — consistently low rates compared to other businesses in the area
• Health Savings Account with employer contributions (plan-dependent)
• Dental, vision, and life insurance
• Short-term and long-term disability
• Identity theft insurance
• 401(k) with 4% employer match
• Generous PTO
• Paid paternity and maternity leave
• Paid cell phone plan with stipend for a new phone every 2 years
• Employee referral program

Working Conditions

Office-based with regular desk and computer work, plus periodic time on the manufacturing floor and at vendor and client sites. Must be able to lift up to 25 pounds at times and to bend/stoop, climb stairs and ladders, squat, kneel, and push/pull as needed. Appropriate PPE is required on the manufacturing floor and at vendor and client sites. Travel up to approximately 10% of the time. Standard 8-hour workday; overtime may be required upon supervisor request.

The physical requirements described here are representative of those that must be met to perform the essential functions of this role, with or without reasonable accommodation.

Rheo Engineering is an equal opportunity employer.