Product Development Engineer

First Quality was founded in 1989 and, in nearly three decades, has grown to be a global privately held company with over 4,000 employees. Its corporate offices are located in Great Neck, New York, with manufacturing facilities and offices in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Georgia, and Canada. First Quality is a diversified family of companies manufacturing consumer products ranging from Absorbent Hygiene (adult incontinence, feminine care, and baby care), Tissue (bath and towel), and Industrial (print and packaging materials), serving institutional and retail markets throughout the world. First Quality focuses on private label and branded product lines.

Our core business philosophy is built on a proud culture driven by safety and quality, respect, humility, integrity, customer focus, and teamwork. With leading edge manufacturing technologies and processes and visionary leadership, First Quality is positioned to continue significant growth in the coming years. We are seeking an experienced Product Development Engineer for our First Quality Baby Products facility located in Macon, GA.

This position will be responsible for leading product development projects and selecting technologies to use to meet customer demands. Successful candidate will work with and provide technical expertise for continuous improvement activities of the process teams for new and existing products within the FQBP facility. This role will also work in collaboration with each facility’s Quality Manager and Product Development resources (including benchmarking and sharing of best practices). This individual must be able to participate in plant trials and train others in testing methods.

Primary responsibilities include:

• Promotes an action-oriented safety culture, embracing safety as a core value, instilling and exemplifying a safety mindset for all team members resulting in an incident free workplace.
• Works in conjunction with Quality department to ensure finished product satisfies all finished product quality standards.
• Investigates new technologies and applies them to baby diapers and pants.
• Assists in planning, conducting, analyzing, and interpreting technical services.
• Responsible for project planning and execution on commercial and pilot line trials.
• Responsible for evaluating analytical data and relaying the information to non-technical personnel.
• Develops proprietary technology with equipment and/or process changes to meet evolving customer needs with the lowest cost solution.
• Responsible for organizing Product Development pipeline and consumer testing plans.
• Responsible for Product Development capital projects.
• Maintains a high level of professionalism at all times.
• Performs other duties as defined

The ideal candidate should possess the following:

• Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering or Materials Science preferred.
• Minimum of 5 years in Project or Process Engineering experience.
• Minimum of 5 years in industrial experience.
• Minimum of 2-5 years Product Development experience.
• Experience in a lean manufacturing environment preferred.
• Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions.
• Ability to develop and organize multiple projects.
• Ability to work with a diverse, cross-functional team of professionals to deliver against key objectives and timelines.
• Knowledge and understanding of nonwovens, absorbent hygiene, and diaper converting processes preferred
• Specific expertise in the following areas:
• Project Management
• Consumer Testing
• Material Testing
• Equipment design
• Trial planning and execution
• Intellectual Property
• Knowledge of material science and analytical testing procedures.
• Knowledge and use of statistical analysis.
• Knowledge and use of Design of Experiments.
• Knowledge of Microsoft Office, Microsoft Excel, Minitab, as well as other office systems.
• SAP knowledge preferred.

Excellent compensation and benefits, which are effective the first day of employment!

First Quality is committed to protecting information under the care of First Quality Enterprises commensurate with leading industry standards and applicable regulations. As such, First Quality provides at least annual training regarding data privacy and security to employees who, as a result of their role specifications, may come in to contact with sensitive data.

First Quality is an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender identification, or protected Veteran status.