Program Engineer II

Sumitomo Electric Wiring Systems, Inc.•Farmington Hills, MI

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Program Engineer/Release Engineer is responsible for coordinating projects for SEWS Nissan wiring harness business. This includes the creation and tracking of a Project Master/Development Schedule and coordination of regular meetings with various departments to maintain a record of open issues, while assuring project milestones are met to achieve production preparation and launch targets. The role is responsible for reporting project status to BU management and key customer contacts at scheduled intervals, collecting and analyzing information from both internal and external sources to lead project activities from the prototype stage through the end of production.

Requirements

Bachelor of Science in Project Management or a related Engineering / Technical Discipline.
3-5 years in Project Management, wire harness / automotive-related fields preferred.
Domestic and international travel as required.
Non-standard work hours during Program Launch.

Nice To Haves

Bilingual (English + Japanese or Spanish) preferred but not mandatory.
Proficient in Microsoft Office Excel, and competent in VBA and/or Smartsheet preferred.

Responsibilities

Develops the project Master Plan (including overview and key target/KPIs) in order to kick off the project in SEWS.
Lead the weekly meeting with cross-functional teams to gather new information, follow up with key tasks, and identify any roadblocks that could impact internal and external deliverables.
Manage new special components in the early stages of development by working with cross-functional teams and providing necessary information to suppliers proactively to reduce production schedule delays and minimize abnormal expenses.
Act as liaison between W/H Development, Manufacturing locations, and related departments by sharing key information between the groups.
Develop, coordinate, and lead production schedule meetings for every pre-production build event to manage all internal deliverables/timings and to deliver products that meet customer expectations.
Report the project status (against planned timing/targets) to internal Upper Managements members and customer key contact members at designated times throughout the project.
Report and track vehicle line balance-out analysis and work with cross-functional teams to gather necessary information to identify solutions for abnormal cost reduction.
Establish and maintain strong relationships with customer key contact members to improve visibility for obsolescence forecast by providing estimated obsolescence updates frequently and challenging their process to mitigate obsolescence.
Occasional travel to engineering and manufacturing locations (internal and external) to learn cross-functional teams’ processes to manage projects better and to support preparation meetings or build events.
Work closely with Design & Development department and customer design team to identify potential roadblocks such as special component procurement and design freeze delays, and develop internal production schedules accordingly while negotiating timing and deliverables with the customer.