Senior Plastics Design Engineer

Summary

Club Car is seeking an experienced Plastics & Composites Engineer. This role will drive leading edge technologies in the area of plastics/composites, mature those technologies, and deliver technical expertise/support to deploy them within new product development, value engineering, and quality/reliability related projects. This job will require experience and knowledge in plastic and composite part design, material selection, processing, tooling design, failure analysis, joining/decorating experience, and testing of polymer based materials. You should be willing and able to manage/execute multiple projects simultaneously while identifying new technologies/trends in the plastics/composites industry to keep Club Car products on the leading edge.

Essential duties and responsibilities

• Identify, screen, and execute new technologies and capabilities across plastics/composites/polymers across all Club Car products.
• Establish and lead technical and strategic relationships with outside partners, industry experts, labs, and universities to coordinate and deliver new technologies and advancements in polymer based materials and processes.
• Create technology roadmaps and align them with product roadmaps to enable the development of advanced technology and capabilities ahead of program needs while deploying recently developed technology and capabilities into new product development programs.
• Manage and execute work for new product development projects, quality/reliability projects, and cost improvement programs that involve design and application of plastic and composite components.
• Interact directly with our cross-functional teams including global integrated supply chain teams to effectively contribute to new product development and support of quality, reliability, and cost reduction projects.
• Interact with raw material suppliers, molders, and mold builders to coordinate and manage the external deliverables through the product development process.
• Use appropriate analytical and test methods in designing parts, selecting appropriate manufacturing materials and processes, and writing test plans to ensure that the product meets or exceeds customers’ requirements. You should have experience with the full spectrum of thermoplastics, from commodity grades to specialized engineering grades, as well as thermosets, composites, and elastomers.
• Manage analysis of competitive materials technologies.
• Manages timelines for design, fabrication, and qualification of plastic/composite products.
• Facilitate technical design reviews as part of the product development process and facilitate design reviews with external suppliers for tooling and molding of plastic/composite products.
• Identify components that could be converted to a polymer based material to reduce weight, reduce cost, consolidation of parts, improve reliability, or simplify the manufacturing and assembly process.
• Plastic part design, processing, and in-depth knowledge/experience with the following processes – injection molding, blow molding, thermoforming, rotational molding, extrusion, compression molding (both thermoset & thermoplastic), DLFT molding, transfer molding, high pressure RTM, RIM, basic composite processes, and all hybrid or subset types of these processes.

Minimum qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in Plastics, Composites, or Polymer Engineering with 7+ years of driving innovation, product development, and deployment of advanced technology in the plastics/composites industry.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Deep understanding, knowledge, and application experience with thermoplastic and thermoset materials – from commodity grades to complex engineering grad
• Process knowledge for injection molding, extrusion, compression molding, blow molding, thermoforming, and other common processes used for the manufacturing of products made from polymeric materials.
• Knowledge/experience with various processes and materials used to manufacture products made with continuous fiber composites.
• Experienced with coordinating external work with Universities, Consortia, National Labs, and other External partnerships.
• Program/project management skills with an understanding of stage gate product development processes.
• Experienced with value chain analysis methodology and value engineering.
• Proven ability to drive innovative ideas/solutions into product designs.
• Pro/ENGINEER CREO – Surfacing and large assembly modeling experience.
• Experienced in running analysis with Mold Flow Insight.
• Experienced with guiding and understanding Finite Element Analysis (FEA) for part optimization with polymer based products and materials.
• Demonstrated problem solving and analytical skills in order to resolve technical issues.
• Six Sigma problem solving familiarity desired, certification a plus.
• Up to 25% travel may be required, including international travel.

We are committed to helping you reach your professional, personal and financial goals. We offer competitive compensation that aligns with our business strategies and comprehensive benefits to help you live your healthiest. We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse culture that engages as well as values the different backgrounds and experiences of our employee, which, in turn, spurs innovation, generates creative solutions and enhances our customer relations.