Manufacturing Engineering Technician jobs in Tacoma, WA

Digital Control Incorporated (DCI) is the world’s leading supplier of underground locating and steering products for the horizontal directional drilling (HDD) industry. Since the introduction of this revolutionary technology 30 years ago, Digital Control has been at the forefront of trenchless technologies that enable the efficient installation of underground utilities such as fiber optic, telecom, gas, and water lines world-wide. DCI’s products are valued for their durable design, ease of use and uncompromising commitment to customer service. 

We are seeking a Manufacturing Design Engineering (MDE) Manager based in our headquarters in Kent, Washington to help ensure our products continue to live up to DCI’s high standards and exceed the expectations of our global customers. As a player-coach, you will apply your technical knowledge and leadership skills to hardware design, new product introduction, test development, and manufacturing process engineering while cultivating internal and external partnerships. If you’re hands-on and passionate about technology, collaboration, and continuous improvement, then DCI could be a perfect fit for you! 

MDE is a new function at DCI, so you’ll have the opportunity to build, establish, and set the course for the team!

What You’ll Do:

Manager and technical leader (50% or more of time)

• Recruit, develop, and lead a team of engineers in the disciplines below. Provide regular coaching, perform performance evaluations, and contribute to annual compensation reviews.
• Define, prioritize, and assign projects and operational tasks. Prepare and maintain detailed planning of project activities, including schedules, cost estimates and resource assignments.
• Prepare annual expense budget and monitor and control activities to these plans.
• Coordinate and collaborate with other managers in the Manufacturing and R&E departments to optimize the overall performance of the organization. This may include solving emerging issues with resources, processes, and products. It may include development of long-term, medium term and short-term plans.
• Provide reports as required to communicate project status to management including accomplishments, risk and key upcoming milestones for scope, budget, schedule, and resources. Develop contingency plans to address problems and risks encountered in project execution.
• Contribute to Extended Leadership Team (ELT) on broad management topics, partner with Company Leadership to define and advance corporate strategy, focus areas, and deliver annual objectives.

Team responsibilities (individual contribution up to 50% of time in one or more area)

Hardware design engineering of electronic and electromechanical devices

• Investigate and propose solutions to address customer feedback, field failure incidents, service repair trends, and production issues
• Perform redesign and requalification of existing commercial products for iterative performance, cost, and reliability improvement or to resolve component obsolescence issues
• Maintain form-fit-function equivalence of commercialized products

New product introduction (NPI)

• Partner with the R&D organization to represent Manufacturing needs in product development and DfX (Design for X: Manufacturability, Quality, Assembly, Supply Chain, Repairability, etc) to understand theory of operations and bring the next-generation of our industry-leading equipment to market
• Define and execute qualification testing of prototype and redesigned hardware products to environmental standards

Test process engineering and automation

• Develop, implement, and maintain new quality control test processes, including hardware and software design for automated fixtures and equipment
• Creation and evaluation of performance results databases and data analytics, provide reports and proposals to improve test processes or enhance product designs

Manufacturing process engineering

• Investigate, design, develop, and implement plans to increase the efficiency and yield of assembly and testing methods, systems, automated equipment, processes, and people
• Provide technical support and guidance to internal teams and supplier partners, participate in audits, and evaluate first-article materials and parts according to specifications and quality standards
• Lead and/or support continuous improvement projects and the implementation of Lean Manufacturing principles

Other

• Lead by example to contribute to a safe and healthy work environment
• Advance knowledge by studying industry trends and developments (such as generative AI, digitization, and industry 4.0), pursuing educational opportunities, reading technical publications, networking, and participating in professional organizations.
• Note that the above details describe the principal duties of an employee in this position but are not to be considered as all-inclusive. Employees may be asked to perform related duties by their supervisor.
• Reports directly to the Head of Manufacturing, with functional/ advisory relationship with Engineering leadership.