Lead Mechanical CAD & PLM Engineer

Job description

**About Thea Energy:** Thea Energy is leveraging recent breakthroughs in stellarator physics and engineering to create a faster and simpler approach to commercializing fusion energy. The company is reinventing the stellarator using computer-controlled arrays of planar coils thereby replacing the intricate, complex modular magnets required in all other stellarator architectures. Thea Energy is on a mission to create a limitless source of zero emission energy for a sustainable future. **Position Overview:** The Lead Mechanical CAD & PLM Engineer owns the configuration and integrity of Thea Energy's products by directly managing the top-level assembly in Siemens NX and creating, maintaining, and enforcing the modeling standards, drafting standards, review workflows, and release process for the company. The role pairs end-to-end ownership of one or more top-level assemblies with process and procedure governance over CAD and PDM standards and processes. These responsibilities will be executed using Siemens NX and Siemens Teamcenter to achieve project goals through a lean, high-performance process adhering to ISO 9001 standards. The Lead Mechanical CAD & PLM Engineer is the single point of accountability for how Thea structures, controls, and evolves its top-level CAD configurations, and for ensuring that the PDM environment remains stable, current, and well-governed as the team scales. The role combines deep CAD authority with system-administrator responsibility, and partners closely with subassembly leads, systems engineering, and engineering leadership. ### Key Responsibility Areas: 1. Top-Level Assembly Configuration Ownership - Assembly Ownership: Serve as the named owner of a designated top-level assembly (TLA), responsible for its structure, release state, and configuration integrity from concept through production. - Subassembly Coordination: Partner with subassembly leads to maintain alignment between subordinate models and the TLA, including merge cadence, naming conventions, structural standards, interfaces, space claim, and modeling best practices. - Conflict Resolution: Drive resolution of configuration conflicts between subassemblies and ensure design intent preservation across the assembly hierarchy. 2. Cross-Functional Interface Coordination - Interface Tracking: Partner with the Systems Engineer to track and document mechanical-to-electrical, mechanical-to-fluid, and mechanical-to-software interfaces relevant to the assigned TLA. - Interface Register: Maintain a PDM-based interface register based on an authoritative source that reflects the current physical and logical boundaries between subsystems. - Drift Detection: Flag interface drift early including geometry, tolerance, and connector changes and lead the change-control conversation when shifts occur. 3. Teamcenter PDM Operations - System Administration: Serve as the system administrator for Teamcenter, accountable for environment uptime, system upgrades, and patch cycles. - Licensing: Support negotiations for Teamcenter licensing with Siemens and adjacent partners by providing information on usage and managing seat allocation, and steward annual or multi-year renewals. - Feature Lifecycle: Scope, test, evaluate, and roll out new Teamcenter features and modules in response to evolving company needs, in coordination with IT and engineering leadership. - PDM Proliferation: Lead integration of Teamcenter into the larger company software stack. For example, PDM interaction with Manufacturing and Test software platforms. 4. Access Control & Workflow Governance - Access Control: Own user access and permissions for Teamcenter and Siemens NX, including provisioning, role definitions, and periodic access reviews. - Workflow Templates: Define and maintain Teamcenter workflow templates (release, change, review) so that the process is consistent across teams and meets the needs of the team for speed versus complexity. - Workflow Auditing: Audit workflow activity, identify bottlenecks, and iterate workflow design with feedback from all company stakeholders. 5. Training & Documentation - CAD and Configuration Training: Develop and deliver training on CAD and configuration management practices, including modeling best practices, top-level assembly structure, subassembly coordination, and naming and merge conventions. - Teamcenter Usage Training: Build and maintain onboarding and ongoing-use training for Teamcenter, covering navigation, item creation, revision control, and day-to-day data management. - Release Workflow Training: Author training and reference materials that walk users through release workflows, including ECO/ECR initiation, review responsibilities, approval routing, and post-release obligations. - Best-Practice Documentation: Maintain a living set of best-practice guides and quick-reference documents for the engineering organization, updated as Teamcenter features and CAD practices evolve. 6. Additional Support - VFX and Marketing Graphics: Interface with and provide support to VFX and marketing groups for graphics generation, as necessary. ### Ideal Experience & Skillsets: - Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related discipline. - Five to seven years of professional experience in mechanical design and CAD, including ownership of complex assemblies in Siemens NX or an equivalent commercial CAD package. - Hands-on experience administering Teamcenter or another commercial PLM platform (e.g., Windchill, Enovia).