Senior Design Engineer

DESIGN ENGINEER — KITCHEN & BATH

Founded in 2009 by local designer Colleen Vanderhovel, Dream Kitchens began with her vision for a different kind of kitchen and bath company. Not long after, she convinced her sons, Jason and Nick, to join her. What started as a small family business has grown into one of Michigan's largest privately owned kitchen and bath design firms.

Today, we work primarily throughout Livingston, Oakland, Genesee, and Washtenaw Counties, while an increasing number of our projects take us beyond Michigan and across the country.

With Colleen now retired and the second generation leading Dream Kitchens together, we're continuing to grow—and we're looking for someone who can help us strengthen the technical side of our design process.

The Position

We're looking for a Design Engineer.

This is not a sales position and not a client-facing design position. Yet, we are still requiring this position to be in IN PERSON. We appreciate the comradery of being in the office and bonding with your fellow team members.

Our designers are responsible for developing the project, working with the client, and establishing the overall design direction. Your job begins behind the scenes: taking that design and making absolutely certain it works.

You'll review drawings, cabinetry specifications, dimensions, appliances, clearances, moldings, fillers, panels, hardware, construction conditions, and all the small details that determine whether a kitchen, bath, closet, etc., works when it reaches the jobsite.

Depending on the team member, you'll either work with a designer's existing AutoCAD drawings or for those who do not work in AutoCAD, help turn those designs into accurate AutoCAD drawings, purchase orders, and manufacturer orders.

Simply put: the designers create it. You make sure we can build it—and that we order it correctly.

What You'll Do

A significant part of this position will involve reviewing projects before they are released for ordering. Responsibilities will include:

• Review cabinetry plans, elevations, specifications and orders for accuracy
• Identify dimensional conflicts, missing components and potential installation problems
• Verify cabinetry sizes, modifications, finished ends, panels, fillers, moldings and accessories
• Cross-check plans against field measurements and architectural drawings
• Verify appliance specifications and required clearances
• Review countertop, plumbing and related conditions where they affect cabinetry
• Produce and revise detailed AutoCAD floor plans, elevations and technical drawings
• Translate designer concepts into accurate, buildable documentation
• Prepare and place cabinetry and related product orders
• Review manufacturer acknowledgments against our original orders
• Coordinate corrections, revisions and order-related questions with designers and manufacturers
• Maintain accurate project documentation and specifications
• Help develop better internal standards, checklists and ordering procedures
• Catch problems before they become problems in the field

Who We're Looking For

This role requires someone with a deep understanding of cabinetry and kitchen and bath design.

Knowing AutoCAD or a general engineering background alone is not enough.

You need to understand why a cabinet needs a filler, when a door will interfere with an adjacent wall, how crown molding terminates, how appliance specifications affect cabinetry, how finished panels interact with construction, and why something that looks perfectly fine on a floor plan may not actually work in the field.

A strong candidate will have:

• Professional experience with kitchen and bath cabinetry
• Strong AutoCAD proficiency
• Extensive knowledge of cabinet construction, terminology and ordering
• Strong understanding of kitchen and bath planning
• Ability to read architectural drawings, floor plans, elevations and specifications
• Understanding of residential construction and field conditions
• Experience reviewing or placing cabinetry orders
• Strong dimensional and spatial reasoning
• Exceptional attention to detail
• Ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines simultaneously
• Confidence questioning something when it doesn't look right
• The ability to find a problem and propose a solution

Experience with multiple cabinetry manufacturers, custom cabinetry, millwork, appliance specifications, countertops or high-end residential construction is a major plus.

The Personality

This position is probably not for someone who needs constant client interaction or gets their energy from selling.

It is for the person who enjoys figuring things out.

You notice when two dimensions don't add up. You wonder how the molding actually dies into the wall. You open the appliance specifications instead of assuming they'll work. You catch the missing finished end that everyone else overlooked.

You're organized, methodical and comfortable being the person who asks:

“Are we sure this is right?”

And when it isn't, you don't just point out the problem—you help figure out how to solve it.

Why This Position Matters

The projects coming through Dream Kitchens are becoming larger, more detailed and more technically demanding.

As that happens, we believe our designers should be able to spend more of their time designing and working with clients, while a technically focused team member provides another layer of review before a project reaches production.

This position will work closely with our designers and ownership and will become an important part of our quality-control and ordering process.

Success isn't measured by how much you sell.

It's measured by accuracy, foresight, organization and how many problems you prevent.

Why Dream Kitchens?

We're not trying to become a giant national kitchen company or push as many cabinets as possible out the door.

We're trying to produce some of the best kitchen and bath work in Michigan.

Our projects range from straightforward residential kitchens to highly customized luxury homes involving architects, interior designers, builders, custom millwork, specialty appliances and unusual materials.

That creates an unusual opportunity for someone who loves the technical side of design but doesn't necessarily want to spend their career selling projects.

You'll have exposure to better products, increasingly complex projects and a team that genuinely values someone who understands how things are built.

More importantly, this isn't intended to be a drafting position where you're simply handed redlines all day. We want someone whose technical knowledge earns them a meaningful voice in the process.

Experience vs. Ability

We're less concerned with where you learned something than whether you actually understand it.

A degree is welcome, but it isn't what will determine whether you're successful here.

Cabinetry knowledge matters. Construction knowledge matters. Curiosity matters. Attention to detail matters.

And most things can be taught.

Caring enough to get it right is much harder to teach.

Applying

If this sounds like you, we'd like to hear from you.

Please submit your resume along with examples of technical drawings, cabinetry projects, construction documents, or other work that demonstrates your experience.

We'd also like to hear a little about your background with cabinetry, AutoCAD, and the type of work you'd like to be doing next. A short cover letter will make a difference as I don't believe people's resume's are an accurate reflection of their abilities.

Thank you for your interest in Dream Kitchens.

Nick Vanderhovel, CMKBD
Creative Director, Dream Kitchens
Certified Master Kitchen & Bath Designer
Named Best Kitchen Designer in Detroit by Hour Magazine
Praiseworthy Pick for Kitchen & Bath Business' Person of the Year

Pay: $70,000.00 - $110,000.00 per year

Work Location: In person