Sr. Process Engineer, A&T MEA

SGL Carbon; Saint Marys (Elk County); On-site; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

SGL Carbon in Saint Marys, PA seeks a Senior Process Engineer focused on coatings for machined graphite parts and carbon-based materials. You will serve as the SME for CVD coatings and customer applications, leading strategic projects, and interfacing with sales, operations, and external partners to drive product improvements.

The role merges lab-scale development with production capabilities, mentoring new hires and expanding the coating value stream to meet customer and market needs.

Qualifications

• BS degree in engineering or equivalent technical discipline.
• 5–10 years of product development and technical engineering experience.
• Expert knowledge on CVD coating and semiconductor deposition processes.
• Experience with SiC-coated graphite products in semiconductor markets.
• Proven track record of successful project management.
• Experience in international and technological environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead strategic, complex projects in coatings for machined graphite parts and carbon-based materials.
• Interface with sales, operations, external research partners, and customers to drive product improvements.
• Develop recipes for defect reduction and performance improvement, and contribute to new product types and measurement techniques.
• Define and manage work package timelines and budgets; oversee projects with budgets around $200k/year.
• Mentor and train new hires; support other process engineers in solving quality issues and process optimization.

Skills

MS Office & VBA

Project management

Statistical methods

Problem solving

Materials characterization

Cross-functional networking

Education

BS degree in engineering or equivalent technical discipline

Job description

Position to focus on coatings applied to the surface of machined graphite parts but may also include carbon composite and/or other carbon-based materials. This role serves as the resident subject matter expert for CVD coatings and customer application and performance for Business Line MEA (Microelectronic Applications). This position will be responsible for leading strategic, complex projects within these market segments and applications. This position frequently interfaces with sales, operations, external research partners, and customers. With this network, the Senior PE recommends product or service improvements, solves technical product issues, and contributes to the development of functional strategy for the products within the business line. Project scope includes development of: recipes for defect reduction, recipes for performance improvement, new product types, new measurement techniques, new reactor technology, and overall improvements to better meet customer expectations. This role serves as the interface between product management and fundamental R&D, merging global lab-scale development with production capabilities to ensure customer and market satisfaction. This position will support “returned goods analyses” (RGA) for strategic products relevant to critical accounts and market segments. This support consists of providing guidance and mentorship to other process engineers while personally driving and leading larger-scope strategic analyses. As a senior level role, training and mentorship of new hires is expected. Involvement in areas other than coating will be required to fully understand the product value stream and complete overall responsibilities. (VOG, Graphitization, Machining, Quality/Inspection, etc.)

Key Accountabilities

• Work with product management to understand application performance requirements and forecast their evolving needs.
• Integrate a full-market view to understand and forecast technical product requirements informing the innovation pipeline.
• Utilize field-experience and knowledge of physics, chemistry, and semiconductor processes to identify SGL product characteristics that affect customer performance using theory and analysis.
• Define and develop capability to meet customer quality and performance expectations for SGL’s products.
• Develop and manage work package timelines and budgets to find product performance improvements. (~>$200k/yr)
• Develop and define processes and procedures to ensure capable coating processes for existing and new product designs.
• Support and provide guidance to other process engineers on novel quality issues or existing process optimization.
• Provide technical analysis for customer complaints with high priority or novel failure modes: analyzing returned parts, performing regressions against production data, generating reports, and presenting to sales colleagues and customers.
• Interface with internal and external development partners, including suppliers, universities, customers, and other SGL sites.
• Interface with other departments in St. Marys to define and focus project activities.
• Periodic reporting of activities as requested.

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The employee is regularly required to sit, talk, and hear, and use hands to finger, handle or feel. This position requires close vision and the ability to adjust focus. This position will be required to travel to different parts of the plant. The employee may be occasionally asked to lift parts that weigh up to 50 pounds. The primary work environment will be a combination of office, manufacturing and lab spaces. Manufacturing locations will be a mixture of clean room and non-clean room spaces. Specific locations may require one or more of the following personal protection devices: safety glasses, hard hat, dust respirator and flame-retardant uniforms. Travel to other SGL sites or customer/vendor sites will also be required. Environment will vary upon location. Occasional international travel may be required.

Skills

• Expert in MS Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint). Expert in formulas, macros, VBA coding and data analysis is preferred.
• Strong project management skills, both written and verbal, with Motivational skills.
• Ability to apply statistical methodology to solve problems and establish process capability.
• Advanced problem-solving, critical thinking.
• Familiarity with materials characterization and property testing tools and techniques.
• Networking skills in cross-functional environments, with indirect management of both internal and external partners.

Experiences

• BS degree in engineering or equivalent technical discipline
• 5-10 years of product development & technical engineering experience
• Expert knowledge on CVD coating and semiconductor deposition processes
• Specific know-how on SiC coated graphite products & their applications in Semiconductor markets
• Strong track record on effective & successful project management
• Experience in an international and technological environment