Process Engineering Supervisor

Coherent•East Granby, CT

About The Position

Coherent is seeking a Process Engineering Supervisor for its East Granby, Connecticut facility, which produces specialty optical fiber and fiber-based components for industrial, communication, and instrumentation markets. The role provides direct leadership to process engineers and combines hands-on process engineering expertise with daily people leadership. The supervisor guides technical priorities, improves manufacturing performance, develops engineering talent, and partners with Operations, Quality, and R&D. The role ensures assigned product lines receive technical support, yield and process capability are monitored, improvement plans are carried out, and engineering work aligns with business, manufacturing, and customer needs. The supervisor coordinates support for assigned optical fiber product lines, including yield tracking, process performance monitoring, troubleshooting, and sustainable corrective actions. The position leads data-driven efforts to improve product quality, repeatability, and cost, and supports business growth through New Product Development and qualification of products and processes. It also develops team expertise in Coherent optical fiber fabrication techniques and promotes close technical engagement among engineering, production, and cross-functional teams. The position is expected to foster safety, quality, continuous improvement, accountability, collaboration, and data-based decision-making. It also requires adherence to site and corporate EHS procedures and, depending on location and role responsibilities, may include execution and maintenance of applicable quality and environmental management standards.

Requirements

B.S. or M.S. degree in Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, or a related scientific or engineering field.
Typically 5 or more years of relevant experience in product engineering, process engineering, manufacturing engineering, or a related technical role, or an equivalent combination of education and work experience.
Prior leadership experience, such as project leadership, technical team leadership, or supervisory responsibility.
Demonstrated experience using data analysis to improve manufacturing performance, including experience with JMP or similar statistical software.
Strong understanding of process capability, yield improvement, root cause analysis, experiment design, validation, and production support.
Ability to lead technical problem-solving involving process variation, equipment/process interactions, and product quality requirements.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present technical information clearly to engineering, operations, and leadership audiences.
Ability to prioritize work for a small technical team, manage multiple projects simultaneously, and make sound business decisions.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Modified Chemical Vapor Deposition, Over-collapse, Fiber Draw, or related optical fiber fabrication processes.
Previous supervisory experience leading engineers, technicians, or other professional or technical staff.
Demonstrated ability to mentor early-career engineers and build technical capability across a team.
Experience developing or improving Standard Operating Procedures, manufacturing documentation, or training materials.
Experience supporting New Product Development, process transfer, process qualification, or production ramp activities.
Knowledge of Lean/Six Sigma practices.

Responsibilities

Directly supervise and mentor a team of process engineers supporting optical fiber and fiber-based component manufacturing.
Set priorities, review technical work, provide regular feedback, and ensure engineering deliverables are completed on schedule and with appropriate technical rigor.
Coordinate process engineering support for assigned optical fiber product lines, including yield tracking, process performance monitoring, and troubleshooting.
Partner with Operations, Quality, and R&D to troubleshoot manufacturing issues, resolve technical problems, and implement sustainable corrective actions.
Lead development and maintenance of numerical tools to quantify process capability, including Statistical Process Control, and use the data to prioritize improvements in product quality, repeatability, and cost.
Coordinate product engineering participation in New Product Development initiatives and qualification of new products and processes.
Build team expertise in optical fiber fabrication techniques, including Modified Chemical Vapor Deposition, Over-collapse, and Fiber Draw.
Promote daily technical engagement among product engineering, production staff, and cross-functional teams.
Foster a culture of safety, quality, continuous improvement, accountability, collaboration, and data-based decision-making.
Balance daily production support with longer-term improvement projects and team development.
Communicate and escalate risks, resource needs, schedule impacts, and technical barriers in a timely, fact-based manner.
Help engineers develop technical judgment, project ownership, communication skills, and manufacturing process expertise.
Follow site EHS procedures and Coherent Corp. Corporate EHS standards.
Depending on location and assigned responsibilities, execute and maintain applicable quality and environmental management system standards.