Product Engineer

Overview:

The Product Engineer will be based at Vitro facilities with frequent and if required residency or visits to the OEM and supplier´s Design and Engineering Center or Build/Test/Manufacturing facilities. He/She will be responsible for leading the technical product development and engineering activities on the Glazing Systems which will include the windshield, front and rear door windows, quarter or roof panels and backlite or other glass positions. Areas of expertise should include glass, extrusions, injection molding in plastics, stampings, and castings. He/She will be responsible for the PD&E deliverables of all projects that are assigned to him/her on time, meeting technical requirements for design and manufacturability at a level of quality that meets or exceeds both VITRO and the OEM requirements. The Product Engineer will complete the assigned activities as defined in the OEM Scope of Work and Vitro Standard Procedures and Product Development & Launch Process.

Follow the lead of Lead PEs and management for strategic initiatives which drive the mission for the entire organization. Initiatives such as cost reduction campaigns (internal and with the customers, suppliers), technology development, high content on our products, Best in Class and all the efforts to increase sales, quality, productivity, etc. cascaded to PD&E from senior management. Quality and on-time delivery of Product Design and Engineering deliverables are the basic metrics used to measure the success of PD&E activity.

The scope of responsibility is determined by the metrics and data collected which direct the Engineering Manger to specific areas of the organization. The decision to address a certain process or product is defined by the performance data and the complexity of the tasks assigned.

Strategic Initiatives drive the mission for the entire organization. Initiatives such as cost reduction campaigns (internal and with the customers and suppliers), technology development, high content on our products, Best in Class and all the efforts to increase sales, quality, productivity, etc. cascaded PD from senior management. Quality and on time delivery of Product Design and Engineering deliverables are the basic metrics used to measure success of PD&E activity.

The breadth of responsibility is determined by the metrics and data collected which direct the Engineering Manger to specific areas of the organization. The decision to address a certain process or product is defined by the performance data as an aggregate.

Responsibilities:

• Managing the day-to-day responsibilities of Design Engineers assigned to his projects, collaborating with the Product Launch, Validation Engineering and other areas as required.
• Responsible for ensuring VITRO product designs meet customer´s and regulatory technical requirements and specifications, including development review, approval and release of glass assembly and component prints, specifications, tolerances, and interface stack-ups.
• Serve as the Product Design technical liaison between OEM and VITRO personnel and systems to ensure the voice and needs of the customer are heard and acted upon from a technical perspective.
• Utilize both internal and external resources to ensure product engineering activities are completed on time and coordinate with manufacturing, purchasing and quality functions for continuous improvement and follow up on problem resolution and cost reduction.
• Ensures compliance to all APQP/TS/IATF16949 requirements for product engineering activities (DFMEAs, BOM, DVP&Rs, Special Characteristic identification, etc.).
• On time delivery and high quality of all Product Engineering and Design activities to support all data release, tooling trials and build milestones.
• Conduct Vitro´s internal and support OEM´s joint Design Reviews.
• Support launches during pre-production and production phases, the prototype part requirement report to Vitro, identifies alternatives for part fabrication and assembly process and supports fabrication of pre-production parts, buy off and ship.
• Identify and verify new, carryover and additional content in the Part and Assembly bill of materials BOM.
• Support launches, continuous improvement and follow up on problem resolution and cost reduction.
• Identifies alternatives for part fabrication and assembly process and supports fabrication of pre-production parts.
• Support, request and evaluate quote response (RFQs)

Qualifications:

• Incumbent must have a Bachelor's Degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Industrial, Chemical, Mechatronics, Electrical or Design Engineering), or comparable technical experience with medium-to-complete engineered products/assemblies, knowledge of automotive glazing systems and body-in-white architecture. In addition, he/she should possess a minimum of 3 years lead experience on successful OEM product launches.
• The Product Engineer must be familiar with Automotive glass industry, AIAG, Customer APQP requirements, Product Development, and Quality processes.  
• The Product Engineer has primary responsibility to supervise the design team and to ensure successful execution and release of product designs for their development from a technical perspective. This includes meeting project timelines for PD&E deliverables, technical specifications as specified at acceptable product performance, fit and finish, manufacturability, cost, and quality to satisfy the needs of both VITRO manufacturing and OEMs or Tier 1 customer requirements. In addition, all glass to vehicle interfaces as defined in the scope of work must be understood, managed and executed to support all OEM and Vitro critical requirements. The Product Engineer will be the Design release authority for all customer and Vitro´s drawings for tooling kickoff.
• The Product Engineer, must possess excellent communication skills (both written and verbal) in English and desirable in Spanish and OEMs main language as wells as interpersonal skills of team participation, influencing others, negotiation skills, and problem-solving skills to optimize product designs against other functions and constraints. Other critical skills include technical presentation skills, safety-orientation, customer service focus (internal and external) and being results-oriented.
• The Product Engineer must be proficient in the Microsoft Office suite of products: EXCEL, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Project as well as have a strong understanding of APQP/TS/ IATF systems.