Senior Product Engineer, Expanded Beam Optics & Ferrules

3M; Maplewood (MN); On-site; USD 95,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

3M in Austin, TX or Maplewood, MN is seeking a Product Engineer to drive advanced optics initiatives within Expanded Beam Optics. You will collaborate with global teams to develop new applications and bring products to market, emphasizing quality, cost, and performance.

You will optimize interconnect components, lead scale-up activities, and influence design choices through data-driven validation, while maintaining rigorous standards across manufacturing sites and laboratories.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in science or engineering field (completed before start).
• Four years of combined product, materials, and/or process engineering experience.
• Master’s degree or higher studying physics or optics or related discipline.
• Experience with scaling up technology/products to large-scale manufacturing, especially optical materials.
• Hands-on problem solving using laboratory equipment.
• Experience with Lean Six Sigma, Design of Experiments (DOE), and Statistical Analysis.

Responsibilities

• Optimizing interconnect products and ferrules by driving Product and Process Understanding (PPU) efforts, leading strategic projects like raw material substitution, quality improvement, or cost reduction projects.
• Leading/supporting change management process and validating product performance for changes in design, process or raw materials through test plan generation and execution using optical laboratory equipment.
• Ensuring product performance and stability of existing products by leading product improvement projects through design modifications, as needed.
• Driving scale‑up activities as a core team member for new product introductions.
• Maintaining product standards and specifications, owning claims substantiation process.
• Collaborating with cross functional teams (product development, application engineering, business, manufacturing and quality teams), global laboratories and manufacturing sites.
• Utilizing strong communication skills to inspire, influence, motivate and teach other team members.

Skills

Experience: 4 years product/materials/

Education

Bachelor’s degree in science or engineering field

Job description

3M in Austin, TX or Maplewood, MN is seeking a Product Engineer to drive advanced optics initiatives within Expanded Beam Optics. You will collaborate with global teams to develop new applications and bring products to market, emphasizing quality, cost, and performance.

You will optimize interconnect components, lead scale-up activities, and influence design choices through data-driven validation, while maintaining rigorous standards across manufacturing sites and laboratories.