Senior Design Engineer – Smart Composites

About the Role

The Senior Design Engineer - Smart Composites within our Automotive Innovation team will work within our rapidly growing automotive composites manufacturing segment. This is a product innovation and application development position—not a research position. The goal is to rapidly apply emerging technology to high value product applications that elicit customer and market interest.  The goal is to develop products with high a value proposition for automotive, bus, commercial, and delivery ICE, BEV, and HEV markets.

Technology includes Circuits – printed, embedded, embroidered; Sensors – piezoelectric, RIFD, electromagnetic and signal distortion, dielectric, pressure, light, temperature, humidity, strain, and vibration. Applications include enhanced user experience through environment and user awareness to improve HVAC, lighting, alertness, safety, and wellbeing; structural health monitoring (SHM); human machine interface, (HMI) and Multifunctional Energy Storage Composites (MESC).

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Work with sensors – testing and evaluations.
• Build mockup of circuits and sensors embedded into composite structures.
• Instrumentation – collecting/acquisition and conditioning data from sensors using micro controller and Python/Micro Python.
• RF communication, custom RFID reader and UHF antenna development.
• Use AI engines to sort sensor data and correlate with physical phenomena.
• Create and display, Human Machine Interface (HMI) system.
• Add to new Smart Composites Lab capabilities. 
• Collect data from sensors in and on composite structures, process the data and run AI engine.

Who we’re looking for:

• Four-year degree or master’s degree in electrical, mechanical, polymer science, or chemical engineering and at least 10 years engineering experience; or equivalent combination of education or experience.
• Product development experience, with preference for automotive or high-volume consumer or industrial product development experience.
• Expert knowledge of Programming, electrical and electronic engineering
• Ability to create detailed technical reports with analysis, conclusions, and recommendations. Skilled at writing design, tooling and design guidelines and specifications.
• Willingness to learn specific of resins /fibers /fabrics, cure cycles, bonding of composites in the areas of RTM, LCM, HP-RTM and compression molding, pultrusion and thermal plastic processes and there electrical/ electronic characteristics. 
• High-energy, self-starter who is proactive, and solutions oriented. 
• Ability to prioritize and adapt to a rapidly changing environment. Must be able and willing to have a professional, constructive, and cooperative working relationship with management team and coworkers. Enjoy solving problems and working with people.
• Act as a technology mentor to the less experienced staff members.
• Maintain a clean, safe, and organized working environment. 
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel and data analysis, and 
• strong oral and written communications skills. Ability to find, explore, evaluate, assess, report, communicate, propose, and convince through verbal, written and often PowerPoint presentations to management, technical partners, and customers. 
• Interests, skills, and familiarity.
• Fiber reinforced composite materials and testing.
• Natural curiosity to search and find interesting technologies. 
• Programing skill: Python/Micro Python, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, ESP232
• Instrumentation: signal conditioning and analysis.
• RFID technology – radio communication (theoretical and hands-on experience).
• Sensors and RFID sensors, RF capacitive field and dielectric measurement 
• E-textiles
• Follow customer market trends and identify desirable user experience of new technology.
• Explore application and test concept feasibility as well as validate technical and commercial viability.
• Transfer product to commercialization by work with Sales, technical partners, design engineering to ensure a viable part (DFA/DFM).  Work with Advanced Manufacturing and Production engineering to develop processes/plans (DFMEA, PFMEA, process flow, DFA/DFM, APQP.