Discovery Channel is Looking for a Few Good Engineers

Here is your chance to be a star—an engineering hero on Discovery Channel‘s new reality TV show, tentatively titled Top Engineer. Think of the show as Survivor or Top Chef for those who delight in designing, building, destroying, and rebuilding.

The casting call issued by Pilgrim Studios, which will oversee the production of the show, reads:

A handful of lucky men and women will be chosen to take on exciting challenges from various engineering fields at the state-of-the-art WET Design facilities (www.wetdesign.com) in California.

No, you don’t need to have an engineering degree to compete on this show, but you MUST be able to design, build, test and integrate an idea into a final product that WORKS. These will be fast-paced, hands-on, VISCERAL challenges! If your experience is strictly behind the keyboard, then this show is NOT for you.

We are looking for visual effects experts, accomplished home shop machinists, contractors and engineers with backgrounds in electrical, civil, structural or mechanical engineering.

You don’t have to look like Tom Cruise or Angelina Jolie (but if you do, I bet it’ll help). But you need to be able to express yourself clearly. Semi Aboud, casting director for the show from Pilgrim Studios, explained, “It’s not a dating show ... I don’t care what you look like. Be interesting. Have skills. I mean, it is a television show, so if you can’t put two words together, can’t explain what you’re thinking, what you’re designing, what’s going on in your head, it won’t work for TV.”

If you do get picked, you’ll be working with the same studio responsible for other Discovery Channel hits like Dirty Jobs, Top Shot, and American Chopper. Filming begins around mid-May. It’ll take about four to five weeks to complete. The show is slated to debut in Fall 2012.

Show producers are tight-lipped about what the grand prize is and what challenges contestants will need to tackle, but, based on other competition shows from the reality TV genre, you can expect on-the-spot design challenges with time limits and elimination rounds to see who gets to say, who goes home. “You’ll be living in a house, and every few days, you’ll have team and individual challenges,” said Aboud.

Deadline to apply to be on the show is March 7, so if you’re interested, you’d be get your behind moving—fast! You can email [email protected] with your name, age, location, phone number, a recent photo and a brief explanation of why you are perfect for the show.

For more, listen to the podcast below with the show’s casting director Semi Aboud.