Manufacturing Engineer

Role: Manufacturing Engineer
Location: Houston, TX
Type: FTE Permanent

About Client

• Client is developing cutting-edge fuel cell technology for heavy duty mobility and large-scale stationary power applications. Our uniquely redesigned product is a significantly more compact fuel cell with high power density and lower costs of production. Faced with the challenges of climate change and the transition to a decentralized energy system, Client seeks to provide high performance and cost-effective fuel cell solutions to our clients and partners.
• We are establishing our US manufacturing operations in Houston, Texas. We are seeking Manufacturing Engineers to industrialize our products in the US - transferring proven process from our Swiss operations, standing up manual stack assembly, commissioning our roll-to-roll production equipment, and working alongside the packaging partners who will integrate our systems. This is a hands-on, build-it role for engineers who want to put a factory on the ground rather than inherit one.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the on-site engineering presence at packaging and integration partner facilities - reviewing build plans against our design, resolving producibility issues in real time, and supporting first-article builds
• Own design-for-manufacture feedback between partner sites, US operations and the engineering team in Nyon
• Develop, validate and mature work instructions, process documentation and routings for US operations, in line with the Client quality management system
• Lead the transfer of the process of record from Nyon to Houston - including tooling, fixtures, layouts, cycle-time balancing and operator training material
• Deploy and commission the manual stack assembly line in the US, building on proven Swiss process and learning
• Deploy and commission roll-to-roll production equipment in the US, working alongside the equipment supplier through installation, acceptance testing and process qualification
• Establish process windows, capability studies and control plans; qualify processes to the point of repeatable, conforming output
• Specify tooling, fixtures, jigs and automation equipment with suppliers
• Troubleshoot production, quality and equipment issues on the floor; drive root cause and corrective action
• Support supplier quality and certification activities with the necessary process data and documentation
• Drive OEE, throughput, yield and cost-reduction improvements using Lean methods
• Support safe working practice and EHS compliance in all process and equipment design

Skills and Experience Required

• BSc/MSc in manufacturing, mechanical, mechatronic or industrial engineering is mandatory
• Minimum 5 8 years of manufacturing engineering experience in an assembly or automation environment
• Demonstrated experience installing, commissioning and qualifying production equipment - not only specifying it
• Experience writing work instructions and process documentation in a controlled quality system (ISO 9001 or equivalent)
• Experience working at or with external manufacturing partners, contract manufacturers or system integrators
• Working knowledge of Lean manufacturing, line balancing, process validation and statistical process control
• Proficiency with CAD and ERP systems
• Comfortable operating with ambiguity in a start-up environment; able to work autonomously with internal and external experts
• Willing to travel frequently to partner sites within the US, and to Switzerland for extended periods during process transfer (expect 30 50% travel in the first year)

Desirable

• Experience with web handling, coating, converting or other roll-to-roll processes
• Experience in fuel cell, battery, electrolyzer or comparable electrochemical manufacturing
• Experience taking a product from prototype through first production at a new site
• Exposure to UL, CSA or CE certification processes
• French or German language ability