Validation Engineer

FOLLETT PRODUCTS LLC•Easton, PA

About The Position

Follett Products, LLC is hiring a senior individual-contributor Validation Engineer to establish and sustain technical standards for defining products and verifying that product designs and manufacturing processes meet requirements. The role leads through technical authority, ownership of methodologies, and coaching rather than direct supervision. It partners with Product Design, Industrial Engineering, and Technical Service to establish product requirements, develop and qualify test methods, validate manufacturing equipment and processes, and analyze warranty data to improve product requirements planning and test methods. The engineer owns standards and methods for design verification, test-method development, manufacturing process and equipment validation, measurement systems analysis, process capability, and reliability analysis. The position also supports field-failure investigations, develops accelerated life tests for refrigeration products, and builds validation capability across Product Design, Industrial Engineering, and Quality through training, mentoring, and Quality Management System documentation. The role regularly involves the manufacturing floor and laboratory environments, including environmental chambers, and extended computer-based analysis and documentation work. It requires frequent standing, walking, bending, kneeling, and reaching, occasional lifting and carrying of up to 40 pounds, and occasional work outside standard business hours. Travel is estimated at 10–20% annually, including travel between company locations and visits to suppliers, customers, and field sites.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related engineering discipline.
At least 10 years of progressive engineering experience in product verification and validation, reliability engineering, test engineering, or advanced quality engineering within a design and manufacturing environment.
Hands-on ownership of design verification plans and process validation protocols, including direct technical execution rather than solely oversight of a validation team.
Knowledge of Design Verification Plan & Report (DVP&R) and product development stage-gate processes.
Knowledge of equipment and process validation protocols.
Knowledge of physics of failure modes, including thermal and mechanical fatigue, electrical and control failure, and refrigeration system degradation.
Applied statistics skills, including design of experiments, sample size determination, hypothesis testing, process capability analysis, and measurement systems analysis.
Reliability engineering skills, including Weibull and life data analysis, B10/L10 life estimation, and accelerated life test design.
Experience with statistical and reliability analysis software such as Minitab, JMP, Weibull++, or MATLAB.
Knowledge of standards and compliance such as UL and NSF.
Ability to establish credibility and drive adoption of technical standards across departments without formal authority.
Teaching and coaching skills, with a demonstrated record of raising peers’ technical capability outside a direct reporting structure.
Clear technical writing skills, including producing protocols, reports, and standards that withstand internal and third-party scrutiny.
Sound judgment in balancing process discipline with program schedule and business risk.
Ability to protect long-term process development projects from urgent reactive demands.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office products.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
Self-motivation and excellent organizational and time-management skills.
Detail orientation, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
Ability to work regularly on the manufacturing floor and in laboratory environments, including environmental chambers, and comply with required personal protective equipment.
Ability to perform frequent standing, walking, bending, kneeling, and reaching, and occasionally lift and carry up to 40 pounds.
Visual acuity sufficient to read instrumentation, inspect components and joints, and evaluate detailed technical documentation.
Ability to occasionally work outside standard business hours for extended-duration testing, production trials, and time-sensitive investigations.
Ability to travel an estimated 10–20% annually.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree preferred.
Experience in commercial food service equipment, appliances, HVAC/R, automotive, or a comparable industry involving thermal, refrigeration, or electromechanical systems is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Develop methods for establishing clear, comprehensive, and measurable product requirements.
Define and maintain the Design Verification Plan & Report (DVP&R) standard and promote traceability between requirements and evidence.
Collaborate with Product Design and Industrial Engineering on program-level DVP&Rs; review and approve plans for high-risk programs.
Define verification and validation exit criteria for product development stage gates.
Develop and maintain a cross-functional test method library and create qualified methods when none exist, including instrumentation, fixtures, chamber profiles, data acquisition, and measurement uncertainty considerations.
Coordinate validation activity scheduling and prioritization with Product Design, which manages laboratory and environmental chamber facilities.
Define standards for installation, operational, and performance qualification (IQ/OQ/PQ) of manufacturing equipment and processes.
Provide protocols, templates, and technical review for validation activities conducted by Industrial Engineering; establish requalification criteria and triggers for changes to processes, tooling, suppliers, or locations.
Establish and govern measurement systems analysis standards, including gage repeatability and reproducibility, bias, and linearity, with emphasis on leak and functional test systems.
Set statistical standards for process capability studies and sampling plans, and ensure validation results are reflected in Industrial Engineering-owned control plans.
Apply design of experiments (DOE) to optimize product and process performance.
Support the cross-functional warranty team with reliability analysis of field data, including Weibull analysis to evaluate product lifespans, predict failures, and optimize maintenance schedules.
Develop test plans that reproduce field failure modes in the laboratory and establish correlation between accelerated laboratory testing and observed field life.
Design accelerated life tests for refrigeration products, including compressor and control cycling, door and hardware cycle life, joint thermal fatigue, corrosion and condensation exposure, and cleaning chemical compatibility.
Contribute technical analysis and experimental design to CAPA and 8D investigations facilitated by Quality.
Ensure recurring and high-cost field failures lead to documented changes to product requirements, the test method library, or process validation standards.
Train and mentor engineers in Product Design, Industrial Engineering, and Quality in requirements definition, validation planning, applied statistics, and reliability methods.
Develop and maintain templates, work instructions, and validation and verification elements of the Quality Management System.
Comply with personal protective equipment requirements while working on the manufacturing floor.
Travel between Follett locations and to supplier facilities, customer and field sites, and external meetings or training as requested.