Staff Engineer

Abbott Laboratories • Lake Forest, IL

18h • $86,700 - $173,300 • Onsite

About The Position

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

The position implements and provides ongoing support for molded plastic parts and serves as a regional engineering subject matter expert in mold design and process. The engineer works closely with molding suppliers to maintain reliable parts supply, meet quality and cost objectives, assess capacity for molds, presses, and assembly automation, and recommend future investments. The role also supports mold design, factory acceptance testing, manufacturing-cell validation, project execution, process development, and cross-functional problem solving.

Requirements

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

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor’s degree in a technical engineering discipline such as Plastics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or Industrial Engineering.
• At least 1 year of plastic injection and/or blow molding design and process support experience, preferably in diagnostics or medical devices.
• Knowledge of mold-making and design fundamentals, molding process development, plastic resin behavior, and required tooling or equipment.
• 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 suppliers, support Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT), and validate molding manufacturing cells in accordance with division engineering practices and procedures.
• Drive Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) for assigned projects.
• Lead or assist cross-functional activities, 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 implement contingency plans for schedule or financial issues.
• Interface with internal organizations and external customer contacts, representing the organization in resolving difficult technical project issues.
• Assess potential consequences, including defects and failure modes, of design changes to established processes.
• Participate in cross-functional teams to investigate and resolve molding issues.
• Develop and maintain understanding of relationships 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, and maintain working knowledge of Quality Procedures and Work Instructions, applying them to mold qualification.
• Assist with capacity planning aligned with long-term plans and short-term demand changes.
• Work with operations, supply chain, quality, and suppliers; analyze capacity for molds, injection molding machines, and make recommendations for future investment.
• Manage measurement system analysis, design control, and execution of equipment selection, process development, validation, FMEA, and Design of Experiments (DOEs).

Benefits

• Career development opportunities with an international company.
• Employees may qualify 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.
• Health and wellness benefits.

What This Job Offers

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