Case Study: Engineering

Career Transitions Helps $225+ Million Manufacturer Land Niche Mechanical Design Engineer


Career Transitions’ 20-year recruiting history with client paved the way for a highly-specialized senior-level engineer search.


Case Study: Engineering

  • Position: Mechanical Design Engineer
  • Client: A $225 million designer and manufacturer of aftermarket automotive accessories with a centralized engineering center and 6 manufacturing locations.
  • Issue: Given an upcoming multi-year agreement with large automotive OEM supplier, our Client decided to migrate from CATIA and primary design package and implement SolidWorks. Specifically, the ‘Surfacing’ and ‘FEA’ modules would be deployed in a robust fashion.

    Career Transitions’ 20-year recruiting history with client paved the way for a highly-specialized senior-level engineer search. Also, this person would need to be certified in SolidWorks ‘Surfacing’ and ‘FEA’ modules, would train existing staff, and present prototypes to clients.

  • Solution: We targeted a pool of candidates that have used SolidWorks in larger capital equipment manufacturers. We then focused on light and medium duty truck body manufacturers – whose end products must be sent to an up-fitter site to add any external pieces before final delivery. This aligned with our Client’s business model.

    First, we identified local companies who manufacture these products, utilizing SolidWorks exclusively. Second, we searched for senior design engineers from capital equipment manufacturer for heavy duty trucks. Next, we isolated a candidate that was certified in SolidWorks, an expert in sheet metal module, and had experience migrating from ABAQUS to the SolidWorks ‘FEA’ module. He had degrees in Agricultural Machine System Engineering from Purdue and a Master’s in Engineering from Notre Dame.

    The candidate was exactly what our Client needed. This allowed completion of the initial prototype phase with their OEM client, moving closer to mass production, ahead of schedule.


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