Product Body Engineer

Optimal; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 85,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Optimal in Chicago is seeking a Plant Vehicle Team Engineer (PVTE) to support vehicle quality initiatives in an automotive assembly plant. You will analyze warranty data, lead root-cause investigations, and drive interim containment and permanent corrective actions on the plant floor.

The role requires hands-on collaboration with manufacturing, supplier quality, and engineering teams, strong problem-solving skills, and the ability to own issues end-to-end while communicating findings to

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in automotive manufacturing, plant quality, product engineering, or warranty analysis.
• Hands-on experience in an OEM assembly plant environment is required.
• Strong root-cause analysis and corrective action capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Analyze warranty claim data and customer feedback to identify failure trends and quality concerns.
• Perform triage and binning of warranty claims to support prioritization and investigations.
• Lead ICA/PCA development and execution to contain and fix issues.
• Support Stop Ships/Stop Builds, Quality Campaigns, and Engineering Trials.
• Investigate build issues on the plant floor and validate corrective actions.
• Collaborate with suppliers and internal teams to resolve component quality issues.
• Report on Vehicle Functional Group metrics and share findings with leadership.

Skills

Warranty data analysis

CAD navigation (NX/CATIA)

Root cause analysis

8D / 5 Whys / Ishikawa

ICA / PCA implementation

Cross-functional communication

Manufacturing environment experience

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Tools

Teamcenter

Job description

Job Title:

Plant Vehicle Team Engineer - Body / Vehicle Quality Engineering

Position Overview:

We are seeking a Plant Vehicle Team Engineer (PVTE) to support vehicle quality initiatives within an automotive assembly plant environment.
This role is responsible for identifying, analyzing, and resolving vehicle quality issues using warranty data, plant investigations, and structured problem-solving methodologies.
This is a hands-on, plant-floor-focused role requiring close collaboration with manufacturing, supplier quality, and engineering teams to drive root cause analysis and corrective actions.

Key Responsibilities:

• Analyze warranty claim data and customer feedback to identify failure trends, emerging issues, and high-impact quality concerns
• Perform daily triage and binning of warranty claims into appropriate categories to support prioritization Conduct root cause investigations using plant-floor inspections, returned parts analysis, and cross-functional collaboration
• Lead development and execution of: Interim Containment Actions (ICA) Permanent Corrective Actions (PCA)
• Support assembly plant activities including: Stop Ships / Stop Builds Quality Campaigns and Audits Engineering Trials and Running Changes
• Work directly on the plant floor to investigate build issues and validate corrective actions
• Collaborate with suppliers and internal engineering teams to resolve component and subsystem quality issues
• Maintain and report on Vehicle Functional Group (VFG) quality metrics (Top 20 issues) Issue engineering alerts and documentation to support product changes and quality improvements
• Present findings, status updates, and recommendations to cross-functional teams and leadership

Skills Required:

• Technical Skills Strong experience with warranty data analysis: Excel (pivot tables, lookups, trend analysis, large dataset handling)
• Ability to navigate CAD models (NX, CATIA, or similar) for: Part-to-part interface analysis
• Root cause investigation (Note: Design ownership is not required, but functional CAD usage is essential)
• Problem-Solving & Quality Tools Demonstrated experience using structured methodologies: 8D Problem Solving 5 Why Analysis Fishbone (Ishikawa) diagrams
• Experience implementing: Interim Containment Actions (ICA) Permanent Corrective Actions (PCA)
• Core Competencies Strong analytical and troubleshooting skills in a manufacturing environment
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, high-visibility plant setting
• Effective cross-functional communication with engineering, production, and suppliers Ability to own issues end-to-end and drive them to closure

Experience Required:

• 3+ years of experience in: Automotive manufacturing, OR Plant quality, product engineering, or warranty analysis roles
• Hands-on experience in an OEM assembly plant environment is required Proven experience performing root cause analysis and driving issues to resolution in a production environment

Experience Preferred:

• Automotive OEM or Tier 1 supplier experience in: Body systems, closures, or vehicle structures
• Experience with: PLM tools (e.g., Teamcenter)
• Warranty or quality tracking systems Prior involvement in launch support or running product changes

Education Required:

Bachelor's Degree

Additional Information:

Position is fully onsite.
Other applicable experience could be considered 100% onsite role within an automotive assembly plant
Requires regular time on the plant floor investigating active production issues

Hiring Manager is looking for strong candidates that have the following type of experience:

• Seasoned Plant Quality Engineers.
• Supplier Quality Engineers with assembly support
• Resident Engineering experience
• Manufacturing Quality Leads
• Warranty Engineers
• Launch Quality Engineers who have worked in a plant multiple years