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Internal Job Title: Sr Product Engineer
Position Summary:
Responsible for supporting product lifecycle activities, including new product introduction, product transfer, and ongoing manufacturing operations. This role ensures product quality, yield, and compliance through engineering evaluation, troubleshooting, and continuous improvement initiatives. Collaborates cross-functionally to drive process enhancements, cost optimization, and operational excellence, enabling smooth transition from design to production and sustaining high-performance standards throughout the product lifecycle.
Position Responsibilities:
Common Responsibilities:
- Support and drive product transfer into manufacturing.
- Perform data trending and analysis.
- Apply FMEA, DOE, and statistical analysis to optimize product quality and reduce costs.
- Drive process improvements, cost reduction, and product sustaining activities.
- Manage Engineering Change Request and Notifications (CRs and CNs), including updates to work instructions and test requirements.
- Support documentation: engineering drawings, BOMs, test reports, assembly procedures, and validation plans.
- Participate in continuous improvement initiatives and operational excellence programs.
- Frequent cross-functional collaboration and occasional travel to other sites.
- Provide guidance and mentorship to junior staff.
Discipline-Specific Responsibilities (Mechanical Engineering):
- Design & Development
- Architect subsystem changes (enclosure/chassis, mechanisms, thermal/fluidics/optical interfaces).
- Conduct advanced analyses (FEA-lite, thermal modeling, fluidic characterization).
- Define reliability test plans (ALT/HALT, life testing); own acceptance criteria.
- Manufacturing Support & NPI
- Lead readiness for mass production: PFMEA updates, process controls, test method validation (TMV).
- Approve critical fixture design changes; ensure calibration strategies.
- Quality, Reliability & Data
- Institutionalize SPC dashboards and paretos; own CTQ monitoring.
- Lead troubleshooting using structured frameworks (8D, KT) with statistical validation.
- Define CTQs and monitor Cp/Cpk for critical features.
- Mentor juniors on interpreting SPC and DOE outputs.
- Frames decisions with confidence intervals and risk quantification.
- Coaches team to replace “gut feel” with evidence.
- Escalates issues with quantified impact (yield %, cost).
- Project & Process
- Create and maintain integrated schedules; present status/risks at core team.
- Manage cross-functional action logs; drive risk registers (severity × occurrence × detectability).
- Documentation & Compliance
- Author/approve validation protocols and reports; ensure full traceability.
- Ensure change control rigor (ECR, deviations, waivers); audit readiness.
- Collaboration
- Coordinate design engineering and operations; harmonize requirements with service feedback.
- Travel to CM/supplier sites for first builds; lead lessons learned.
Listed responsibilities are an essential, but not exhaustive list, of the usual duties associated with the position. Changes to individual responsibilities may occur due to business needs.
Position Requirements:
- Typically requires a minimum of 5 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 3 years and a Master’s degree; or a PhD without experience; or equivalent work experience.
Mechanical Engineering
- Deep expertise in mechanical mechanisms, GD&T, tolerance analysis and DFMA principles.
- Strong understanding of thermodynamics and heat-transfer fundamentals.
- Familiarity with optics and fluidics interface considerations in complex systems.
- Advanced proficiency in CAD and PLM systems.
- Skilled in data analytics tools such as Excel, Minitab and JMP; scripting experience (e.g., VBA/Python) is a plus.
- Familiarity with ISO 13485, IEC 61010 and design control frameworks.
- Proven ability to mentor and guide junior engineers on technical approaches and best practices.
- Strong ability to communicate technical information clearly, concisely, and in a stakeholder-oriented manner.
- Proven capability to anticipate manufacturability challenges and design for robustness and reliability.
- Proven ability to evaluate technical trade-offs (COGS, quality, schedule) using data-driven decision-making.
- Experience coaching engineers on analysis depth, documentation quality, and disciplined execution.
Fluidics & Systems
- Proficiency in fluidics system design, integration, and system-level interactions for complex analytical or life science instruments.
- Knowledge of lyophilization (freeze-drying) processes, product handling, process characterization, and reliability considerations.
- Experience in product characterization at both system and module levels, including performance evaluation, design verification, reliability assessment, and root cause investigation.
- Understanding of flow control, pressure management, fluid dynamics, and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis.
- Hands-on experience with tubing, pumps, valves, manifolds, sensors, flow controllers, and fluidic assemblies.
- Experience in fluidics testing and characterization, including leak testing, flow-rate verification, pressure testing, and system performance validation.
- Good understanding of fluidic interface between instrument and consumables including reagent delivery, fluid path design, sealing strategies, connectivity, and performance optimization.
- Ability to troubleshoot and resolve complex mechanical-fluidics-system integration issues across product development and lifecycle management.
All listed requirements are deemed as essential functions to this position; however, business conditions may require reasonable accommodations for additional task and responsibilities.
We are a company deeply rooted in belonging, promoting an inclusive environment where employees feel valued and empowered to contribute to our mission. Built on a strong foundation, Illumina has always prioritized openness, collaboration, and seeking alternative perspectives to propel innovation in genomics. We are proud to confirm a zero-net gap in pay, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or race. We also have several Employee Resource Groups (ERG) that deliver career development experiences, increase cultural awareness, and offer opportunities to engage in social responsibility. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer committed to providing employment opportunity regardless of sex, race, creed, color, gender, religion, marital status, domestic partner status, age, national origin or ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, sexual orientation, pregnancy, military or veteran status, citizenship status, and genetic information. Illumina conducts background checks on applicants for whom a conditional offer of employment has been made. Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable local, state, and federal laws. Background check results may potentially result in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment. The background check process and any decisions made as a result shall be made in accordance with all applicable local, state, and federal laws. Illumina prohibits the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the application and interview process. If you require accommodation to complete the application or interview process, please contact accommodations@illumina.com. To learn more, visit: https://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/eeopost.pdf. The position will be posted until a final candidate is selected or the requisition has a sufficient number of qualified applicants.