Engineer-Design

Overview

Mechanical Design Engineer in Caterpillar's Power Conversion Engineering team, responsible for the mechanical and structural design of power conversion cabinets and enclosures from concept through production release.

What you'll do

• Design cabinets, enclosures, frames, panels, brackets, equipment mounts, and other structural components for power conversion systems.
• Translate system, packaging, environmental, manufacturing, and service requirements into robust mechanical designs.
• Apply first-principles calculations to evaluate structural load paths, strength, stiffness, vibration, fatigue, and design margins.
• Perform structural FEA, including static, modal, vibration, buckling, and fatigue analysis as applicable.
• Develop realistic load cases, boundary conditions, material models, and joint assumptions.
• Validate simulation results using hand calculations and engineering judgment.
• Create 3D CAD models, assemblies, engineering drawings, GD&T, and design documentation.
• Design sheet-metal, welded, bolted, machined, and fabricated structures for manufacturability and assembly.
• Support prototype builds, design validation, root-cause investigations, and production implementation.
• Collaborate with electrical, power electronics, thermal, manufacturing, validation, and supplier teams.

What you'll need

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related discipline.
• Strong fundamentals in engineering mechanics, strength of materials, machine design, structural mechanics, and materials engineering.
• Experience designing cabinets, enclosures, frames, or similar mechanical structures.
• Experience with sheet-metal, welded, bolted, and fabricated assemblies.
• Proficiency in 3D CAD and production engineering drawings.
• Experience performing structural FEA using ANSYS Mechanical, Abaqus, Creo Simulate, Nastran, or an equivalent tool.
• Ability to develop load cases, define realistic boundary conditions, interpret simulation results, and recommend design improvements.
• Ability to perform hand calculations to validate analytical and simulation results.
• Working knowledge of GD&T and manufacturing processes.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and technical communication skills.

Nice to have

• Experience with power converters, inverters, chargers, energy-storage systems, industrial drives, or high-voltage electrical equipment.
• Experience packaging power electronic modules, capacitors, magnetics, busbars, cables, and control hardware.
• Experience with PTC Creo and Teamcenter.
• Knowledge of vibration, shock, fatigue, weld, fastener, or structural joint analysis.
• Experience supporting designs from concept through prototype, validation, and production release.
• Experience working with suppliers of sheet-metal, welded, machined, or fabricated components.
• Knowledge of cooling-system design, heat transfer, airflow management, and liquid-cooling systems.
• Experience with CFD or thermal-analysis tools such as ANSYS Fluent, Icepak, Simcenter STAR-CCM+, or FloEFD.