Manufacturing Composite Engineer- Centralia, MO
About The Position
The Manufacturing Composite Engineer provides technical leadership and engineering support for pultrusion manufacturing operations. The role develops, optimizes, and maintains robust manufacturing processes to improve safety, quality, productivity, yield, and cost. Working closely with Operations, Quality, Maintenance, Product Engineering, and Supply Chain, the engineer troubleshoots manufacturing issues, establishes process controls, supports new product introductions, and drives continuous improvement. Responsibilities include providing day-to-day engineering support for pultrusion production lines; developing, documenting, and optimizing manufacturing parameters; and troubleshooting process and equipment issues. The engineer establishes manufacturing standards and process controls, leads root-cause analysis and corrective actions, analyzes performance data, and identifies opportunities to improve yield, line speeds, changeovers, and overall equipment effectiveness. The role also supports new product development and production launches, including manufacturing trials and validation of materials, resin systems, tooling, equipment, and process changes. The engineer trains operators and technicians, serves as a technical resource to Operations, Maintenance, and Quality, participates in capital and process improvement projects, and works with suppliers to resolve technical issues.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science/Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
- Demonstrated experience with process troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, and continuous improvement.
- Strong communication, analytical, and hands-on problem-solving skills.
- Ability to work effectively in a production-floor environment and collaborate across Operations, Quality, Maintenance, and Engineering.
Nice To Haves
- Direct experience with pultrusion or composite manufacturing.
- Manufacturing or process engineering experience.
- Experience with fiberglass or other fiber-reinforced polymers, thermoset resins, polymer processing, extrusion, molding, or similar continuous manufacturing processes.
- Lean Manufacturing or Six Sigma experience or certification.
- Experience with DOE, SPC, PFMEA, control plans, CAPA, and structured problem-solving.
- Experience supporting new product introduction and capital equipment projects.
Responsibilities
- Provide day-to-day engineering support for pultrusion production lines.
- Develop, document, and optimize manufacturing parameters, including line speed, die temperature, resin formulation and flow, fiber placement, pulling conditions, and curing parameters.
- Troubleshoot process and equipment issues affecting product quality, throughput, scrap, downtime, and line performance.
- Establish and maintain manufacturing standards, work instructions, SOPs, and process documentation.
- Partner with production teams to ensure processes are stable, repeatable, and consistently followed.
- Lead root-cause analysis and corrective actions for recurring manufacturing and quality issues.
- Use Lean, Six Sigma, statistical analysis, DOE, and other problem-solving methodologies to improve manufacturing performance.
- Identify opportunities to reduce scrap, improve yield, increase line speeds, reduce changeover time, and improve overall equipment effectiveness.
- Develop and track KPIs to measure process performance and improvement results.
- Partner with Quality to investigate defects and implement corrective and preventive actions.
- Establish critical process parameters and appropriate process-control methods.
- Analyze manufacturing data and trends to identify opportunities and prevent recurring defects.
- Support compliance with applicable quality, safety, and manufacturing standards.
- Support new product introductions from development through production launch.
- Develop manufacturing processes, tooling requirements, and operating parameters for new pultruded products.
- Conduct manufacturing trials and validate new materials, resin systems, tooling, equipment, and process changes.
- Partner with Product Engineering and R&D to ensure new designs are manufacturable at production scale.
- Train operators and technicians on manufacturing processes, troubleshooting, and process-control requirements.
- Serve as a technical resource for Operations, Maintenance, and Quality.
- Lead or participate in capital equipment and manufacturing improvement projects.
- Work with equipment, tooling, resin, fiber, and other suppliers to resolve technical issues.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
