The Requirements
To be a good fit for this opportunity you should have:- Bachelor's degree (BS) from four-year College or university in Mechanical Engineering or related field
- Experience as a Mechanical Engineer
- Strong computer skills including MS Office Suite applications
- Experience with lab equipment and the data acquisition software that goes along with it
- Outstanding conceptual and analytical skills along with mechanical aptitude
- Excellent written and verbal communications skills
- A self-directed, goal-oriented mindset
- Curiosity, with the desire to dig deeper and continue to learn and develop your skills and knowledge base
- Legal authorization to work in the United States for any employer without requiring a visa transfer or visa sponsorship
- Ideal candidates will have experience with filtration of compressed air and gases and filtration media
- Experience with product development, ideally across the entire product lifecycle
- Refrigerated dryer and desiccant dryer experience is beneficial
- Experience with 3D CAD modeling
- Experience with CFD (computational fluid dynamics) software
- An understanding of ASME code
- Comfort working directly with customers
The Role
In this key position, you’ll report to the Engineering / R&D Director for Dehydration. You’ll be responsible for the development of new products, redesigns of existing products, and general laboratory testing for proof of concept and validation. Our goal is to facilitate growth of the business across product lines within the Dehydration group. The range of product line components may include fabricated metal pressure vessels, pneumatic valves, piping and related support structures, castings, tooling, refrigeration systems, heat exchangers, and electronic controllers.Filtration is a very important part of our dehydration business, so you’ll need to come in with enough filtration experience to jump in on projects that are already in the project queue. You’ll join a small team of other R&D Engineers, and will work hand-in-hand with the design engineering team. Your end goal is to leverage your mechanical engineering experience, apply it to testing, and come out with an actionable product that is marketplace competitive.
Most of your time will be spent on core design and development work, applying your skills in both theoretical (design) and hands-on (lab testing) work. The rest of your time will be spent on project planning and development, working with field service for product feedback, and other tasks as required to keep projects moving. You’ll work on the whole product lifecycle, and will partner cross-functionally with the product team, manufacturing team, and even end-user customers to ensure the products meet marketplace needs.
Some of your specific tasks will be to:
- Perform engineering calculations required to accurately determine product size, capacity and performance to meet required design parameters.
- Facilitate development of project plans with assistance from Product Management, Sales & Marketing, Engineering, and Manufacturing Engineering. Manage all projects within your scope of responsibility to desired deadlines and outcomes. Provide realistic, accurate development cost estimates for design projects and finished products.
- Assist in the development of test apparatus as required to performance test products. Apparatus must be safe to use, minimize cost and provide data necessary to adequately analyze the product.
- Analyze research data, write formal test reports and proposed product specifications to determine the feasibility of product proposal.
- Confer with research personnel to clarify or resolve problems and develop the design.
- Prepare or direct preparation of product or system layout and detailed drawings and schematics to facilitate achieving design for manufacturability goals.
- Direct and coordinate manufacturing or building of prototype products or systems.
- Plan and develop experimental test programs. Provide project direction to others as assigned.
- Analyze test data and reports to determine if design meets functional and performance specifications.
- Confer with research and other engineering personnel and prepare design modifications as required.
- Evaluate engineering test results for possible application to development of systems or other uses.
- Use computer-assisted engineering and design software and equipment to perform engineering and design tasks.
Pictured: Hankison's Aftercooler / Dryer / Filter Package.
Why SPX FLOW
Strategic impact and ongoing innovationThis is a high visibility, high impact, global role. You’ll be one of the few R&D Engineers for the Americas and Europe, and you’ll interact with team members from the Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific, as well as have direct contact with customers. Your work will have a tangible impact on our business as you strategically fill gaps and innovate for the future of our product lines.
Excellent exposure
You’ll begin with an on-boarding to help you make key contacts across the global organization, and we’ll provide you with mentoring, coaching, and guidance from an organization perspective. A lot of eyes will be on you as this product line has great visibility to all levels and departments of the organization. You’ll enjoy the satisfaction that comes with knowing that the results of your efforts will be noticed by leadership and beyond.
