Product Engineer

Cummins•Columbus, IN

19d•$67,200 - $100,800

About The Position

This entry-level/early-career, product-focused position performs established technical tasks at the subsystem or component level for current and future products. The work spans many steps of the product life cycle. The Product Engineer often serves as a central point of coordination and decision-making among product line engineers, customer teams, systems engineers, purchasing, suppliers, and manufacturing. The role investigates product problems, identifies causal mechanisms, recommends action, owns problem resolution, and documents results with guidance from more experienced team members. Work may support Product Preceding Technology (PPT), Value Package Introduction (VPI), or Current Product Support (CPS), and may use processes such as Engineering Standard Work (ESW), iDFMEA, and Failure Incident Review Group (FIRG), along with tools including 7-step problem solving and design review checklists. The engineer gathers stakeholder input and applies academic knowledge and existing experience to make decisions that move projects forward while maintaining quality expectations. The position independently executes established work processes while continuing to develop product and technology knowledge and contributing to process improvement. It owns resolution of moderately complex components, products, systems, subsystems, or services, with technical complexity and ambiguity increasing as experience grows. The role involves minimal direct people management, though it may coordinate or direct the work of technicians or temporary student employees. The required work location is Columbus, Indiana.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Engineering or an appropriate STEM field; the listed degree level is BS and the educational program is Mechanical Engineering.
Technical problem-solving ability.
Excellent documentation and organizational skills.
Curiosity about new challenges.
For U.S. exempt entry-level candidates: be within two years of completing the highest degree from an accredited U.S. college or university and currently reside within the continental United States.
For F-1 visa students in U.S.-based roles: have university-authorized CPT or OPT related to the degree before the early-career assignment begins.

Nice To Haves

Relevant experience from temporary student employment, such as an internship or co-op, extracurricular team activities, or early-career work in a relevant technical discipline.
Knowledge of MS Office tools.
A relevant postgraduate Master's degree may be required for select roles.

Responsibilities

Investigate product problems, understand causal mechanisms, recommend appropriate actions, own resolution, and document results.
Work in Product Preceding Technology (PPT), Value Package Introduction (VPI), or Current Product Support (CPS) processes and execute technical processes such as Engineering Standard Work (ESW), iDFMEA, and Failure Incident Review Group (FIRG).
Use 7-step problem solving, design review checklists, and other specialized tools to support processes and quality decision-making.
Gather input from technical managers, project leaders, product and manufacturing engineers, suppliers, and other stakeholders; provide information and recommendations for product decisions.
Apply academic knowledge and experience to make day-to-day project, analysis, testing-instruction, and cross-disciplinary coordination decisions that progress projects without compromising quality.
Own resolution of moderately complex components, products, systems, subsystems, or services.
Independently execute established work processes and systems, develop product and technology knowledge, and contribute to process and system improvement.
Coordinate and, where applicable, direct work among technicians or temporary student employees.
Apply statistical methods, including descriptive statistics, probability distributions, graphical analysis, statistical inference, analysis of variance, regression, and design of experiments, to support data-based decisions.
Translate stakeholder value-package requirements into virtual designs and communicate design capability through cross-functional design reviews.
Specify and understand control-system software features, architectures, measurements, actuation, algorithms, and hardware/software interactions.
Design mechanical systems and create solid models, configured engineering bills of material, and detailed drawings that communicate manufacturing and inspection requirements.
Manage product configuration and change processes, including baselines, releases, tracking, control, and communication of changes.
Plan, schedule, coordinate, execute, monitor, and control product-development activities, risks, resources, and quality expectations across functional boundaries.
Identify and mitigate potential product failure modes and causes to improve product reliability.
Use or interpret computational tools and methods to predict product functional capability against system, subsystem, and component requirements.
Specify and manage interfaces and interactions across system boundaries, and plan system integration activities.
Solve product problems using customer-protective, data-based methods; identify root causes and recommend actions to prevent recurrence.
Develop product validation plans, manage product risk and requirements, evaluate analysis, simulation, and physical test results, and document recommendations supporting product decisions.
Translate stakeholder needs into verifiable system requirements, establish acceptance criteria, track requirements, assess changes, and maintain related information linkages.
Define and analyze systems, including their boundaries, context, interfaces, lifecycle, interactions, and expected behavior.
Document technical knowledge and communicate it to stakeholders to support productivity and knowledge transfer.
Collaborate effectively, communicate clearly to different audiences, make timely decisions, achieve results, pursue self-development, and recognize the value of differing perspectives and cultures.