Principal Engineer, Plastic Engineering

This is where you save and sustain lives

At Baxter, we are deeply connected by our mission. No matter your role at Baxter, your work makes a positive impact on people around the world. You'll feel a sense of purpose throughout the organization, as we know our work improves outcomes for millions of patients.

Baxter's products and therapies are found in almost every hospital worldwide, in clinics and in the home. For over 85 years, we have pioneered significant medical innovations that transform healthcare.

Together, we create a place where we are happy, successful and inspire each other. This is where you can do your best work.

Join us at the intersection of saving and sustaining lives—where your purpose accelerates our mission.

Job description:

This position is responsible for providing molding, tooling, process development and vendor support in the injection molding & extrusion area. Primary focus will be in the injection molding and tooling of thermoplastic materials used to mold medical device components. Molding & Tooling knowledge in the areas of LSR molding & Polyisoprene rubber molding is also desirable. The candidate needs to exhibit high degree of technical expertise, initiative, strong teamwork and being collaborative with various functions, such as R&D, Product Design, Procurement, Quality & Marketing. The candidate will be responsible to provide technical leadership & guidance on various supply chain continuity and advancement projects, being responsible for molding & tooling initiatives at internal production sites, external suppliers and tooling vendors. He/She will be responsible for identifying deliverables within his functional areas, project management and ensuring completion of these deliverables in timely manner. He/She needs to be fully independent and capable to functional with very little or no direction provided by Associate/Director of Plastics Engineering. He/She is expected to represent Plastics Engineering function with highest level of integrity, efficiency and agility. Ability to work on multiple projects/initiative is must.

Responsibilities:

• Main Point of Contact on many molding & tooling projects in injection molding & extrusion area.
• Performs Design for Molding on plastic molded components by working closely with R&D, Assembly/Automation and Tooling vendor.
• Provides plastics resin & material grades expertise to NP & Supply Chain projects.
• Takes ownership of technical problem resolution of tooling assets at internal & external molding vendors.
• Responsible for Technical Vendor Management, which includes Asset Management, Molding Process Development & Component Quality requirements/compliance.
• Assist & supervise execution of scientific molding process developments & DOEs at internal sites as well as at external vendors.
• Responsible for identifying build of new assets for capacity expansion or replacement. Executes asset health evaluation, repair and/or replacement strategy. Executes associated initiatives and ensures positive outcome of such efforts & activities.
• Works very closely with Direct & In-direct procurement and guides them with appropriate tooling strategy considering short- & long-term demand forecast.
• Performs inspection & assessment of assets at internal manufacturing sites as well as at external supplier. 
• Assist Procurement & Transfer Office on initiatives targeted at change of suppliers and vendors for Cost Savings objective.
• Owns, executes and guides on purchase of appropriate production equipment, including but not limited to molding machines, tools, extruders, dies and other auxiliary equipment.
• Writes and/or executes, and reports on production platform validation activities. 
• Performs NCR/CAPA investigations and tasks.
• Assist internal sites & supplier’s molding & quality personals on resolution of quality defects in molded and extruded components.
• Work collaboratively with internal teams/support staff on execution of projects.
• Mentors junior members of functional team on technical, project management & risk mitigation aspects.
• Provide leadership, direction, and expertise for complex projects.
• Provide leadership and drive innovation within the plant.
• Performs other duties as assigned.
• Must be able to work in a clean room environment without daylight / windows.

Qualifications:  

• Strong knowledge and experience in plastics injection molding tool design, build & validation. Experience need to range from low cavitation tools (2/4 cavity) to high cavitation tools (16-32-64-96).
• Strong knowledge and experience in various types of hot runner systems and implementation various application/part design is required.
• Experience with structured tool design approach including managing & executing tool/die design reviews with vendor is desirable.
• Experience with various cost associated with repair, rebuild of old tools & build of new tools, high & low cavitation is desired.
• Strong knowledge & experience with Part Design Optimization (DFM/DFA) & Steel tolerances on Critical to Quality & Critical to Functionality dimensions is desired.
• Experience with structured scientific process development using Minitab or other statistical software.
• Strong knowledge and experience in IQ-OQ-PQ validation of molding tools & assets. Should be proficient and able to write, evaluate & sign-off validation reports.
• Knowledge of process simulation software such as Moldflow and/or Sigmasoft.
• Plus – Ability to prepare Molding & Tooling strategy on large scale projects, focused on optimized capital spend and NPV analysis.
• Plus – Knowledge & proficiency in Solidworks.
• Strong accountability, ownership & ‘drive for the results’.
• Strong leadership and project management skills.

Education and/or Experience Requirement

• BS or MS in Plastics Engineering or appropriate degree/field with 10+ years of experience in Medical device/Pharma/Device Development company.

Advanced Molding and Extrusion techniques (Learning / Doing (1)), Automation, reliability & smart manufacturing (Applying / Overseeing (2)), Critical Systems (Applying / Overseeing (2)), Data Analysis & Analytics (Applying / Overseeing (2)), Digitalization & Systems Engineering (Applying / Overseeing (2)), First Principles Thinking (Applying / Overseeing (2)), Lean & six sigma process knowledge (Applying / Overseeing (2)), Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence (Not Applicable (0)), Manufacturing & Process Knowledge (Applying / Overseeing (2)), Modeling & Simulation (Leading / Driving (4)), Operational Quality Assurance (Applying / Overseeing (2)), Process Automation (Applying / Overseeing (2)), Product / Project Management (Applying / Overseeing (2)), Smart Operations / Industry 4.0 (Learning / Doing (1)), Software Integration (API, Data Pipelines) (Not Applicable (0))

Equal Employment Opportunity

Baxter is an equal opportunity employer. Baxter evaluates qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, protected veteran status, disability/handicap status or any other legally protected characteristic.

Reasonable Accommodations

Baxter is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities globally. If, because of a medical condition or disability, you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or interview process, please click on the link here and let us know the nature of your request along with your contact information.

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