Design Engineer

The Design Engineer translates creative direction into buildable fixtures. Working on both new collection development and bespoke custom orders, this role produces detailed CAD models, drawings, and documentation that our shop floor, vendors, and installers can all build from. The Design Engineer partners closely with the design studio on aesthetics, with the Manufacturing Engineer on producibility, and with the Assembly and Quality teams on how a fixture actually comes together and gets inspected.

Key Responsibilities

• CAD & Technical Drawings
• Create parametric 3D models and manufacturing drawings in Autodesk Fusion (or similar tools) for collection and custom fixtures.
• Produce clean, dimensioned drawings with tolerances, finishes, and notes appropriate to the vendor or in-house process.
• Develop BOMs and maintain part revisions in NetSuite with support from the Systems Engineer.
• New Product & Custom Development
• Partner with the design studio from concept through production release: sketch review, massing studies, proportion and scale studies, and prototype iteration.
• Specify materials and finishes in collaboration with Design, including glass, machined and spun metal, alabaster, and wood.
• Lead prototype builds, capture lessons learned, and carry them into a clean production release.
• Manufacturability & Vendor Handoff
• Review designs with the Manufacturing Engineer for manufacturability, tolerance stacks, and cost before release.
• Issue drawing packages to vendors and answer technical questions through the Manufacturing Engineer.
• Incorporate feedback from QC and Assembly into drawing updates and ECOs.
• Standards & Compliance
• Design fixtures that meet UL 1598 / UL 8750 and relevant electrical and structural standards in collaboration with the Assembly Engineer.
• Maintain design documentation and revision history in a disciplined way so that what’s in the field matches what’s in the system.
• Required Qualifications
• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Design Engineering, or a closely related field.
• 3–5 years of design engineering experience producing production-ready drawings for manufactured products.
• Strong CAD skills in Autodesk Fusion (Fusion 360) or a comparable parametric CAD tool, with GD&T proficiency.
• Experience designing for multiple materials and processes: machining, metal spinning, casting, glass, and wood.
• Ability to balance aesthetic intent with buildability; comfortable iterating with a design-led team.
• Strong communication skills and organized documentation habits.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience designing lighting fixtures and familiarity with UL 1598 / UL 8750.
• Experience with NetSuite item and BOM records.
• Background in luxury goods, architectural hardware, or high-end furniture.
• Exposure to rendering, photometric analysis, or thermal considerations for LEDs.

About Allied Maker

Allied Maker is an American design and manufacturing studio creating luxury-crafted lighting fixtures. Based in New York, each piece is made to order by a dedicated team of craftspeople, with a focus on authentic materials, refined form, and enduring quality.

The studio operates at the intersection of design, engineering, and manufacturing. Ryden Rizzo leads product design and form. Lanette Rizzo leads design direction, production, and client strategy. Together, they set a standard where design integrity, engineering, and performance are inseparable.

Allied Maker is widely specified by leading architects and designers and continues to expand its capabilities while maintaining a singular focus: deliver artisan-crafted, highly engineered, sophisticated yet simple lighting design solutions.