Job Title: Principal Engineer

Location: Keosauqua, IA

What we are looking for:

The Principal Engineer will serve as a senior technical leader within Specialty Engineering, providing technical leadership, project execution discipline, and mentorship across complex product development initiatives. This position will lead strategically important engineering projects from definition through implementation while helping advance the organization's engineering methods, technical rigor, and problem-solving capabilities.

The Principal Engineer will establish and promote engineering practices that connect product requirements and design inputs to analytical methods, testing, objective data, and validated design outputs. This includes improving approaches to instrumentation, data acquisition, test methods, data analysis, design verification, and the development of engineering design rules that can be applied across product families.

This individual must demonstrate strong technical aptitude, engineering judgment, structured problem-solving capability, and the ability to use objective data and engineering fundamentals to solve complex technical problems. The Principal Engineer will also mentor and develop other engineers and provide technical leadership for major portfolio and product redesign initiatives required to address evolving customer, market, technology, and regulatory requirements.

What you will be responsible for in this role:

• Lead major and strategically important engineering and product development initiatives from project definition through implementation.
• Establish project plans, technical workstreams, schedules, deliverables, risks, resource requirements, and decision points necessary for successful project execution.
• Provide technical leadership and direction to engineers working on complex product development and problem-solving activities.
• Mentor engineers in engineering judgment, structured problem solving, project execution, experimental methods, data analysis, and technical decision making.
• Establish and promote disciplined engineering methods that connect product and market requirements to engineering specifications, design decisions, verification methods, and validated product performance.
• Improve engineering rigor surrounding instrumentation, data acquisition, measurement methods, test planning, data integrity, and analysis.
• Develop approaches for translating test, analytical, simulation, and field data into actionable engineering conclusions and design decisions.
• Lead the development and documentation of engineering design rules, models, guidelines, and standard practices that can be applied across product families.
• Promote predictive and physics-based engineering methods that reduce dependence on iterative build-and-test development.
• Identify critical technical risks early in product development and establish appropriate analysis, testing, and mitigation plans.
• Lead root-cause analysis and resolution of difficult and complex technical problems using objective data and structured engineering methods.
• Provide expert technical consultation and design review support to engineers and cross-functional project teams.
• Collaborate with Product Management, Operations, Product Engineering, Engineering Lab, Quality, Sourcing, and other functions to ensure successful execution of major initiatives.
• Evaluate emerging technologies, market requirements, and regulatory changes and provide technical guidance regarding their impact on future product architecture and portfolio strategy.
• Provide technical leadership for major portfolio redesigns required to address evolving customer, market, technology, and regulatory requirements.
• Support development of organizational engineering capabilities by identifying technical competency gaps and helping establish methods, standards, and training to close those gaps.
• Clearly document and communicate technical findings, recommendations, project status, risks, and decisions to both technical and business audiences.

What are the basic qualifications?

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent engineering discipline.
• Minimum 10 years of engineering experience in product design, product development, product testing, or systems engineering; or minimum 7 years with a Master's degree in an engineering discipline.
• Minimum 5 years of experience leading engineering product development projects.
• Minimum 5 years of experience applying engineering analysis, testing, simulation, or other quantitative methods to product design and development.
• Minimum 3 years of experience leading or coordinating the technical work of other engineers.
• Minimum 3 years of experience applying statistical analysis, engineering simulation, Design of Experiments, or other quantitative engineering methods to product development or technical problem solving.

To be a great fit for the role:

• Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering or equivalent engineering discipline.
• Commercial refrigeration, HVAC, appliance, or other complex electromechanical product development experience.
• Engineering expertise in heat transfer, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, airflow management, or refrigeration.
• Experience establishing instrumentation, data acquisition, measurement, and engineering test methods.
• Experience with statistical analysis, Design of Experiments (DOE), Measurement System Analysis (MSA), or similar analytical methods.
• Experience developing engineering models, design rules, product architecture guidelines, or standardized engineering practices.
• Experience with simulation tools such as CFD, FEA, system modeling, or other physics-based analytical methods.
• Experience leading major product platform, product-family, or portfolio redesign initiatives.
• Experience translating customer, market, or regulatory requirements into engineering specifications and product requirements.
• Experience with DOE, EPA, UL, ASHRAE, or other applicable regulatory standards.
• PMP, Six Sigma, or similar project management/problem-solving certification.
• Strong technical problem-solving skills with an emphasis on using engineering fundamentals and objective data to reach conclusions.
• Strong project management skills, including resource planning, scheduling, risk management, and status reporting.
• Ability to coach and mentor engineers and elevate the technical capabilities of others.
• Ability to clearly document technical results and communicate complex engineering information to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strong organizational and interpersonal skills with the ability to lead complex cross-functional initiatives with limited oversight.

What's in it for you?

• Medical, Dental, and Vision
• 401k Retirement Plan
• Flexible Spending
• Paid Holidays

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The statements herein are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by employees and are not to be construed as an exhaustive list of responsibilities, duties, and skills required of personnel so classified. Furthermore, they do not establish a contract for employment and are subject to change at the discretion of the Company.