Process Development Engineer

Description

This posting is for a Process Development Engineer in the Performance Films Technology Organization at Eastman Chemical Company located in Martinsville, VA. Individual will be primarily supporting automotive and architectural markets for Window Films and Paint Protection Films. The position will have responsibility as a liaison between R&D and manufacturing with a focus on process development, successful scale-up of new products adhering, sustaining Technology-Manufacturing Readiness protocol, and scouting new process innovation for Raw materials and Film converting technologies including Coating/Lamination and Winding/Slitting R2R processes. 

Candidate must be flexible, proactive, and professional with experience in scale-up and process development applications such as coatings, pressure sensitive adhesive formulations, radiation cured polymeric coatings, and web handling. Candidate should be able to communicate effectively and function in an innovative, fast-paced, multidisciplinary team environment

Responsibilities

• Actively participate in full compliance with the site’s Zero Incident Mindset Safety programs.
• Identify safety concerns and implement countermeasures to correct potential safety issues via engineering and administrative solutions
• Champion process capabilities and leverage technology boundaries to apply and help project execution.
• Identify areas of improvement on the manufacturing floor and collaborate with R&D scientists and manufacturing engineers to provide solutions with direct impact in quality and cost
• Scout external vendors and technologies and present recommendations for new technologies implementation to management. Develop capital projects proposals (includes developing scope, conducting project safety reviews, and generating estimates)
• Building out modeling/theory and applying it going forward with final products.
• Participate in the improvement of operating and management of change process (MOC)
• Interface with Project managers and teams to clearly understand the needs to advance the project and meet the deliverables in Technology-Manufacturing Readiness Level and interpret into the trial plans by partnering with operations and other functional teams.
• Interface with the Quality and Manufacturing Departments to identify actions for quality improvement and implement root-cause analysis, statistical process control (SPC) and other quality and manufacturing initiatives.
• Communicate results, conclusions, and recommendations to internal and external audiences. Keeping others informed of your work (Project Reviews, etc.).
• Document work with clear, concise via technical reports and complete in a timely fashion.
• Develop strategies and lead teams to obtain the information necessary to successfully scale up new products and processes to commercial scale, either in existing assets or new design and build.      
• Provide representation to select business area(s) for Scale-up and Process Innovation, understanding business and market needs regarding growth, new commercialization, scale-up capabilities, and needed process technology improvements.  
• Provide technical and business assessments to guide management through decisions and choices in development and scale-up of new products/processes
• Provide scale-up project leadership, oversee lab, pilot, and manufacturing scale-up activities (direct oversight of lab work is not typically part of this job, but awareness and insight into the lab work of others on the team(s) is important).
• Engage with business and technical management to advocate for appropriate scale-up activities, facilities, and capabilities
• Represent Eastman with tolling opportunities where processes will be scaled and manufactured externally

Qualifications

• Bachelor/Master of Science/Art – Mechanical, Industrial, Chemical, Optical, Physics or related discipline
• 3+ years of experience in an R&D, Engineering and/or Operations 
• Computer Environment: Microsoft: Word, Excel, Power Point. 
• Familiar with Six Sigma Methodology as well as Minitab and/or JMP
• Experience/familiar with wet coating application: Gravure and Slot Die
• Ability to handle multiple assignments of varying complexity
• Strong leadership and interpersonal skills for implementation of cross-functional process improvements
• Strong background in analytical and quantitative skills for problem solving of large/complex problems and proven ability in decision making
• Familiar with roll-to-roll Web Technology a plus but not required
• Good written, listening, and verbal communication skills
• Be a team player in a team environment
• Be a self-starter and a self-motivator
• Can respond to call outs and flexibility to work overtime and extended hours during weekdays (including weekends and holidays if needed)
• Have a desire to make a measurable positive impact to plant performance and profitability
• Have a desire to obtain hands on experience in R&D and plant operating environments