Senior Supplier Engineer

Senior Supplier Engineer

Requirements

• Proven ability to work alongside design engineer and assess supplier capability during the design iteration process
• Demonstrable knowledge in evaluating and challenging supplier technical, quality, and business capabilities
• Demonstrable knowledge of a wide range of manufacturing processes including understanding of key input variables for quality, cost and capacity (specialization can be in metal fabrication, plastics, electronics, and/or contract manufacturing)
• Excellent Project Management skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills including presentations to executive level management
• Excellent Interpersonal skills and team building skills
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills along with good judgment
• Significant computer experience using Windows, Word, Excel, Smartsheets, Minitab, Solidworks, and ERP Information Systems, preferably SAP
• Ability to read and interpret detailed mechanical drawings, including GD&T and communicate technical information to suppliers

Responsibilities

• Partner with design engineering to understand the design intent and how it translates to component design. Ensure critical design outputs are clearly documented and measurable on the component specification.
• Collaborate with Quality Engineering and Design Engineering to support dFMEA /spFMEA reviews and confirm the feasibility of various design risk mitigations.
• Influence and drive changes to Intuitive component specifications to ensure a robust component manufacturing process that can scale.
• Work with design engineering to develop test methods and acceptance criteria for the supplied part or sub-assembly. Understand functional test methods used to verify the product and translate those tests to component level testing at the supplier.
• Partner with Engineering team to select the component technology that will meet requirements for short- and long-term needs from prototype to production, while meeting business priorities for cost and utilizing preferred suppliers.
• Manage and develop supplier relationship, bridge communication gaps and promote constructive relationship between Intuitive and Supplier.
• Create strategies to effectively optimize the supply base to reduce the risk of complex sub-tiers suppliers and long lead times.
• Establish risk mitigations for high severity parts, sole suppliers or proprietary materials.
• Complete Design Transfer and component qualification: pFMEA, Special Process Validations, FAI, correlation, Gage R&R and Cpk by leading, training and mentoring suppliers through the process.
• Effectively prioritize and advance multiple concurrent projects and tasks.
• Develop supplier ramp readiness plans by judging business risk based on forecast, supplier capacity, quality performance, and process capability.
• Resolve component non-conformances and drive suppliers to true root cause analysis and corrective and preventive actions.
• Develop and influence supply chain using metrics for supplier part cost, delivery, quality, capacity and capability.

Preferred Qualifications

• Supplier Engineering, Supplier Quality Engineer, Manufacturing Engineer or Design Engineer experience is preferred.
• Medical Device experience is a plus
• Able to perform impartial analysis: should cost model and tolerance stack
• Knowledge of 21 CFR part 820 and ISO 13485 (experience in auditing suppliers to these standards)
• Experience implementing lean, 6-sigma or SPC programs at suppliers.