Mechanical Design Engineer

The Johns Hopkins University Instrument Development Group (IDG) is one of a handful of premier astronomical instrumentation development facilities in the United States. Located in the William H. Miller III Department of Physics and Astronomy, the IDG develops state of the art optical instruments for the world's largest ground-based telescopes, as well as instrumentation for space astronomy programs and physics research. The multi-disciplinary group of engineers and fabricators leverage world-class facilities and decades of collective experience in optical, mechanical, electrical, software and manufacturing engineering to produce some of the highest quality scientific research instrumentation in academia.

The Instrument Development Group is looking for a highly creative and talented Mechanical Design Engineer to work as part of a small multi-disciplinary team that designs and builds precision optical instrumentation for the astronomy community. The design engineer should be a skilled mechanic with a machinist background who leverages those skills and experience to produce elegant mechanical and optomechanical designs that are buildable, testable, maintainable, and when needed, very precise.

Specific Duties & Responsibilities

• The mechanical design engineer will work on one or more projects contributing to the design of astronomical instrumentation projects currently underway within the IDG.

• The duties and responsibilities would vary somewhat depending on the project and status of the project but would include activities such as,

• The design of structures to support optical assemblies.

• The design of instrument carts for supporting and transferring instruments in a lab and/or observatory environment.

• The design of lens mounts for precise alignment within an assembly of optics.

• The design of mechanisms used to transfer optical components within an assembly.

• The design of test fixtures, bond fixtures, and test equipment.

• The design of vacuum chambers or cryostats used to house optical, mechanical, and electronics components, including scientific detectors.

• The production of fabrication drawings for component level parts.

• The production of assembly drawings.

• Interfacing with vendors to specify commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components or procure custom fabricated components, or services such as coating, plating, or shipping.

• Interfacing with internal machinists to convey and clarify fabrication requirements.

• Inspection of procured and fabricated hardware.

• Participate in, and sometimes lead, the testing of structures, lens mounts, mechanical mechanisms.

• Participate in, and sometimes lead, the packaging and shipment of mechanical assemblies or instruments to domestic and international locations.

Special Skills, Knowledge & Abilities

• Comfortable working with highly skilled and knowledgeable scientists, engineers, fabricators and technicians having backgrounds in optics, mechanics, electronics, software, detectors and various scientific disciplines (astronomy and physics).

• Highly creative. Mechanical design concepts come easily and are derived from years of collective experience as a mechanic, machinist, fabricator and designer. Designs should be manufacturable, and when precision is required should leverage proven precision machining practices as the design basis.

• Highly motivated and able to progress designs using sound engineering judgement, knowing when to solicit input from stakeholders, engineers, technicians and fabricators.

• Skilled at making engineering drawings which demonstrate a solid understanding of mechanical tolerancing, including geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GDT).

• A talented mechanic capable of using a variety of hand tools, machine tools and fabrication equipment, and is very comfortable in a lab environment.

• Comfortable progressing designs from concept to completion with minimal direction, knowing when it is sensible to seek input from others.

• Someone who consistently completes projects and incorporates lessons learned into future projects.

• Someone comfortable working on multiple projects or subsystems concurrently.

• Basic knowledge of electronics

• Knowledgeable with vacuum-cryogenic systems

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree with five years' experience.

• or Master's Degree with three years exp or PhD without direct exp.

• Additional education may substitute for required experience, to the extent permitted by the JHU equivalency formula.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science Degree in mechanical engineering.

• Five plus years of experience as a mechanical design engineer designing optomechanical systems, structures and mechanisms.

• Two plus years of experience as a machinist, fabricator, or mechanic.

• Proficient with PTC/CREO and Solidworks.

• Proficient with thermal and structural analysis including finite element analysis (Ansys, Nastran, or Abaqus preferred)

• Experience with precision optical systems, including optical alignment.

Classified Title: Staff Engineer

Job Posting Title (Working Title): Mechanical Design Engineer

Role/Level/Range: ACRP/04/MF

Starting Salary Range: Min $74,400 - Mid 102,400 - Max $130,400 Annually (Commensurate with experience)

Employee group: Full Time

Schedule: Monday-Friday/8:30 am-5:30 pm

Exempt Status: Exempt

Location: Homewood Campus

Department name: Physics and Astronomy

Personnel area: School of Arts & Sciences

Equal Opportunity Employer

Johns Hopkins University is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability, marital status, veteran status, or any other occupationally irrelevant criteria. The university promotes affirmative action for minorities, women, disabled persons, and veterans.