Materials Engineer
Company overview
Position Summary:
Join us in a fast-growing industry, collaborating within a global network of world class professionals where our culture and entrepreneurial way of working sets us apart. We are growing our business and are driving market transformation towards more comfortable, sustainable and resilient buildings.
The materials engineer is customer-centric and creates strong partnerships with internal and external suppliers; finding hidden customer needs and translating those needs into specifications that enable quality and efficiency in manufacturing. Evaluate and learn existing technology and current capabilities, working with our production team and external suppliers to find mutually beneficial solutions. Use strong data collection and analysis skills to interpret results, educate stakeholders, and support decision-making. Define, plan and monitor product development projects including managing timelines, costs, purchasing, and deliverables.
While this team member will work with materials and testing, this is not solely a lab-based role. This team member will be highly integrated into the team (ops, engineering, sales, etc.). The successful candidate has obtained their undergraduate degree and is eager to apply their knowledge to product development and testing in a global manufacturing environment.
This person will be responsible for material engineering and product development for a thermoplastic co-extrusion process. Responsibilities relate to testing, designing, developing, and delivering products through the entire product development cycle, starting from ideas/concept through to manufacturing and market launch. Coordinate across local teams to deliver successful quality products to our customers. Interact with global teams to bring divisional alignment to our product designs and leverage products in other regions. Projects could involve coatings, metals, sealants, and plastic materials development to support the launch of new products or applications.
The successful candidate must be able to work both independently and collaboratively, bringing their knowledge of materials, systems-thinking, interactions, and product development approaches to engineer custom solutions improve current designs, and use best in class technology. Great communication skills are a must to interface with customers, suppliers, and across internal teams. Knowledge of engineered thermoplastic materials is a plus.
Must be authorized to work in the US without sponsorship.
Your responsibilities
- Lead the testing and development of materials for new products and applications and present findings to a variety of stakeholders including sales, production, finishing, and management.
- Provide expertise on recipe optimization as well as guidance to support launch of new polymer products. Develop and specify new manufacturing processes or equipment as needed and in collaboration with the production team.
- Ability to share technical data and knowledge with non-technical team members. Being able to break technical information into laymen’s terms that anyone in the organization can understand.
- Prepare samples, analyze materials, and test components in our customers’ systems for product development and root cause analysis. Coordinate outside testing as needed and make proposals to stakeholders for product and materials-related decision-making.
- Design and develop new products using industry best practices and testing standards (e.g. ASTM), statistical methods, tolerance stack ups, design of experiments, and other quality tools.
- Create and maintain raw material, product, and process specifications.
- Support capital investment process through participation in setting strategy, defining projects, and executing upon assignments. Purchase capital aligned with the budget and internal standards.
- Qualify vendors according to specifications.
- Apply statistical analysis, interpret test results, and effectively communicate and educate other team members on results.
- Create mock-ups of product ideas, generate, and test prototypes, and develop evaluation criteria and cost models.
- Apply creative thinking, analysis, and good judgement to propose innovative solutions to technical problems, which may involve a range of diverse approaches and resolving conflicting issues.
- Run and support new product development projects to ensure design for manufacturability. Coordinate with the production teams for process qualification and transition to full-scale production, achieving a flawless production launch.
- Lead projects and carry out assigned responsibilities in a timely, diligent, safe, and professional manner and guide all team members assigned to the project to keep them moving forward on schedule. Develop detailed project plans with input from all teams to manage all aspects of product development and production.
- Collaborate with global colleagues to ensure best practices are met and other regions are leveraged. Open to travel to explore and learn Technoform technology and leverage expertise across the company
Your qualifications and opportunities
Your qualifications:
Required:
- Education: Bachelor’s degree in materials science, engineering, chemistry or equivalent
- Experience: 4+ years of materials testing, R&D, and product development within a manufacturing environment.
- Strong foundational knowledge of polymer science and compounding and the impact and risks of material changes on equipment assets.
- Project management is a critical skill and tool used in this role, therefore a proven ability to successfully manage complex work plans and meet deadlines collaboratively with others is a must.
- Computer Skills: Microsoft Office 365, Data analysis tools (e.g. Minitab, Excel)
- Competencies/Soft Skills: Comfortable navigating ambiguity, self-motivated, good written and oral communication skills, ability to lead and coordinate with diverse groups of people to achieve results, entrepreneurial mindset, strong attention to details, and ability to wear many hats.
Preferred:
- Experience designing fenestration products or extruded products.
- Knowledge of insulating glass and related components
- Experience managing vendors
- Solid Works, AutoCAD, 3-D modeling is a plus, but is not required.
Position success criteria:
- Ability to communicate and translate technical information into laymen’s terms
- Collaboration across a wide range of stakeholders, both internal and external
- Strong chemical aptitude
- Ability to deal with change and make sound decisions
- Perform root cause analysis and resolve problems
Your physical requirements and working conditions:
Required to be on your feet for long periods of time intermittently as needed (e.g. while performing testing or for data collection during a production trial)
Your opportunities:
- Entrepreneurial spirit
- We want our team members to actively challenge the status quo, identifying and pursuing solutions and new initiatives. There are no limitations on what you can explore, lead, or achieve. A true self-starter perspective.
- You will be exposed to various areas of the business like participating in team strategic goals to understanding the working financial statements and its impact.
- Flat structure
- We believe in the strength and power of cohesive teams to make decisions to tackle challenges. Our structure is all about transparency and open communication.
- Innovation and growth
- We are always striving to generate new ideas and grow our business, largely through investing for the future. A wide network of experts will help you expand your know-how and competencies.
- We offer you a diverse range of tasks in a dynamic team setting that will help you to identify and gain experience in your area of interest.
- Global networking
- We have a global presence and frequently interface with our colleagues to stay on the cutting edge. There are abundant opportunities for all employees to engage internationally.
- Work life balance
- We consider our team to be a family. We maintain a flexible workplace environment, providing the platform for employees find a balance between personal and work responsibilities.
