Engineering Manager- Design for Reliability

Molex; Rochester Hills (MI); On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical benefits

Dental benefits

Vision benefits

Flexible spending and HSA

Life insurance

Retirement plan

Paid vacation time off

Educational assistance

Infertility assistance

Paid parental leave

Adoption assistance

Job summary

Molex is seeking an engineering leader to grow our Design for Reliability capability regionally, mentoring a multi-site team and embedding DfR early in product design. You will drive reliability methods, engage customers, and advance prediction with AI and data analytics, collaborating across divisions to ensure robust validation.

You will partner with engineering, quality, and labs to close capability gaps and standardize industry-wide validation approaches, ensuring timely, measurable

Qualifications

• 8+ years in reliability, validation, or design engineering.
• 3+ years in a leadership or people-management role.
• Expertise in DfR methodologies and accelerated/life testing, with hands-on programs across labs.
• Proven experience engaging customers on test and validation strategy.
• Ability to influence design, manufacturing, quality, supplier, and lab teams.

Responsibilities

• Own the regional reliability strategy and validation process across the product lifecycle.
• Build, mentor, and lead a regional DfR team across multiple sites and divisions.
• Standardize validation approaches at the product-industry level for consistency.
• Drive reliability methodologies and root-cause analysis and corrective actions.
• Lead adoption of AI and data analytics to advance reliability prediction and testing.
• Partner with divisional engineering, quality, and leadership to integrate DfR into milestones.
• Coordinate with reliability test labs to execute test programs and feed data back into design decisions.
• Integrate manufacturing process capability and supplier qualification into validation strategy.

Skills

DfR methodologies

Reliability validation

Program leadership

Customer engagement

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in Engineering

Job description

About the Role

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 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.

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 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 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.

Key Competencies

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

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Who We Are

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Our Benefits

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, please speak to your recruiter.

Additionally, everyone has individual work and personal needs. We seek to enable the best work environment that helps you and the business work together to produce superior results.

Equal Opportunities

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, aqui, or tu).