Launch Engineer: Guide New Product Starts & Ramp-Up

Flint Hills Resources; Lisle (IL); On-site; USD 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Flint Hills Resources in Lisle, IL seeks a Launch Engineer to lead transitions of new product designs from development into production, driving manufacturing readiness, launch execution, and process validation.

You will serve as a key technical interface across Product Design Engineering, Development Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Operations, customer-facing teams, and global manufacturing teams, ensuring launches meet schedule and performance targets with strong problem-solving and

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or related technical discipline.
• 5+ years of electro-mechanical product design, manufacturing experience, quality experience and development with proven technical leadership.
• Experience applying structured problem-solving and root cause analysis methods to resolve technical issues.
• Experience with processes including progressive die stamping, injection molding, die casting, plating, laser welding, soldering, and insert molding.
• Strong understanding of engineering tools including FEA, GD&T or Tolerance Analysis.

Responsibilities

• Lead plant launch readiness reviews and coordinate cross-functional launch readiness activities.
• Provide real-time technical support and communication between design center and manufacturing plants during launch and ramp-up.
• Drive structured problem solving and issue resolution for manufacturing yield, quality, testing, and process-related concerns during launch including escalation to management
• Develop and work through Design of Experiments (DOE) to isolate process variables, improve manufacturability, and optimize launch performance.
• Perform statistical analysis of process data to identify trends, isolate issues, evaluate process capability, and verify corrective actions.
• Evaluate dimensional and functional risk when reviewing out-of-specification conditions, deviations, and manufacturing issues.
• Collect, analyze, and interpret manufacturing, quality, and test data to support data-driven decisions.
• Partner with Design Engineering and Development Engineering to transfer lessons learned and improve future product designs, test plans, and manufacturing readiness.
• Support continuous improvement activities focused on First Pass Yield, ramp-up performance, launch KPIs, quality, delivery, cost, and productivity.
• Support DFMEA, PFMEA, Control Plans, process validation, and other risk mitigation activities.

Skills

Structured problem solving

Root cause analysis

Engineering tools (FEA)

Tolerance analysis

Effective communication

International travel

Education

Bachelor's degree or higher in Mechanical/Manufacturing/Industrial Engineering

Tools

FEA software

Tolerance analysis tools

Job description

Flint Hills Resources in Lisle, IL seeks a Launch Engineer to lead transitions of new product designs from development into production, driving manufacturing readiness, launch execution, and process validation.

You will serve as a key technical interface across Product Design Engineering, Development Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Operations, customer-facing teams, and global manufacturing teams, ensuring launches meet schedule and performance targets with strong problem-solving and