Staff Engineer

Abbott • Lake Forest, CA

4d • Onsite

About The Position

The Staff Engineer works at Abbott’s Lake Forest, Illinois location in the Core Lab Division. The role supports molding activities to achieve strategic engineering objectives for the Abbott Diagnostics Division while ensuring compliance with safety regulations, policies, and procedures. With little supervision, the engineer applies scientific and engineering knowledge, mathematics, and ingenuity to assignments involving molded and assembled consumables, supporting multiple concurrent projects and department deadlines.

The engineer implements and provides ongoing support for molded plastic parts, serves as a regional engineering subject matter expert in mold design and process, and works closely with molding suppliers to ensure reliable parts supply. The role also performs capacity analysis for molds, presses, injection molding machines, and assembly automation, and recommends future investments. It works regularly with operations, supply chain, quality, and suppliers, and provides technical process support and mentorship to other engineers.

The position is based in Lake Forest, Illinois, with travel of 10% of the time. The posted base pay range is $86,700.00–$173,300.00, which may vary by location.

Requirements

• 6+ years of technical work experience with molding design and process support experience.
• Knowledge of plastics processes, resins, and tooling.
• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or a technical discipline is desired.

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor’s degree in a technical engineering discipline such as Plastics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or Industrial Engineering.
• Knowledge of mold-making and design fundamentals, molding process development, plastic resin behavior, and required tooling and equipment.
• At least 1 year of plastic injection and/or blow molding design and process support experience, preferably in the diagnostics or medical device industry.
• Knowledge of Scientific Molding Practices; certification preferred.
• Knowledge of FDA QSRs and ISO requirements.
• Knowledge of PFMEA and DFMEA.

Responsibilities

• Work within the Quality System to maintain its effectiveness.
• Interact regularly with molding suppliers to meet quality and cost objectives.
• Coordinate mold design activities with mold suppliers, support Factory Acceptance Testing, and validate molding manufacturing cells according to division engineering practices and procedures.
• Drive Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) for assigned projects.
• Lead or assist cross-functional activities to achieve program objectives, including transferring molds to new suppliers and starting up new suppliers.
• Maintain project controls and reporting for cost, scope, and schedule; develop execution strategies, support procurement, balance competing demands, and execute contingency plans for schedule or financial issues.
• Interface with internal organizations and outside customer contacts, and represent the organization in resolving difficult project-related technical issues.
• Assess potential defects and failure modes resulting from design changes to established processes.
• Participate in cross-functional teams to investigate and resolve molding issues.
• Develop and apply understanding of the relationship between molding key process input variables (KPIVs) and key process output variables (KPOVs) for plastic components throughout the value stream.
• Provide technical process support to other engineers and mentor and develop junior team members.
• Read, challenge, develop, and maintain working knowledge of Quality Procedures and Work Instructions, applying this knowledge to support mold qualification.
• Assist with capacity planning in alignment with long-term plans and short-term demand changes.
• Perform capacity analysis for molds, injection molding machines, and related operations, and recommend future investments.
• Manage measurement system analysis, design control, and the selection and execution of equipment, process development, validation, FMEA, and Design of Experiments (DOEs).

Benefits

• Career development opportunities with an international company.
• Potential eligibility for free medical coverage in the Health Investment Plan (HIP) PPO medical plan in the next calendar year.
• Retirement savings plan with a high employer contribution.
• Tuition reimbursement.
• Freedom 2 Save student debt program.
• FreeU education benefit, an affordable and convenient path to earning a bachelor’s degree.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior