Manufacturing Development Engineer

Numat•Chicago, IL

6d•Onsite

About The Position

This is an early-career role for an engineer who wants to learn manufacturing development by owning problems and solving them. You'll work across our manufacturing processes for both fabrics and adsorbents; designing and running experiments that reduce product and process variability, working out how process settings and raw-material variation drive each product's critical quality attributes (CQAs), and helping scale our processes toward robust, repeatable commercial production. You'll work hands-on with our pilot and process equipment. Expect to design experiments, run the equipment, interpret the data, and build technology transfer packages.

Requirements

A bachelor's degree in chemical, materials, or mechanical engineering, or a related physical science; recent graduate or early-career (~0–5 years).
Demonstrated self-direction — clear evidence you've owned something end to end (an internship or capstone project, something you built, a problem you chased without being told to).
Strong problem-solving and analytical skills, with a working foundation in statistics, DOE, or data analysis.
Genuine interest in hands-on work — comfortable on the floor around process equipment, not only at a desk.
A clear communicator who documents and organizes work well, with good judgment about when to decide and when to ask.
Ability to walk or stand for prolonged periods; ability to bend, stoop, reach and lift up to 50 pounds

Nice To Haves

Coursework, internship, or co-op in process development, manufacturing, or quality (Six Sigma / SPC).
Exposure to any of: nonwovens, textiles, membranes, lamination, or coating; or particle/granulation, chemical synthesis, or adsorbent materials.
Familiarity with DOE / data-analysis tools (e.g., Minitab, JMP, Python).
Willingness to travel occasionally to external production and testing partners.

Responsibilities

Design and run experiments that reduce variability
Plan, design, and execute experiments and DOEs that reduce product and process variability across fabrics and adsorbents.
Support scaling our processes from lab and pilot toward robust, repeatable commercial production; contribute to demonstration runs and process-capability assessment.
Identify sources of variation and drive corrective and improvement actions.
Help document processes so they transfer cleanly to manufacturing.
Analyze the data and turn it into clear conclusions — including how process settings and raw-material variation drive each product's critical quality attributes (CQAs): the few measurable properties that determine whether the product performs.
Help define and hold the process windows and specifications that keep output consistent.
Run the pilot line equipment
Support running Numat's pilot processing equipment — the pilot spunbond and pilot meltblown nonwoven lines and the lamination machine — including setup, production runs, changeovers, and routine adjustments.
Support production in-house nonwoven and laminated material on this equipment for current- and next-generation development.
Cut, prepare, and condition swatches and test articles to defined, repeatable methods.
Run our in-house performance proxy test; capture, record, and report results cleanly.
Perform small-scale lamination property testing, and prepare and support material for pilot and external production runs.
Manage samples, data, and inventory
Prepare, document, and ship samples to external testing partners, and receive and reconcile samples coming back from external trials.
Build and improve the workflows, data capture, and methods that make the group's development work faster and more repeatable.
Enter test and run data accurately and on time so the engineers and technologists work from clean information.