Manufacturing Composite Engineer- Centralia, MO

Job Overview

The Manufacturing Composite Engineer provides technical leadership and engineering support for pultrusion manufacturing operations. This position is responsible for developing, optimizing, and maintaining robust manufacturing processes that improve safety, quality, productivity, yield, and cost.

The engineer works closely with Operations, Quality, Maintenance, Product Engineering, and Supply Chain to troubleshoot manufacturing issues, establish process controls, support new product introductions, and drive continuous improvement.

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A Day In The Life

Every day at Hubbell is different and you’ll contribute in many ways. On any given day, you’ll make a difference by: 

Process Engineering & Manufacturing Support

• Provide day-to-day engineering support for pultrusion production lines.
• Develop, document, and optimize manufacturing parameters including line speed, die temperature, resin formulation/flow, fiber placement, pulling conditions, and curing parameters.
• Troubleshoot process and equipment issues affecting product quality, throughput, scrap, downtime, and line performance.
• Establish and maintain manufacturing standards, work instructions, SOPs, and process documentation.
• Partner with production teams to ensure processes are stable, repeatable, and consistently followed.

Continuous Improvement

• Lead root-cause analysis and corrective actions for recurring manufacturing and quality issues.
• Use Lean, Six Sigma, statistical analysis, DOE, and other problem-solving methodologies to improve manufacturing performance.
• Identify opportunities to reduce scrap, improve yield, increase line speeds, reduce changeover time, and improve overall equipment effectiveness.
• Develop and track KPIs to measure process performance and improvement results.

Quality & Process Control

• Partner with Quality to investigate defects and implement corrective and preventive actions.
• Establish critical process parameters and appropriate process-control methods.
• Analyze manufacturing data and trends to identify opportunities and prevent recurring defects.
• Support compliance with applicable quality, safety, and manufacturing standards.

New Products & Process Development

• Support new product introductions from development through production launch.
• Develop manufacturing processes, tooling requirements, and operating parameters for new pultruded products.
• Conduct manufacturing trials and validate new materials, resin systems, tooling, equipment, and process changes.
• Partner with Product Engineering and R&D to ensure new designs are manufacturable at production scale.

Technical Leadership

• Train operators and technicians on manufacturing processes, troubleshooting, and process-control requirements.
• Serve as a technical resource for Operations, Maintenance, and Quality.
• Lead or participate in capital equipment and manufacturing improvement projects.
• Work with equipment, tooling, resin, fiber, and other suppliers to resolve technical issues

What will help you thrive in this role?

Required

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science/Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or related technical discipline.
• Demonstrated experience with process troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, and continuous improvement.
• Strong communication, analytical, and hands-on problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a production-floor environment and collaborate across Operations, Quality, Maintenance, and Engineering.

Preferred

• Direct experience with pultrusion or composite manufacturing.
• Manufacturing/process engineering experience.
• Experience with fiberglass or other fiber-reinforced polymers, thermoset resins, polymer processing, extrusion, molding, or similar continuous manufacturing processes.
• Lean Manufacturing or Six Sigma experience/certification.
• Experience with DOE, SPC, PFMEA, control plans, CAPA, and structured problem-solving.
• Experience supporting new product introduction and capital equipment projects.