Design & Automation Engineer at Lava Island in Aurora, Colorado

Job description

• Lava Island is an indoor play oasis where kids fly across trampolines, vanish into towering jungle gyms, dive into foam pits, and race down slides while families share pizza and celebrate birthdays in the party rooms. It is loud, bright, and full of energy.
• Every trampoline, deck, slide, and play piece is made by hand. Active Play Solutions (APS) is the team that makes them. Before any of it gets built, somebody has to design it. That is you.
• You will own original product design for Lava Island's playground and jump deck equipment, built in Autodesk Inventor, from first concept through build-ready specification. You will also design the automation, using iLogic, that makes APS's production floor smarter and more efficient as manufacturing scales.
• This is a from-scratch role. You are not maintaining files somebody else built, you are the one building them, and you will lead APS's move from AutoCAD to Inventor, training the team on the new way of working as you go.

Responsibilities

• Design the equipment
• Design playground and jump deck equipment from concept through build-ready specification in Autodesk Inventor.
• Review drawings and models for accuracy, manufacturability, and compliance with our design standards.
• Build a library of reusable design templates, standard parts, and design documentation for APS.
• Build the automation
• Design and refine warehouse automation and machine programming, using iLogic and Inventor's API, as production volume scales.
• Evaluate and recommend equipment and tooling upgrades that improve manufacturing efficiency.
• Lead the transition
• Move APS from AutoCAD to Inventor, building the training materials and coaching the team through it.
• Coordinate across teams
• Work with the Design/architecture team in Revit so equipment integrates cleanly with building layouts.
• Partner with production floor leadership to refine designs based on real build feedback.

Requirements

• 5+ years in mechanical or product design, with real, original design work in Autodesk Inventor, not just editing existing files.
• Autodesk Certified Professional in Inventor for Mechanical Design (or equivalent) is strongly preferred, and matters more to us than a four-year degree. Real, demonstrated Inventor and iLogic experience is what we're looking for.
• Hands-on iLogic experience. This is the core of the automation side of the job, not a nice-to-have. Being an Inventor user isn't enough on its own; we need someone who has actually built iLogic rules and automation.
• Strong working knowledge of Inventor iProperties, including their role in drawings, bills of materials, and design documentation.
• Experience integrating CAD design with automation, CNC, or robotics systems.
• Ability to read and interpret engineering drawings, specifications, and manufacturing requirements.
• Comfortable teaching others a new tool and new design standards.
• Comfortable working on-site in a production/warehouse environment.
• Comfort with email, digital documentation, and design/PDM systems. APS operates in a Microsoft 365 environment.
• Background in playground, amusement, or structural steel manufacturing is a plus. So is familiarity with Revit, experience building configurable product models, experience with process automation or “smart” manufacturing systems, and having led a CAD platform transition before.

Skills

Required

• Autodesk Inventor
• iLogic
• Inventor iProperties
• Microsoft 365 environment

Preferred

• Revit
• Configurable product models
• Leading a CAD platform transition

Benefits

• $85,000 - $95,000