Job Description Job Description
Design and Fabrication Engineer
Dolav USA Inc. Grand Rapids, Michigan On site Full time, exempt
The short version
We make heavy duty plastic bins, pallets, and bulk containers, and then we change them. A food processor needs a drain in a different place. A recycler needs a door cut where there isn't one. A distributor calls with a rough sketch and a deadline. Someone has to turn that into a real design, price it honestly, and walk it out to the floor to make sure it gets built right.
That someone is you. This is not a role where you model in isolation and email a drawing over the wall. You will be on the phone with customers, at the bench with our fabrication techs, and in SolidWorks, often in the same afternoon. If that sounds like a good day, keep reading.
What you will actually do
- Design custom modifications to injection molded bins and pallets in SolidWorks, from the first conversation through the last production drawing.
- Take a vague request from a customer or distributor and turn it into something buildable, which usually means asking better questions than they knew to answer.
- Build the full package behind a quote: bill of material, routings, item numbers, and a cost estimate that holds up on labor, setups, and hardware.
- Program, run, and troubleshoot our robotic fabrication equipment, and keep the saws and welders running.
- Walk your own designs out to the floor, watch the first one get built, and fix what does not fit.
- Own custom projects start to finish alongside Sales and Production, and tell people where things stand before they have to ask.
- Work with counterparts in the United States, Europe, and Israel on products and problems that cross all three.
You will do well here if
- You like people. Customers, distributors, and the techs on the floor are all part of the job, and they all get the same respect.
- You can explain a tolerance to someone who does not care about tolerances, and you can take a correction from a tech who has been building these for twenty years.
- You would rather walk to the floor than send an email about it.
- You are comfortable being the only person who knows the whole answer, and comfortable saying when you do not.
- You like variety more than you like routine. No two custom jobs here are the same.
This is probably not your role if
- You want to design in a quiet office and hand off the rest.
- You need a large engineering department around you. We are about 30 people in North America. You will have real ownership and real visibility, and nowhere to hide.
- You prefer long product cycles and formal stage gates. Our work is fast, hands-on, and measured in weeks.
What you bring
- Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering or in Product Design and Manufacturing.
- Three or more years in mechanical engineering or in product design and manufacturing. Five or more is preferred.
- SolidWorks as a daily tool, including 3D modeling, 2D production drawings, geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, and disciplined version control.
- Robot control and programming experience. ABB is preferred.
- Real time on a production floor, not just near one.
- Communication skills you can demonstrate, because we will ask you to demonstrate them.
Nice to have
SAP Business One or a comparable ERP. Plastic welding. Machine maintenance and troubleshooting. Product testing to ASTM or ISO standards. Experience with plastics, injection molded products, or material handling equipment. Project leadership with real milestones, timelines, and budgets.
The environment
Half office, half active fabrication floor. Saws, welders, robotics, moving equipment, and noise. Hearing protection and other personal protective equipment are required in posted areas. You will sit at a workstation for long stretches and you will be on your feet for long stretches, and you will occasionally lift up to 50 pounds. Travel is occasional, mostly customer visits, job walks, and trade shows. Some coordination with Europe and Israel happens outside standard Eastern Time hours.
Why Dolav
Dolav Plastic Products has been building industrial packaging since 1976 and sells in more than 60 countries. Dolav USA is the North American arm, based in Grand Rapids, small enough that your work is visible to everyone and large enough to be backed by a global company. You will not be one of forty engineers on a roadmap. You will be the person who makes custom work happen here.
