Engineering Manager- Design for Reliability

Flint Hills Resources; Rochester Hills (MI); On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Koch Companies seeks an Engineering Manager to lead Design for Reliability (DfR) across a regional scope, building a high-performance team and embedding reliability into products through AI, data analytics, and predictive validation.

You will partner with design, manufacturing, quality, and labs, standardize industry-wide validation, and drive root-cause analysis while balancing rigor with time-to-market for automotive and other regulated sectors.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's in Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Materials, or related).
• 8+ years in reliability, validation, or design engineering, including 3+ years in a leadership or people-management role.
• Expertise in DfR methodologies, reliability validation, and accelerated/life testing.
• Proven experience engaging and negotiating with customers on test and validation strategy.
• Demonstrated ability to work across and influence design, manufacturing, quality, supplier, and lab organizations in a matrixed global environment, including leading cross-functional risk reviews.
• Strong communication skills in English (written and spoken).

Responsibilities

• Own the regional reliability strategy and validation process across the product lifecycle, embedding DfR early to drive reliability by design.
• Build, mentor, and lead a regional team of DfR engineers across multiple sites and divisions, establishing consistent methods, tools, and competency standards.
• Standardize validation approaches at the product-industry level (e.g., Automotive) for consistency in methods, coverage, and acceptance criteria across programs and customers.
• Drive reliability methodologies (physics-of-failure, accelerated life testing, design margin analysis, FMEA/DFMEA, statistical modeling) and drive root-cause analysis and corrective action.
• Lead the adoption of AI and data analytics by capturing, structuring, and analyzing reliability data across labs and programs to advance reliability prediction, optimize testing, accelerate validation, and enable continuous learning.
• Partner with divisional engineering, quality, and program leadership to integrate DfR into design and program milestones, acting as the regional voice of reliability and engage customers to align on reliability expectations, acceptance criteria, and test strategies, balancing technical rigor with time-to-market.
• Partner with the reliability test labs to execute test programs, accelerated life, environmental and mechanical stress, and failure analysis feeding lab data back into design decisions and closing capability gaps.
• Integrate manufacturing process capability, supplier and component qualification, and field reliability learning into validation strategy and design decisions, and support critical business decisions and reliability risk at product launch, manufacturing quality spills, and potential warranty/field issues.

Skills

DfR methodologies

Reliability validation

Accelerated life testing

Leadership

Strong communication

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Materials, or related)

Tools

FRACAS

AI analytics tools

Job description

Engineering Manager- Design for Reliability

We're establishing and scaling our Design for Reliability (DfR) capability, and we're looking for an engineering leader to lead that growth from the front. You'll grow and mentor a regional team, shape how reliability is engineered into our products, and pioneer the use of AI and data analytics to make validation faster, smarter, and more predictive. Operating across divisions, you'll be the regional face of reliability, building credibility with our business partners and confidence with our global customers.

A central part of the mission: standardizing how we validate products at the industry level (starting with Automotive), working directly with customers to align on expectations and test strategies. If you want real scope, visible impact, and the chance to define a function rather than inherit one, this is it.

Key Responsibilities

Own the regional reliability strategy and validation process across the product lifecycle, embedding DfR early to drive reliability by design rather than test-and-fix, keeping efforts risk-based and focused on relevant failure modes rather than following a testing checklist.

Build, mentor, and lead a regional team of DfR engineers across multiple sites and divisions, establishing consistent methods, tools, and competency standards.

Standardize validation approaches at the product-industry level (e.g., Automotive) for consistency in methods, coverage, and acceptance criteria across programs and customers.

Drive reliability methodologies (physics-of-failure, accelerated life testing, design margin analysis, FMEA/DFMEA, statistical modeling) and drive root-cause analysis and corrective action.

Lead the adoption of AI and data analytics by capturing, structuring, and analyzing reliability data across labs and programs to advance reliability prediction, optimize testing, accelerate validation, and enable continuous learning.

