If your company needs to design some complex mechanical components like an engine or heat system, you're better off hiring a mechanical engineer to take on these design tasks. Just make sure you take these precautions when hiring said professional.
Focus on the Right Subfield
There are a lot of subfields included under mechanical engineering. It's important to focus on the right one when hiring said professional because that's going to help you receive better services that are specifically oriented towards a system you're looking to design and build.
Some engineering subfields that are classified under mechanical engineering include heating and cooling, acoustics, aerospace, robotics, and automotive. Focus on a subfield that's relevant to the system or machine you're looking to have developed by this engineering professional.
Join Mechanical Engineering Organizations
There are actually a lot of organizations focused on mechanical engineering in particular. By joining one or several, you'll be able to meet people in this industry and then have better luck at finding mechanical engineering candidates to screen further.
For instance, you can join these organizations and connect with recruiters that help companies like yours hire mechanical engineers all the time. Or maybe you get in touch with companies that just hired mechanical engineers and thus have insights they could share with you. Just try to reach out to as many of these organizations as you can so that hiring these professionals doesn't prove as difficult.
Screen Qualified Engineering Candidates Carefully
Once you find several mechanical engineering candidates that might seem like great matches to work for your company, you'll want to vet them carefully moving forward. That will bring you to one engineering candidate in particular that has the most potential to work out and bring valuable insights to the design table.
Your vetting process should focus on reviewing skills that are relevant to mechanical engineering, such as the ability to work with software when creating designs, developing control systems, and carrying out tests that measure the performance of systems being developed. You can ask about these skills directly or just have candidates perform tasks that allow you to assess them in real-time.
Mechanical engineers can do a lot of great things when it comes to design and development for complex systems. As long as you structure your company's search for one correctly, you'll be able to find talented mechanical engineering candidates that could prove to be worthwhile hires.