Staff Engineer

The Opportunity

This position works out of our Lake Forest, IL location in the Core Lab Division. As a Staff Engineer, you will be responsible for the molding activities to attain strategic engineering objectives for the Abbott Diagnostics Division along with ensuring compliance with safety regulations, policies, and procedures. An engineering professional who, working with little supervision, applies scientific knowledge, engineering knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to complete assignments related to molded and assembled consumables. Assists with multiple, often concurrent, projects and meets department deadlines. The Staff Engineer is responsible for the implementation and ongoing support of molded plastic parts and will serve as a subject matter expert in the field of mold design and process within the regional engineering team. This person will work closely with molding suppliers to ensure reliable supply of parts. In addition, they will perform capacity analysis for molds, presses and assembly automation and make recommendations for future investments.

What You'll Work On

• Responsible for utilizing and working within the Quality System in order to maintain effectiveness of the system.
• Regularly interact with molding suppliers to meet quality and cost objectives.
• Assist with the mold design activities in coordination with mold suppliers, Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) and validation of molding manufacturing cells in accordance with division engineering best practices and procedures.
• Drive Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) for assigned projects.
• Assist and lead with some cross-functional team activities to achieve program objectives including transfer of molds to new suppliers, startup of new suppliers.
• Maintain project controls and reporting for cost scope and schedule; develop execution strategy including procurement support; balance multiple demands within assignment, e.g., execute contingency plans to recover from schedule slippage or financial overruns.
• Interface frequently with inter-organization and outside customer contacts.
• Represent the organization in providing solutions to difficult technical issues associated with projects.
• Have awareness of the potential consequences (defects & failure modes) of design changes to established processes.
• Participate in cross-functional teams to investigate and resolve molding issues.
• Full understanding and development of the relationship between molding key process input variables (KPIVs) and key process output variables (KPOVs) for plastic components throughout the value stream.
• Provide technical process support to other engineers within the group and mentor and develop junior team members.
• Read, challenge, develop and maintain a working knowledge of Quality Procedures and Work Instructions and apply knowledge to support completion of mold qualification.
• Assist with capacity planning in alignment with long term plan and short-term changes in demand.
• Will work regularly with operations, supply chain, quality and various suppliers and perform capacity analysis for molds, injection molding machines, and makes recommendations for future investment.
• Manage measurement system analysis, design control and execution of equipment selection, process development, validation, FMEA and Design of Experiments (DOEs).

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Engineering or technical disciplining desired.
• 6+ years technical work experience with molding design and process support experience.
• Knowledge of plastics processes, resins, tooling required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Engineering in a technical discipline such as Plastics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, etc.
• Knowledge of mold making and design fundamentals, molding process development, plastic resin behavior and required tooling/equipment.
• 6+ years technical work experience with 1+ years of plastic injection and/or blow molding design and process support experience, preferably in the diagnostics or medical device industry.
• Knowledge of plastics processes, resins, tooling required.
• Knowledge of Scientific Molding Practices. Certification preferred.
• Knowledge of FDA QSR's and ISO requirements preferred.
• Knowledge of PFMEA and DFMEA.