Tooling Engineer

Job Title: Tooling Engineer

Job Description

The Tooling Engineer supports engineering and manufacturing teams by leading all primary tooling activities, including injection molds, compression molds, and RIM tooling. This role manages production and prototype tooling requirements, drives best practices in product design and manufacturability, and ensures tooling projects meet performance, cosmetic, timing, and budget objectives.

Responsibilities

• Create and maintain detailed tooling specification packages for new business quoting, ensuring all technical requirements are clearly defined.

• Work within established tooling budgets and ensure tooling requirements are met without exceeding cost targets.

• Assist in developing tooling budgets for new model programs, providing accurate estimates and cost breakdowns.

• Drive product engineers to ensure product designs follow best practices for tooling and manufacturability.

• Support the product engineering team with design feasibility assessments, particularly for plastic injection molded components.

• Prepare and issue requests for quotation (RFQs) for all primary tools, including injection molds, compression molds, and RIM tooling.

• Ensure RFQ packages are complete, accurate, and suitable for quoting by tooling suppliers.

• Follow up on RFQs with purchasing and ensure summary documents are completed and communicated to relevant stakeholders.

• Troubleshoot and resolve production tool-related issues as needed to support consistent manufacturing quality and throughput.

• Support the manufacturing team with tooling-related needs during production and prototype build phases.

• Support production and prototype build activities, including planning phases, tooling readiness, and pre-production builds.

• Participate in and support customer meetings related to tooling, molding trials, and product launch activities.

• Support all production and prototype molding trials, including hands-on participation in mold trials and troubleshooting.

• Lead tooling design reviews with suppliers, ensuring designs meet performance, cosmetic, and manufacturability requirements.

• Assist sales and cost estimating teams with budgetary tooling cost estimates for new business opportunities.

• Work closely with tooling suppliers to ensure all deliverables, including timing, quality, and documentation, are met.

• Obtain weekly timing charts from suppliers and distribute them to the project team, tracking progress against program milestones.

• Lead the development of new plastic injection tooling projects to meet a wide range of product performance and cosmetic requirements.

• Track tooling projects and ensure tools meet all program-required milestones, including design release, build, and validation.

• Maintain and update company molding standards to reflect best practices, lessons learned, and continuous improvement.

Essential Skills

• 5 to 15 years of experience in automotive plastic injection molding tooling design and manufacturing.

• Proven experience with tool launch activities from prototype through production.

• Hands-on experience with mold trials and troubleshooting, including resolving tooling and molding issues on the shop floor.

• Strong understanding of molding defects and design for manufacturability (DFM) principles for plastic parts.

• Experience in tooling design for injection molds, including interior automotive plastics and interior trim components.

• Demonstrated ability to manage tool suppliers, including RFQ ownership and supplier coordination.

• Ability to manage and track multiple tooling programs simultaneously while meeting deadlines and quality standards.

• Working knowledge of molding operations and their impact on tooling design and performance.

• Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Microsoft Project.

• Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering (Plastics Engineering preferred) or equivalent technical work experience.

• Strong communication and organizational skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively across engineering, manufacturing, purchasing, and sales teams.

Additional Skills & Qualifications

• Experience with injection mold tooling design for automotive applications.

• automotive plastics, including interior trim and other plastic components.

• Experience leading tool launch activities and coordinating prototype and production tooling phases.

• Familiarity with design for manufacturability for plastic parts and collaboration with product engineers to optimize designs.

• Experience working with tooling and molding suppliers and interpreting their timing charts and deliverables.

• Ability to participate in customer meetings and represent tooling and molding capabilities effectively.

• Experience maintaining or contributing to corporate molding standards and best practices.

Work Environment

This role operates in a collaborative engineering and manufacturing environment focused on automotive plastic injection molding and tooling development. The Tooling Engineer works closely with product engineering, manufacturing, purchasing, and sales teams, as well as external tooling and molding suppliers. The position involves a mix of office-based work, including the use of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Microsoft Project for documentation, analysis, and project tracking, and hands-on work in molding and manufacturing areas during mold trials, troubleshooting, and tool launches. The environment emphasizes cross-functional communication, adherence to program timing and budgets, and continuous improvement of molding standards and tooling practices.

Job Type & Location

This is a Contract to Hire position based out of Auburn Hills, MI.

Pay and Benefits

The pay range for this position is $48.08 - $55.29/hr.

Individual compensation offered for this position within this range will depend on many factors, including qualifications, skills, relevant experience, job knowledge, geographic location, internal equity, and other pertinent job-related factors.

Eligibility requirements apply to some benefits and may depend on your job classification and length of employment. Benefits are subject to change and may be subject to specific elections, plan, or program terms. If eligible, the benefits available for this temporary role may include the following: Medical, dental & vision Critical Illness, Accident, and Hospital 401(k) Retirement Plan Pre-tax and Roth post-tax contributions available Life Insurance (Voluntary Life & AD&D for the employee and dependents) Short and long-term disability Health Spending Account (HSA) Transportation benefits Employee Assistance Program Time Off/Leave (PTO, Vacation or Sick Leave)

Job Type & Location

This is a Contract to Hire position based out of Auburn Hills, MI.

Application Deadline

This position is anticipated to close on Nov 13, 2026.

Workplace Type

This is a fully onsite position in Auburn Hills,MI.

About Actalent

Actalent is a global leader in engineering and sciences services and talent solutions. We help visionary companies advance their engineering and science initiatives through access to specialized experts who drive scale, innovation and speed to market. With a network of almost 20,000 consultants and 5,000 clients across the U.S., Canada, Asia and Europe, Actalent serves many of the Fortune 500. We are proud to be an Engineering News-Record (ENR) Top 500 Design Firm for our engineering design services and a ClearlyRated Best of Staffing® winner for both client and talent service.

The company is an equal opportunity employer and will consider all applications without regard to race, sex, age, color, religion, national origin, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information or any characteristic protected by law.

If you would like to request a reasonable accommodation, such as the modification or adjustment of the job application process or interviewing process due to a disability, please email [email protected] for other accommodation options.

San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, for all positions located in the city and county of San Francisco, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Massachusetts Lie Detector: It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI): We may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support parts of our hiring process, including sourcing, screening, and evaluating candidates. AI helps assess applications and qualifications, but final decisions are made by our hiring team. By applying, you acknowledge and agree that your application may be reviewed using AI tools.