Senior Product Engineer

About Camco Manufacturing:

Camco Manufacturing, founded in 1966, has evolved from a humble beginning with one employee and a single product to become a powerhouse in the outdoor recreation market. With a rich history spanning over 50 years, Camco has grown exponentially, boasting a workforce of over 1,000 employees, 140+ patents, and an extensive product line exceeding 5,600 offerings. The company's commitment to innovation is evident through its best-in-class, in-house development team, specializing in creating cutting-edge products for the RV, marine, ATV, and other outdoor recreation industries.

Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, Camco operates eight separate manufacturing and warehousing facilities encompassing one million square feet. This extensive infrastructure allows Camco to efficiently meet the diverse needs of its customers, solidifying its position as a leading aftermarket parts and accessories manufacturer in the fast-growing outdoor recreation market. Focused on the RV, Marine, and Camping sectors, Camco's influence in these industries is significant, as it continues to lead the charge with a relentless pursuit of excellence and a commitment to delivering top-notch products and services.

Job Title: Senior Product Engineer

Overview:
Camco is investing in senior innovation engineering talent to expand its capacity to pursue category-defining, step-function new product development. This role is not primarily a sustaining engineering position — it is an innovation leadership role within an engineering team, responsible for originating, shaping, and executing on product concepts that extend Camco's portfolio into new territory.

The Senior Product Engineer is a rare profile: someone who can operate fluently across the full innovation spectrum — from pure conceptual problem-solving to industrial design to technical execution to consumer experience thinking — and who has the credibility and craft to own complex product development from thesis through production release. This person is a builder of new things, not a maintainer of existing ones.

The role sits within a team that includes strong technical executors and CAD specialists. The Senior Product Engineer compliments the innovation leadership layer — the ability to see what doesn't exist yet and know how to bring it to life.

Key Responsibilities

Innovation Leadership & Concept Development

- Own the conceptual development of assigned innovation projects — from proof of concept to a technically validated design ready for engineering execution

- Identify hybrid innovation opportunities — existing technologies, platforms, or manufacturing processes that can be applied or adapted to new use cases, categories, or consumer problems

- Lead concept exploration through sketching, physical prototyping, 3D modeling, and consumer-use scenario development — moving fluidly between ideation and technical validation

- Collaborate with Product Management to ensure innovation concepts are grounded in commercial viability: the right consumer, the right price point, the right competitive position

Industrial Design & Consumer Experience

- Design to the consumer experience — understanding how a product will be encountered, purchased, unboxed, installed, used, and serviced by an RV consumer in real conditions

- Apply industrial design sensibility to form, ergonomics, and aesthetic decisions — Camco products must be functionally excellent and commercially compelling at retail

- Model and evaluate consumer use cases: how the target consumer will interact with the product across its full lifecycle, including edge cases and failure modes

- Identify and resolve consumer friction points in existing products and translate that insight into design improvements or entirely new product concepts

- Design for the shelf: understand how packaging, color, form factor, and feature communication affect purchase decisions at retail

Technical Engineering Execution

- Lead full product design from concept through production-ready release: 3D CAD modeling, detailed engineering drawings, material selection, manufacturing process specification, and tolerance analysis

- Apply deep knowledge of manufacturing processes — injection molding, metal forming, extrusion, electromechanical, assembly — to design products that are both innovative and manufacturable at scale

- Develop and execute test plans, validation protocols, and design verification procedures — including design validation (DV), production validation (PV), and consumer use validation

- Lead Design for Manufacturing (DFM) and Design for Assembly (DFA) reviews with manufacturing partners and Operations

- Own and maintain SolidWorks models, drawings, and related technical documentation within Camco's PDM framework through the full product lifecycle

- Select materials and manufacturing processes that balance performance, consumer experience, production cost, and long-term product reliability

- Proje ct Ownership & Execution

- Take end-to-end ownership of assigned projects — from concept brief through production release — managing timeline, technical risks, supplier coordination, and cross-functional alignment

- Assess project feasibility, design complexity, and cost-to-target early in the development cycle; surface risks before they become blockers

- Manage tooling development with overseas and domestic manufacturing partners: quoting, design review, trial evaluation, and production validation

- Operate within Camco's NPD pipeline structure — meeting stage-gate milestones, managing first-article validation, and ensuring production readiness to align with commercial commitment

- Manage multiple active projects simultaneously across different development stages without loss of quality or schedule discipline

Mentorship & Team Contribution

- Mentor junior and mid-level product engineers — guiding concept development, design methodology, and problem-solving approach on shared projects

- Model creative problem-solving and consumer-centered design thinking for the broader engineering team

- Contribute to engineering standards, design best practices, and the innovation culture of the team

- Participate in cross-functional project reviews, representing engineering with clarity and technical authority

Required Qualifications

- 8+ years of product engineering experience in physical consumer products, with a demonstrated portfolio of innovation projects — not solely sustaining engineering or technical support work

- Proven ability to originate and develop product concepts: taking a consumer need or market gap from idea through to a production-ready, manufacturable design

- Demonstrated hybrid innovation experience: applying existing technologies, mechanisms, or product platforms to new use cases, categories, or consumer problems

- Strong industrial design sensibility — able to integrate form, ergonomics, aesthetics, and consumer experience thinking into engineering decisions

- Deep proficiency in SolidWorks: 3D modeling, surface modeling, detailed drawings, and assembly modeling for complex multi-component consumer products

- Hands-on manufacturing knowledge: injection molding, metal forming, extrusion, electromechanical, assembly processes — able to design for manufacturability from the first sketch

- Experience developing and executing test plans, design validation, and production validation protocols for consumer products

- Experience managing tooling development with overseas manufacturing partners, including quoting, design review, trial evaluation, and production validation

- Ability to own complex, multi-stage projects simultaneously — managing timeline, technical risk, and cross-functional coordination without loss of quality

- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Design Engineering, Product Design, or a related engineering field preferred

Compensation and Benefits:

We offer a wide range of career opportunities with excellent benefits. Above all, we are looking for passionate, talented, hard-working, nice people with great taste to help us build this brand we love.

- Competitive salary

- 401k with company match

- Participation in company health (medical, dental) insurance plans. Supplemental insurance offered

- Promote work/life balance including paid time off and paid holidays

Camco is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to any characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law and are committed to maintaining a workplace free from discrimination and harassment.