Industrial Automation Electrical Hardware Engineer

Location: Belvidere, IL (100% Onsite)

Travel: Occasional trips to a nearby manufacturing facility as needed

Who We Are

Join an employee-owned manufacturer known for crafting custom automated assembly and testing systems across life sciences, food & beverage, and consumer products. Here, engineers take projects from a blank page through machine build and validation—seeing their work come to life on the production floor.

A Day in the Life

Your morning starts with turning customer requirements into complete electrical architectures for a new automated cell. You translate concepts into schematics, shape control panel layouts, and define wiring details in ECAD. Midday, you huddle with Mechanical and Controls Engineering to align interfaces and ensure manufacturability. In the afternoon, you’re on the floor supporting Assembly, answering questions, and validating your design through testing and troubleshooting. You close the day reviewing standards to confirm compliance and prepping for upcoming FAT.

This role centers on electrical hardware design—rather than PLC programming.

What You’ll Own

• Produce electrical schematics for custom automated machinery and industrial equipment.
• Develop control panel layouts, wiring diagrams, and electrical documentation using AutoCAD Electrical or similar ECAD tools.
• Create and manage Bills of Material (BOMs) and component specifications.
• Select components such as PLC hardware, HMIs, VFDs, power supplies, safety devices, relays, sensors, and industrial networking hardware.
• Generate pneumatic schematics and support pneumatic component selection.
• Collaborate closely with Mechanical Engineering for seamless electro-mechanical integration.
• Support Manufacturing and Assembly during machine builds, resolving design questions on the spot.
• Verify and validate designs through testing, troubleshooting, and structured design reviews.
• Participate in machine startup, Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT), and system validation.
• Ensure designs meet applicable electrical and machine safety standards.

What You’ll Bring

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Electrical Engineering Technology, Mechatronics, or a related discipline.
• 3+ years designing electrical systems for industrial machinery, automation equipment, or OEM manufacturing environments.
• Hands-on experience creating schematics and panel layouts in AutoCAD Electrical, SolidWorks Electrical, or comparable ECAD software.
• Proven ability to develop BOMs and make informed electrical component selections.
• Familiarity with industrial automation hardware.

Core Proficiencies

• Electrical Schematics
• CAD Software
• Electrical Design
• Electrical Engineering
• Machine Design
• Hardware Design

Tools & Technologies

• CAD Software (AutoCAD)
• Servo Motors

If you’re energized by building robust electrical systems that power custom automation—and by seeing your designs run in the real world—this is where you’ll thrive.