You Won’t Just Draw the Sign—you’ll Decide How It Gets Built
A project manager hands you an approved concept for a custom illuminated sign. The appearance has been established, but the construction has not.
What materials should be used? How should the internal frame be built? Where will the sign separate for shipping? How will it be assembled, mounted, wired and serviced? Can our team fabricate it efficiently—and will the drawings give them everything they need to do it properly?
Those are the questions you will answer.
Advanced Lighting Systems is looking for a technically strong, fabrication-minded designer to bridge the gap between project management and production. You will take approved concepts and turn them into practical construction solutions, detailed fabrication drawings and accurate bills of materials.
This is not a traditional graphic-design role, and it is not a position where someone else tells you exactly what to draw. We need someone who can think through how a custom product should be built and then communicate that solution clearly to the people building it.
What You’ll Design
Our work includes:
- Channel letters and raceways
- Illuminated sign cabinets
- Push-through and routed-face signs
- Pylons and monument signs
- Backer panels and architectural features
- Flex-face cabinets
- Structural frames and mounting systems
- Interior dimensional signage
- One-off custom fabricated products
Some projects follow proven construction standards. Others will arrive as a sketch, rendering or design intent that still needs a complete technical solution.
What You’ll Be Responsible For
- Review approved scopes, estimates, artwork and customer drawings.
- Identify missing information and technical risks before they reach production.
- Determine how each sign should be constructed.
- Select materials, thicknesses, framing, fastening and assembly methods.
- Consider fabrication, strength, weight, cost, shipping, installation and service access.
- Produce complete fabrication drawings with dimensions, sections, material callouts and assembly details.
- Develop mounting and installation details.
- Create accurate bills of materials for purchasing and production.
- Coordinate structural requirements with customers, project managers and external engineers.
- Incorporate engineered details into production drawings.
- Learn to develop basic LED layouts and power-supply placement using ALS standards.
- Answer production questions and resolve technical issues during fabrication.
- Manage revisions and ensure production always receives the correct drawing.
- Help establish repeatable ALS construction details and design standards.
The Person We’re Looking For
You are probably the person fabricators approach when a drawing doesn’t make sense.
You naturally look beyond the appearance of a product and start thinking about material thickness, attachment points, access, clearances, tolerances and assembly sequence. You can spot a construction problem on paper before it becomes an expensive problem on the shop floor.
You are comfortable making technical decisions, but you also know when to involve production, the project manager or an engineer.
Most importantly, you take ownership of your drawings. A drawing is not finished because it looks complete—it is finished when the fabrication team can build from it accurately.
Your Background
We are open to candidates from sign manufacturing or other custom-fabrication environments, including:
- Custom metal fabrication
- Architectural metalwork
- Sheet-metal manufacturing
- Store fixtures and displays
- Millwork
- Exhibit fabrication
- Custom equipment manufacturing
- Miscellaneous metals
You should have:
- At least two years of relevant fabrication-design or technical-design experience; three or more years is preferred.
- A strong understanding of aluminum, steel, sheet metal and fabricated assemblies.
- Experience with bending, welding, fastening and assembly methods.
- Experience creating detailed fabrication or assembly drawings.
- Experience preparing bills of materials.
- Strong dimensional accuracy and revision-control habits.
- The ability to balance strength, appearance, weight, material cost and fabrication time.
- The confidence to explain and defend a proposed construction method.
- The judgment to ask questions before assumptions become rework.
A diploma or degree in mechanical engineering technology, industrial design, manufacturing design or a related discipline is preferred, but practical fabrication knowledge and demonstrated ability are equally important.
Sign-industry experience is an asset, not a requirement. We will provide training on our sign products, electrical components and construction standards.
Software
ALS currently works primarily in SAi Flexi and Adobe Illustrator.
Experience with these programs is preferred, but we will train the right fabrication designer. Experience with AutoCAD, SolidWorks, Inventor or another technical-design platform is valuable.
How the Role Fits at ALS
You will work directly with our General Manager, Project Manager, production team, customers and external engineers.
The Project Manager owns the project scope, priorities and production release. You own the proposed construction solution and the technical accuracy and completeness of your drawings.
This is an on-site position because good technical design requires direct exposure to the materials, machinery and people responsible for building the finished product.
What Success Looks Like
During your first few months, you will learn ALS’s products, construction standards and workflow while completing standard projects under review.
As you develop, you will be expected to:
- Turn design intent into complete, buildable solutions.
- Independently detail ALS’s standard sign products.
- Provide production with the information it needs before fabrication begins.
- Produce reliable bills of materials.
- Catch technical problems before they reach the shop floor.
- Reduce drawing-related questions and rework.
- Design products that are practical, efficient and repeatable to manufacture.
- Help ALS improve and standardize how its signs are constructed.
Interested?
Send us your résumé along with examples of fabrication, assembly, mechanical or technical drawings.
We are more interested in seeing how you think through construction than in polished renderings. Your portfolio should show how your drawings communicate materials, dimensions, sections, connections and assembly details to the people responsible for building the finished product.
Shortlisted candidates will complete a practical design exercise based on a typical ALS fabrication project.
Pay: $65,000.00-$75,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Casual dress
- Dental care
- On-site parking
- Tuition reimbursement
Work Location: In person
