What are the responsibilities and job description for the Sr. Material Develop Engineer position at Littelfuse?
Littelfuse is one of America’s Best Mid-Sized Companies (Forbes) and has been named one of the Best Places to Work in Illinois (Best Companies Group) for 11 consecutive years. With its global headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, USA, Littelfuse is a leading, global manufacturer of electronic components serving more than 100,000 end customers across industrial, transportation, and electronics end markets. We have more than 17,000 employees with operations in 15 countries. From semiconductors to sensors… switches to fuses and more… we produce billions of electronic components that help our customers empower a sustainable, connected, and safer world. In 2021, Littelfuse had net sales of $2.1 billion.
Reporting to Material Development Manager, you will work as Sr. Material Development and Processing Engineer and will be responsible for developing and optimizing polymer-based materials, focusing on formulation development, polymer compounding, and extrusion processes. This role involves hands-on material development, process engineering, and collaboration with cross-functional teams to deliver high-performance materials that meet stringent quality and performance standards.
About The Job
Reporting to Material Development Manager, you will work as Sr. Material Development and Processing Engineer and will be responsible for developing and optimizing polymer-based materials, focusing on formulation development, polymer compounding, and extrusion processes. This role involves hands-on material development, process engineering, and collaboration with cross-functional teams to deliver high-performance materials that meet stringent quality and performance standards.
About The Job
- Design, develop, and optimize polymer-based positive temperature coefficient (PPTC) formulations from initial phase to manufacture scale up to meet electrical, thermal, and mechanical performance requirements.
- Lead the development and optimization of compounding processes to achieve consistent material properties and performance.
- Develop and enhance process capability in compounding and extrusion during initial manufacturing processes to improve product quality, yield, and efficiency.
- Specify and effectively engage external resources to produce material prototypes that meet product requirements.
- Work with and/or lead cross-functional teams and outside resources to bring concepts to reality.
- Effectively apply project management fundamentals, including costing, scheduling, and managing resources to meet project goals
- Education: master or PhD in Chemistry, Material/Polymer Science & Engineering, Chemical Engineering.
- Minimum 5 years of experience in polymer material formulation systems, process equipment, parameter flow, and new product development.
- Proven expertise in polymer compounding and extrusion processes, including but not limited to the rubber and plastics industry, extrusion sheet and film, pipes, wires, profiles, injection molding devices, and special-shaped material industry.
- Demonstrated experience as an R&D engineer and process engineer in relevant industries.
- Experience with scaling materials from R&D to initial manufacturing phases is highly desirable.
- Familiar with basic material characterization methods of polymer materials, such techniques (e.g., DSC, TGA, rheology, FTIR, SEM).
- Expertise in statistical process control (SPC), design of experiments (DOE), and manufacturing process capability development.
- Ability to work in fast-paced and project focused environment
- Strong leadership, teamwork effectiveness, and communication skills required
- Fluent English