Furnace Engineer

Eaton Corporation•Horseheads, NY

1d•$86,000 - $126,000•Onsite

About The Position

Eaton’s Power Components Division is hiring a Furnace Engineer at its Horseheads, New York manufacturing facility. The role provides engineering and technical leadership for the operation, reliability, maintenance, improvement, and long-term performance of the plant’s vacuum and belt furnaces. It applies expertise in vacuum technology, mechanical and electrical systems, controls, and heat-treatment processes to help ensure safe and reliable operation within product and process requirements. The Furnace Engineer supports troubleshooting, preventive and predictive maintenance, process optimization, equipment upgrades, capital projects, commissioning, technical documentation, and continuous improvement. The role works with Production, Maintenance, Quality, Manufacturing Engineering, EHS, suppliers, contractors, and equipment manufacturers to improve furnace availability, product quality, process capability, and equipment reliability. The position requires coordinating work in an active manufacturing environment, including planned outages, major repairs, rebuilds, installations, commissioning, testing, and emergency maintenance. Periodic presence in manufacturing and maintenance areas around high-temperature equipment, electrical equipment, vacuum systems, cooling systems, industrial gases, and operating machinery is required; appropriate PPE and safety requirements must be followed. Urgent technical support outside normal working hours may be required when significant safety, production, quality, delivery, or equipment-availability conditions arise. The expected annual salary range is $86,000–$126,000. Salary is a general guideline and depends on candidate skills, experience, qualifications, market, and business considerations. No relocation benefit is offered; candidates generally must be within a 50-mile radius of Horseheads, NY, with an exception for active-duty military service members. Eaton does not provide employment immigration sponsorship or support for the listed immigration programs.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Materials Science, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Metallurgical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or a related technical field from an accredited institution.
Minimum 2 years of experience with continuous belt furnaces or high-temperature atmosphere furnaces.
Strong technical knowledge of vacuum and thermal-processing furnace systems, including vacuum pumps and instrumentation, brazing metallurgy, heat treatment, heat transfer, thermal cycles, temperature profiles, and process optimization.
Strong understanding of furnace mechanical systems and process gases, including hot zones, heating elements, graphite/carbon components, insulation and cooling systems, chambers, piping, valves, seals, gas-quenching systems, hydrogen safety, gas blending, and gas-flow dynamics.
Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot and improve complex furnace systems, including mechanical, electrical, vacuum, controls, and thermal-process issues using structured root-cause analysis, preventive/predictive maintenance, failure analysis, and equipment life-cycle management.
Ability to communicate technical information effectively in writing and orally with plant leadership, Production, Maintenance, Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, EHS, suppliers, contractors, and equipment manufacturers.
Project-management and organizational skills, including the ability to manage multiple projects and issues while controlling scope, cost, schedule, safety, quality, and disruption to plant operations.
Ability to work autonomously, exercise technical judgment, identify and evaluate furnace and process risks, develop recommendations, establish priorities, and escalate significant risks.
Must be capable of coordinating work in an active manufacturing environment, including outages, repairs, rebuilds, installations, commissioning, testing, and emergency maintenance.
May be required to provide technical support outside normal working hours for urgent furnace failures or process problems.
Must follow applicable PPE and established safety requirements when present in manufacturing and maintenance areas.
Applicants must meet the stated geographic consideration: generally within 50 miles of Horseheads, NY; active-duty military service member candidates are exempt.

Responsibilities

Provide engineering support and technical ownership for vacuum and belt furnace equipment, including vacuum systems, hot zones, heating elements, graphite/carbon components, insulation, cooling and gas systems, quenching systems, instrumentation, power supplies, and associated mechanical and electrical equipment.
Evaluate furnace condition, reliability, capability, and performance; identify risks and recommend corrective actions, upgrades, repairs, or replacement.
Provide technical support for vacuum pumps, valves, seals, piping, chambers, instrumentation, pressure/vacuum gauges, and related components.
Develop and improve preventive and predictive maintenance strategies, reliability, availability, maintainability, spare-parts strategies, and long-term equipment health.
Develop, evaluate, and optimize furnace cycles, heating and cooling profiles, vacuum levels, hold times, gas-quenching conditions, ramp rates, temperature uniformity, temperature zones, belt speeds, and process parameters.
Control hydrogen and nitrogen purge-gas flow rates and dew points to support oxide-layer reduction and prevent contamination.
Partner with Quality and Manufacturing Engineering on process controls, furnace qualification, validation, temperature-uniformity activities, instrumentation, audits, corrective actions, documentation, and nonconformance investigations.
Identify continuous-improvement opportunities involving reliability, cycle time, process capability, energy efficiency, throughput, quality, maintainability, and operating cost; support the Eaton Quality System and Eaton Continuous Improvement.
Troubleshoot complex mechanical, electrical, vacuum, instrumentation, heating, cooling, gas, and control-system failures; conduct structured root-cause analysis of recurring failures and process interruptions.
Provide engineering support for furnace PLCs, HMIs, control systems, sensors, thermocouples, temperature controls, alarms, interlocks, data-acquisition systems, and electrical components.
Develop and optimize mechanical designs for furnace systems, including hot zones, carbon/graphite components, fixtures, equipment modifications, and supporting mechanical systems using appropriate CAD/design tools.
Prepare technical specifications, drawings, layouts, bills of material, scopes of work, engineering records, and other documentation for repairs, modifications, upgrades, and new equipment.
Lead furnace-related capital and expense projects, including replacement, refurbishment, hot-zone upgrades, control-system modifications, vacuum-system improvements, utility modifications, and new equipment installation.
Coordinate suppliers, contractors, installation, startup, testing, validation, and commissioning while monitoring safety, quality, cost, schedule, and production impact.
Ensure furnace engineering activities support plant safety and EHS requirements; identify and address hazards involving high temperatures, electrical and stored energy, vacuum systems, gases, cooling systems, mechanical systems, and maintenance.
Design, inspect, and maintain fail-safe systems, including burn-off pilots, nitrogen purge interlocks, gas sensors, and explosion-relief doors.
Support LOTO and energy-control requirements, safe maintenance practices, guarding, interlocks, contractor safety, and equipment-related risk assessments.
Evaluate technical risks and initiate corrective actions when conditions could affect employee safety, product quality, equipment integrity, environmental compliance, or production continuity.
Manage multiple projects, equipment issues, and improvement activities concurrently; maintain working relationships with OEMs, suppliers, controls specialists, engineering firms, contractors, and other external technical resources.