Design Automation Engineer

DIS-TRAN Steel is looking to add a Design Automation Engineer to join the team at the Pineville Plant. 

The Design Automation Engineer supports the company’s Smart Engineering transformation by converting engineering knowledge, design standards, customer requirements, and manufacturing needs into scalable digital engineering workflows.

This role serves as a bridge between Engineering & Design, Operations, CAD platform development, ERP/MES teams, and future automation initiatives. The Design Automation Engineer will develop and validate intelligent Autodesk Inventor models, configurable assemblies, reusable templates, engineering metadata, and automation rules that improve design consistency, engineering productivity, manufacturing readiness, and downstream data quality.

The role is intended to complement the existing Developer position by adding dedicated engineering expertise to Inventor, Vault, standards catalog, metadata, and automation development efforts.

• Develop and validate intelligent Autodesk Inventor models for transmission and substation structures.
• Create configurable assemblies, reusable templates, and parameter-driven design tools.
• Translate engineering calculations, design standards, and customer requirements into structured automation rules.
• Support iLogic, iProperties, and other automation methods in partnership with the Inventor Developer.
• Identify opportunities to reduce repetitive modeling, detailing, BOM, and BOO creation effort.
• Validate automated model outputs against engineering requirements, customer expectations, and manufacturing needs.
• Support the expansion of model-based engineering workflows across standard and semi-standard structure families.
Standards and Catalog Development
• Support the development of governed standard parts, assemblies, and design patterns.
• Help define which components should be standard, configurable, or job-specific.
• Maintain engineering template libraries in alignment with approved standards.
• Ensure models and templates comply with customer, industry, company, and manufacturing requirements.
• Support the long-term standards catalog needed for model-based engineering and future design automation.
• Assist in classifying parts, assemblies, and reusable design content to improve searchability, reuse, and governance.
• Help reduce duplicate or inconsistent design practices by promoting approved standards and reusable engineering content.
Metadata and Downstream Readiness
• Define engineering metadata requirements needed for drawings, BOMs, BOOs, Epicor, MES, procurement, manufacturing, analytics, and future AI tools.
• Ensure automated models produce trusted, usable downstream information.
• Validate that model outputs support manufacturing consumption, material requirements, operational requirements, and drawing clarity.
• Work with Engineering, Operations, ERP, MES, and data teams to improve digital-thread readiness.
• Help establish data quality expectations for engineering-generated metadata.
• Support the development of model outputs that can be consumed by downstream systems with minimal manual re-entry or correction.
Governance and Continuous Improvement
• Participate in Engineering & Design Standards, Data & Integration, and Manufacturing Consumption governance discussions.
• Help define modeling standards, validation rules, exception processes, and release-readiness criteria.
• Use feedback from engineering, detailing, manufacturing, and quality to improve templates, standards, and automation logic.
• Support continuous improvement after the initial implementation by expanding automation, improving standards, and reducing engineering variation.
• Identify recurring engineering, modeling, BOM, BOO, or manufacturing-readiness issues that can be addressed through improved standards or automation.
• Support the long-term evolution of design automation, standards catalog governance, and model-based engineering practices.

• Engineering background in civil, mechanical, structural, or related discipline.
• Strong understanding of structural steel design and engineer-to-order products.
• Experience with Autodesk Inventor and complex parametric modeling.
• Ability to translate engineering requirements into model parameters, rules, and templates.
• Understanding of how engineering decisions affect detailing, fabrication, procurement, and manufacturing execution.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and cross-functional communication skills.
• Interest in standardization, automation, model-based engineering, and continuous improvement.
• Ability to work effectively with engineering, detailing, operations, software, ERP/MES, and data teams.
• Ability to document standards, assumptions, design logic, and validation criteria clearly.
Preferred Skills
• • Experience with Autodesk Vault.
  • Familiarity with iLogic, iProperties, Autodesk APIs, VB.NET, C#, Python, or similar tools.
  • Experience with design automation, configurable products, or rules-based engineering.
  • Knowledge of BOM, BOO, ERP, MES, and manufacturing data requirements.
  • Experience developing reusable templates, libraries, or standards-based design content.
  • Experience working in a structural steel, fabrication, utility, substation, transmission, or engineer-to-order environment.
  • PE license preferred but not required.

At DIS-TRAN Steel, you'll have the opportunity to make a visible impact on our operations while gaining exposure to production, project management, continuous improvement, and business operations. This role provides an excellent foundation for future leadership opportunities within manufacturing and industrial operations.