Senior Validation and Reliability Engineer - Bike & Fitness

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Testing Development and Coordination

• Lead and coordinate product testing of new products. Primary point of contact for testing facilities.
• Responsible for managing test schedules and prioritization along with use of test request database.
• Work together with Design Engineering, R&D, Quality, and Business Development to identify failure modes and generate design validation test plans.
• Collaborate with test technicians to perform component and system level validation by simulating realistic and/or accelerated dynamic usage and environmental conditions.
• Collaborate with Engineering Design Managers on implementing testing results that impact design.
• Own testing budget, schedule, and resource planning.
• Know and own the critical path on testing planning, progress, contingency planning, and overall testing completion.
• Work with Project Management to communicate testing impacts on overall project timing.
• Develop test methods to increase efficiency and determinism of outcomes.
• Conduct benchmarking studies of Gates and competitor products.
• Write, generate, and present test reports and presentations to project team.

Reliability

• Lead development of testing and validation activities, DFMEAs, and DVP&Rs
• Investigate prototype failures to drive product development and test improvement.
• Identify and execute DOEs targeting new technologies or critical failures.
• Develop and document Reliability test plans and test matrices for drive components.
• Collect and analyze test results and guide failure analysis.
• Document Standard Operation Procedures and Test Methods.
• Analyze test data to create to Design for Reliability (DfR) guidelines.
• Build out a field-testing program to corelate with simulation and lab testing.

Warranty

• Be a customer advocate for the quality and reliability of Gates products.
• Track customer warranty parts and analyze for trends.
• Conduct failure analysis of warranty parts to determine root cause.
• Propose potential product changes to address product failures.

Requirements and Preferred Skills

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPECTATIONS: 

Experience

• 5+ years of progressive and comprehensive product testing experience.
• Bachelor's Degree in technical field required (mechanical engineering, etc.).
• Demonstrate excellent written and verbal interpersonal skills.
• Familiarity with metal, plastic, or composite manufacturing processes.
• Familiarity with Design for Manufacturability (DFM), statistical tolerance analysis techniques, functional dimensioning, and geometric tolerancing (GD&T), with focus on high volume manufacturing.
• Experience working with overseas manufacturers a plus.
• Familiarity with automotive or aerospace industry quality standards and manufacturing methods; TS16949, AS9100, ISO9000, etc.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the US without sponsorship.

Skills and Capabilities

• Superior attention to detail with and ability to manage complex projects and detailed planning.
• Passion for making great products and solving tough manufacturing problems.
• Knowledgeable in production control processes, MSA, process capability and correlation analysis.
• Excellent data analysis skills including excel pivot tables, Minitab, JMP, etc.
• Solid project management skills with ability to manage multiple projects with competing priorities.
• Self-motivated and proactive with demonstrated creative and critical thinking capabilities.
• Ability to filter and distill relevant information for the right audience, coupled with excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Highest values on safety in personal work practices and consideration in design of processes and equipment.
• A preference to hands on work style.