Project Engineer - Ventilation Hood

This role is designed to build our internal engineering capacity for the commercial kitchen exhaust hood product line . Your primary focus will center on hood airflow performance, fan system specification, fire suppression integration, and navigating the UL 300A and EN 60335 certification regimes.

While your primary day-to-day focus is on hood systems, this role explicitly includes the flexibility to provide cross-project support for other high-priority initiatives. Specifically, your electrical engineering and certification expertise will be tapped to help drive our new outdoor electric patio heater development project. This is a unique opportunity for an engineer who wants deeper, broader product exposure than they would ever get at a pure hood manufacturer.

Core Responsibilities

Ventilation Product Line Leadership

• System Design & Optimization: Design and modify commercial hood systems with a heavy focus on airflow performance, capture/containment efficiency, and noise reduction characteristics.

• Compliance & Certification: Lead and manage testing laboratory certification workflows for UL 300A (our core standard), EN 60335 (for the Canadian market), UL 710, UL 507, and ETL. Ensure continuous compliance with NFPA-96 standards.

• Fire Suppression Integration: Integrate leading fire suppression systems (ANSUL, Range Guard, Amerex, etc.) into hood designs to maintain certified, seamless protection.

• Electrical & Fan Specification: Specify and integrate fan systems, motors, drives, VFDs, and supporting electrical components.

Cross-Project Support & General Engineering

• Electric Product Development: Apply your electrical and controls expertise to support our outdoor electric patio heater development project, including navigating UL 1278 and EN 60335 certifications.

• CAD Modeling: Create new product drawings and modify existing models in SolidWorks.

• Operations & Document Collaboration: Specify components and provide technical inputs to the Engineering Services Coordinator on Bill of Materials (BOMs), part numbers, and supplier selection. Provide technical content for installation and operation manuals.

• Manufacturing & Field Support: Act as the engineering point of contact to resolve plant production issues and technical customer inquiries regarding company's products.

Position Requirements

Must-Have Qualifications (Firm Filters)

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or Electrical Engineering.

• Experience: 3+ years of industry product engineering experience at a commercial ventilation, hood, foodservice equipment, fan, or similar manufacturer.

• Career Track: Total work experience exceeds 4 years (this should not be your first job post-graduation).

• Compliance Mindset: Direct experience navigating UL or ETL certification regimes for ventilation, electrical, or appliance equipment, alongside a strong electrical safety mindset (familiarity with NEC/NFPA-70).

• Software: Proficiency in SolidWorks (or equivalent 3D modeling software).

Nice-to-Have Qualifications (Strong Assets)

• Specific Industry Standards: Direct experience with UL 300A, UL 710, NFPA-96, or EN 60335 (range hoods for the Canadian market).

• Target Competitor/Industry Exposure: Past engineering experience within the commercial kitchen ventilation space (e.g., Captive-Aire, Halton, Greenheck, Accurex, Franke, Melink) or broader foodservice industry exposure.

• Specialized Systems: Direct experience with fire suppression integration (ANSUL, Range Guard, Amerex) or fan system/motor controls/VFD specifications.

• Controls & Automation: Experience with Building Automation Systems (BAS), commercial HVAC controls, or familiarity with PLC programming (RSLogix, Siemens TIA Portal, Mitsubishi GX Works).

• Cross-Application Skills: Background in acoustic/noise engineering for fan systems, or experience with heat pump/electric heating products.