Partner with divisional engineering, quality, and program leadershipto integrate DfR into design and program milestones, acting as the regional voice of reliability and engage customers to align on reliability expectations, acceptance criteria, and test strategies, balancing technical rigor with time-to-market.

Partner with the reliability test labs to execute test programs, accelerated life, environmental and mechanical stress, and failure analysis feeding lab data back into design decisions and closing capability gaps.

Integrate manufacturing process capability, supplier and component qualification, and field reliability learninginto validation strategy and design decisions, and support critical business decisions and reliability risk at product launch, manufacturing quality spills, and potential warranty/field issues.

Qualifications

Required

Bachelor's or Master's in Engineering(Mechanical, Electrical, Materials, or related).

8+ years in reliability, validation, or design engineering, including 3+ years in a leadership or people-management role.

Expertise in DfR methodologies, reliability validation, and accelerated/life testing, with hands-on experience planning and executing programs with reliability or test labs.

Proven experience engaging and negotiating with customerson test and validation strategy.

Demonstrated ability to work across and influence design, manufacturing, quality, supplier, and lab organizationsin a matrixed global environment, including leading cross-functional risk reviews and informing product and launch decisions based on reliability evidence.

Strong communication skills in English (written and spoken), including the ability to present technical reliability risk to customers and senior leadership.

Preferred

Strong working knowledge of reliability statistics (life data analysis, confidence methods, test planning), with experience using field, warranty, and test data to drive design and corrective actions.

Experience in automotive or other highly regulated industries including familiarity with electronics and interconnect standards (e.g., USCAR, MIL, AEC-Q, ISO/TS) and supporting customer audits, issue resolution, and qualification negotiations.

Exposure to AI, machine learning, and data analytics including digital test data systems, dashboarding, and analytics tools applied to reliability or engineering problems.

Experience with FRACAS, warranty analytics, and closed-loop corrective action systems.

Experience with supplier or component qualification and manufacturing process reliability.

Track record standardizing engineering processes across a region or enterprise and operating across divisions, sites, or business units.

Reliability certification(e.g., CRE) a plus.

Strategic capability building and team development; cross-functional influence and customer negotiation; data-driven, analytical thinking; and comfort operating with ambiguity in a matrixed, multi-site environment.

At Koch companies, we are entrepreneurs. This means we openly challenge the status quo, find new ways to create value and get rewarded for our individual contributions. Any compensation range provided for a role is an estimate determined by available market data. The actual amount may be higher or lower than the range provided considering each candidate's knowledge, skills, abilities, and geographic location. If you have questions, please speak to your recruiter about the flexibility and detail of our compensation philosophy.

Hiring Philosophy

All Koch companies value diversity of thought, perspectives, aptitudes, experiences, and backgrounds. We are Military Ready and Second Chance employers. Learn more about our hiring philosophy here .

Who We Are

At Koch, employees are empowered to do what they do best to make life better. Learn how our business philosophy helps employees unleash their potential while creating value for themselves and the company.

Our goal is for each employee, and their families, to live fulfilling and healthy lives. We provide essential resources and support to build and maintain physical, financial, and emotional strength - focusing on overall wellbeing so you can focus on what matters most. Our benefits plan includes - medical, dental, vision, flexible spending and health savings accounts, life insurance, ADD, disability, retirement, paid vacation/time off, educational assistance, and may also include infertility assistance, paid parental leave and adoption assistance. Specific eligibility criteria is set by the applicable Summary Plan Description, policy or guideline and benefits may vary by geographic region. If you have questions on what benefits apply to you, speak to your recruiter.

Additionally, everyone has individual work and personal needs.

Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability and protected veteran status. Except where prohibited by state law, some offers of employment are conditioned upon successfully passing a drug test. This employer uses E-Verify. Please click here for additional information. (For Illinois E-Verify information click here , aquí , or tu ).