Senior Project Engineer

Southern Systems International Memphis, Tennessee, United States Engineering

About this position

Description:

We are seeking a Senior Engineer / Technical Lead to play a critical role in the design, execution, and technical leadership of complex, custom conveyor systems. This role is ideal for an experienced engineer who enjoys owning high-level technical decisions, guiding projects through ambiguity, and mentoring project engineers in a fast-paced ETO environment.

This is a hands-on technical role with leadership responsibility — not a purely managerial position.

  

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Project Execution

  • Lead high-level engineering aspects of custom conveyor systems, including:
    • system layouts and architecture
    • load paths and structural concepts
    • interfaces with fabrication, installation, and controls
  • Serve as the technical authority on assigned projects, particularly during early      concept and critical design phases.
  • Support resolution of complex technical issues arising during fabrication, installation, or commissioning.
  • Evaluate design alternatives, deviations, and risk trade-offs to support cost, schedule, and quality objectives.

Design Review & Quality Assurance

  • Conduct structured design reviews for project engineers’ work, ensuring:
    • technical correctness
    • constructability
    • alignment with internal standards and customer requirements
  • Identify potential downstream issues early to reduce rework and field changes
  • Act as a final technical check before releasing of critical designs

Mentorship & Capability Development

  • Mentor and coach project engineers and junior engineers, helping them:
    • develop sound engineering judgment
    • understand system-level thinking
    • improve design quality and efficiency
  • Provide guidance without becoming a bottleneck — enabling others to execute independently over time
  • Contribute to the development and refinement of engineering standards, best practices, and reusable design elements

Cross-Functional Collaboration

  • Work closely with:
    • project management
    • fabrication and manufacturing
    • field installation teams
  • Support clear communication of design intent and technical decisions across disciplines
  • Participate in customer discussions as needed to explain technical solutions or resolve issues

What Success Looks Like in This Role

  • Project engineers become more capable and less dependent over time
  • Design quality improves, with fewer late changes and field issues
  • Technical decisions are made earlier and with greater confidence
  • Senior engineers protect throughput by enabling others, not doing all the work themselves

  


Requirements:

   Required Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering or related field (required).
  • 8–15+ years of experience in engineered-to-order (ETO) industrial systems
  • Strong experience with custom conveyor systems, material handling equipment, or similar industrial machinery
  • Demonstrated ability to:
    • make high-level technical decisions
    • review and guide others’ designs
    • solve complex, real-world engineering problems
  • Solid understanding of fabrication, installation, and field realities
  • Experience mentoring or leading other engineers (formally or informally)
  • Proficient in AutoCAD and Autodesk Inventor for layout development, system design, and design review in an ETO environment.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Experience with power & free conveyor systems.
  • Familiarity with:
    • structural design principles
    • industrial standards and codes
    • manufacturability and installation sequencing
  • Previous role as a technical lead, senior engineer, or principal engineer in an ETO environment

What This Role Is (and Is Not) This role is:

  • Technical leadership
  • System-level engineering
  • Mentorship and quality ownership

This role is not:

  • A pure people-management position
  • A detail-only CAD role
  • A “firefighter only” role with no influence upstream

Why This Role Matters: Our engineering organization is evolving to support higher project complexity and concurrency. This role exists to strengthen senior technical capacity, reduce rework, and build a more scalable, resilient engineering team. 


Compensation: Competitive and commensurate with experience.