SUMMARY:
Reporting to the Engineering Manager, the Center of Expertise is responsible for identifying the best design concept for the program, setting the design direction in the early phase of the program and to ensure the program does not deviate from that direction during the development process.
Requires working in a team environment with other departments at Hutchinson including Quality, Plant Engineering and Production. Also, requires working with customers and suppliers, dependent upon project and program activities. This position is designated as a sensitive function and has access to confidential engineering, product design, customer, technical, benchmarking, research and development, cost, and proprietary company information, including design concepts, FEA validation data, engineering criteria, manufacturing capabilities, technology roadmaps, product development strategies, and customer-specific requirements.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
Include the following. Other duties may be assigned.
- Primary engineering contact prior to program sourcing
- Support Engineering Managers and Project Engineers.
- Support Sales & Program Management team especially during new business quote
- Develop initial design concepts and typical sections
- Assist in section virtual validation and optimization through FEA’s
- Create and manage Hutchinson design best practices
- Develop and manage the Hutchinson design strategy
- Assist in benchmarking activities
- Interface with worldwide counterparts to develop formalize and transfer the Hutchinson knowledge in areas such as Acoustics, FEA’s, design and processes.
- Upon request train technical teams on product design
- Stay current with latest sealing system innovations in the automotive industry (benchmarking, auto show)
- Participate in Research Center activity reviews
- Assist in extrusion development
- Review recently submitted Engineering Criteria Worksheets (ECW) for clarity, content, and accuracy at onset of design activities.
- Review cost information requests (CIR’s) to ensure that design intent falls within Hutchinson design best practices and manufacturing capabilities.
- Optimize design/profitability
- Upon request present Hutchinson technology and know-how to customers
- In collaboration with the platform Director, assist and participate in technical reviews.
- Advise upper management of potential program risks and roadblocks and make suggestions for corrective actions.
- Travel on a moderately frequent basis to internal manufacturing facilities as well as customer locations.
- The Center of Expertise is responsible for proposing a design direction at the early stage of a project. Major design roadblocks requiring additional support or resources, or extraordinary circumstances directly impacting program timing or profitability should be reported immediately to the Engineering Manager.
EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:
The Center of Expertise should have a Bachelor's Degree from a four-year college or university in engineering or equivalent and 5 years of directly related professional level automotive experience.
- Knowledgeable in automotive product design and development, good knowledge in the automotive sealing manufacturing process.
- Knowledgeable in automotive body engineering, good knowledge in dynamic sealing materials, good knowledge in sealing performance requirements and design requirements.
- Basic understanding of function, construction, and limitations of tooling for plastic injection molding, metal stamping, metal rolling, stretch bending, punching, and die cutting.
- Basic understanding of CAD design, descriptive geometry, automotive drafting practices, GD&T, and comprehensible drawing development.
- Ability to work independently and within team on multiple projects individually and simultaneously.
- Ability to visualize and comprehend complete automotive closure systems.
- Ability to conceptualize and create simple mockups, models and gages.
- Ability to safely use simple hand tools, power tools and consistently conduct safe shop practices.
- Ability to understand and analyze FEA output data
- Demonstrated team building skills.
- Planning abilities.
- Excellent oral, written, and graphic communication skills.
- Able to produce PowerPoint and excel presentations. Ability to construct simple spreadsheets.
- Excellent interpersonal skills.
- Must possess unrestricted valid operators drivers license for USA and Canada.
- Must have or be able to acquire active major credit card capable of securing rental cars, hotels, airfare, restaurant and other travel related expenses for company related business. All approved expenses will be reimbursed by company.
- Must be able to satisfy security clearance requirements for major automotive OEM locations.
- Must have or be able to immediately secure a valid unrestricted passport.
QUALIFICATIONS:
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Qualifications may be waived by management. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS:
Driver’s license
Valid passport
SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES:
None
TEAM SKILLS:
Hutchinson is built around teamwork. This position requires the use of good team skills such as cooperation, information sharing, task sharing, timely completion of assignments, good listening and communication skills and overall respect for other team members
LANGUAGE SKILLS:
Ability to read, analyze, and interpret common scientific and technical journals, financial reports, and legal documents. Ability to respond to common inquiries or complaints from customers, regulatory agencies, or members of the business community. Ability to write speeches and articles for publication that conform to prescribed style and format. Ability to effectively present information to top management, public groups and/or boards of directors.
MATHEMATICAL SKILLS:
Ability to work with mathematical concepts such as probability and statistical inference, and fundamentals of plane and solid geometry and trigonometry. Ability to apply concepts such as fractions, percentages, ratios, and proportions to practical situations.
COMPUTER SKILLS:
Ability to use word processing, spreadsheet applications. Must be familiar with internet research, Microsoft Office software, and the use of e-mail.
REASONING ABILITY:
Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions. Ability to interpret an extensive variety of technical instructions in mathematical or diagram form and deal with several abstract and concrete variables.
WORK ENVIRONMENT:
The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly exposed to moving mechanical parts. The employee is occasionally exposed to fumes or airborne particles; toxic or caustic chemicals. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.
PHYSICAL DEMANDS:
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to walk; sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; climb or balance; stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl; and talk or hear. The employee must frequently lift and/or move up to 10 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close, vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.
HEALTH AND SAFETY:
Must actively support our Health Safety and Environmental policy, immediately report all Safety hazards and correct them when able to safely do so, participate in all required Safety Training, meetings, inspects, and use all required PPE.
We are 40 000 men and women who meet the challenges faced by our automotive, aviation, defence and industry customers every day. Our passion for challenge and our enthusiasm encourage us to imagine, design and produce high performance and innovative fluid, sealing system and anti-vibration solutions. Working at Hutchinson means being curious about everything, contributing to the evolution of mobility and reducing carbon emissions.
Join us and show what drives you!
A French company with an international presence (25 countries): 170 years of history and passing on our know-how.
5 billion in turnover, with 5% invested in R&D.