Supply Chain Resiliency Product Engineer - Leeds, AL

Hubbell Incorporated•Leeds, AL

About The Position

The Supply Chain Resiliency Product Engineer drives engineering initiatives to improve product cost competitiveness, supply continuity, and manufacturing flexibility. The position focuses on material cost reduction, alternate sourcing, supplier qualification, material substitutions, and product design optimization. Working with Engineering, Supply Chain, Sourcing, Manufacturing, Quality, Product Management, and suppliers, the engineer identifies and implements opportunities to reduce product and material costs while maintaining or improving performance, reliability, manufacturability, safety, and customer value. The role combines product-design fundamentals with commercial awareness and knowledge of manufacturing and supply-chain constraints. It involves reviewing existing designs, challenging legacy specifications and sourcing assumptions, developing technically sound alternatives, and leading projects from concept through validation and production implementation. The engineer leads cost-reduction and alternate-sourcing projects; reviews products, components, assemblies, materials, processes, and specifications; assesses supply-chain risks and supplier-proposed alternatives; and develops and implements engineering changes. The position also creates or revises drawings, specifications, bills of material, and technical documentation; plans and coordinates validation activities; analyzes results; and manages project scope, timing, risks, savings, and implementation through production.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Materials Engineering, or a related engineering discipline.
Ability to read and interpret engineering drawings, specifications, bills of material, and technical standards.
Strong understanding of engineering fundamentals, manufacturing processes, materials, tolerances, and product design.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
Ability to evaluate engineering tradeoffs involving cost, performance, reliability, manufacturability, and supply-chain risk.
Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Ability to work effectively with suppliers and cross-functional teams.
Ability to manage multiple engineering projects and priorities simultaneously.

Nice To Haves

3+ years of experience in product engineering, design engineering, supplier engineering, or a related role.
Experience with product cost reduction, material cost takeout, or VA/VE initiatives.
Experience qualifying alternate suppliers or second-source components.
Experience with supplier transitions, material substitutions, and manufacturing process changes.
Experience performing tolerance analysis, DFMEA, root-cause analysis, and engineering validation.
Experience with CAD, PLM/PDM, and engineering change-management systems.
Experience working with ERP/MRP systems and product BOM structures.
Experience evaluating manufactured components such as castings and forgings, machined components, stampings and sheet metal, copper and aluminum components, and plastic-injected molded components.

Responsibilities

Lead engineering projects focused on material cost takeout and product cost reduction.
Review existing products, components, assemblies, materials, manufacturing processes, and specifications to identify cost-reduction opportunities.
Evaluate alternative materials, manufacturing processes, tolerances, finishes, and component designs while maintaining required product performance.
Develop business cases and prioritize opportunities with Product Management, Finance, Manufacturing, and Supply Chain based on savings potential, technical feasibility, implementation effort, and risk.
Lead engineering activities for alternate supplier and second-source qualification.
Identify components with elevated supply-chain risk, including sole-source materials, long-lead-time components, supplier-specific designs, and geographically constrained supply.
Evaluate supplier-proposed materials, components, processes, and design alternatives for technical equivalency.
Develop engineering solutions that reduce dependency on single suppliers and improve sourcing flexibility.
Review supplier drawings, material certifications, manufacturing capabilities, samples, and technical deviations.
Develop, evaluate, and implement engineering changes to existing products and components.
Create and revise engineering drawings, specifications, bills of material, and technical documentation.
Perform tolerance analysis, material selection, and mechanical or electrical design evaluation as required.
Identify opportunities to standardize components, materials, hardware, and manufacturing processes across product families.
Use engineering calculations, modeling, simulation, prototyping, and testing to validate proposed changes.
Manage engineering changes through applicable change-control and product-release processes.
Develop verification and validation plans for design changes, alternate materials, components, and supplier transitions.
Establish validation requirements based on the technical and business risk of proposed changes.
Coordinate prototype builds, laboratory testing, manufacturing trials, and supplier qualification activities.
Analyze test results and document technical conclusions supporting product, component, material, or supplier approval.
Manage multiple cost-reduction and supply-chain resiliency projects from opportunity identification through production implementation.
Establish project scope, technical requirements, milestones, validation plans, risks, and implementation timing.
Communicate project status, technical risks, projected cost savings, and implementation barriers to engineering and business leadership.
Drive projects to completion and ensure approved savings opportunities are implemented into production.