Professional development
This role offers plenty of opportunities to research and complete development work that will become actionable in the marketplace. We’re in a building phase with our lab that opened in 2016, so you’ll have a lot of latitude to be creative and innovative, and to remain open to finding other opportunities while focusing on achieving our marketplace goals. You’ll have a lot of opportunity to grow technically, and to take on new and interesting projects that will put you in a good position for your next career step within our global organization.
Career options
This role can provide challenges and opportunities for years to come. At the same time, once you have proven yourself in this role you might pursue career paths in a variety of areas across the company.
Great environment
This is a close-knit team where we all give each other input to make our group better. Your manager believes in getting the right people in the right places, helping them understand the vision, and then getting out of their way. Your manager will provide you with clear direction, an atmosphere of accountability and responsibility, and then give you a lot of leeway to do your job.
The best of both worlds
With lots of positive change underway, you’ll enjoy strong entrepreneurial energy in this role, and you’ll be working with a small enough group that everyone knows each other. At the same time, we offer the stability and resources of an established global leader with a reputation built over more than a century of innovation.
Central location
The new R&D lab where you’ll be working is located in Ocala, which is in central Florida. It’s conveniently located 90 minutes northeast of Tampa, 75 minutes northwest of Orlando, 2 hours southwest of Jacksonville, and 35 minutes south of Gainesville. The weather is temperate year-round, and there are plenty of indoor and outdoor attractions nearby for you and your family to enjoy.
Excellent compensation
In addition to a competitive base salary, performance-based bonus and other incentives, you will enjoy a comprehensive benefits package including insurances, paid time off, and more. Benefits begin on day one.
Total rewards
At SPX FLOW, comp and benefits are just the beginning. Our comprehensive Total Rewards program combines a challenging work environment with opportunities for personal development, career growth and recognition. The program gives employees a financial stake in their success and the ongoing success of the organization. This includes:
- Opportunities to be recognized and rewarded for hard work and a job well done.
- A platform to spotlight personal talent and achieve exceptional results.
- A chance to display the values and leadership practices we, as a company, embrace.
Keys to Success
Though we recognize that we can’t dictate innovation, this is a fast-paced environment and you’ll be working on multiple projects concurrently. You’ll need to be able to switch gears quickly and to balance the work while meeting deadlines. And while we hope you enjoy the research, this isn’t a role where you can do research just for the enjoyment of it. You’ll need to understand how to drive towards and ultimately produce marketable products.You’ll need excellent communication skills to interface internally with a variety of departments (purchasing, sourcing, global teams, etc.). Direct involvement with customers will also be necessary to develop strong customer relationships.
Additionally, you should embody the following SPX Flow competencies:
- Adaptability and Flexibility
- Aligning Performance for Success
- Building Customer Loyalty
- Coaching and Developing Others
- Communication
- Continuous Improvement
- Contributing to Team Success
- Delegating Responsibility
- Facilitating Change
- Gaining Commitment
- Initiating Action
- Managing Work
- Setting High Work Standards
About Us
SPX FLOW is a global supplier of highly specialized, engineered solutions with operations in over 35 countries and sales in over 150 countries around the world. Our innovative solutions play a critical role in helping meet the rising global demand in the end markets we serve. Our total revenue in 2017 was $1.95 billion, with approximately 30 percent from sales into emerging markets.We serve the food and beverage, power and energy and industrial markets. Our product portfolio of pumps, valves, mixers, filters, air dryers, hydraulic tools, homogenizers, separators and heat exchangers, along with the related aftermarket parts and services, supports global industries, including food and beverage, oil and gas, power generation (including nuclear and conventional), chemical processing, compressed air and mining. Our core strengths include product breadth, global capabilities and the ability to create custom-engineered solutions for diverse flow processes. Over the past several years, we have strategically expanded our scale, relevance to customers, and global capabilities in these markets. We believe there are attractive organic and acquisition opportunities to continue to expand our business.
We focus on a number of operating initiatives, including innovation and new product development, continuous improvement driven by lean methodologies, supply chain management, expansion in emerging markets, information technology infrastructure improvement, and organizational and talent development. These initiatives are designed to, among other things, capture synergies within our businesses to ultimately drive revenue, profit margin and cash flow growth. We believe our businesses are well-positioned for long-term growth based on our operating initiatives, the potential within the current markets served and the potential for expansion into additional markets.