Continuous Improvement Engineer

Direct message the job poster from First Quality

Talent Acquisition Leader | Recruitment Strategy | Team Development | DEI Advocate | Bilingual (English/Spanish)

Founded over 35 years ago, First Quality is a family-owned company that has grown from a small business in McElhattan, Pennsylvania into a group of companies, employing over 5,000 team members, with corporate offices in New York and Pennsylvania and 8 manufacturing campuses across the U.S. and Canada. The companies within the First Quality group produce high-quality personal care and household products for large retailers and healthcare organizations, including baby diapers, wipes, feminine pads, paper towels, bath tissue, adult incontinence products, laundry detergents, fabric finishers, and dishwash solutions. We also manufacture certain raw materials and components used in the manufacturing of these products, including flexible print and packaging solutions.

Guided by our values of humility, unity, and integrity, we leverage advanced technology and innovation to drive growth and create new opportunities. At First Quality, you’ll find a collaborative environment focused on continuous learning, professional development, and our mission to Make Things Better.

We are seeking a Continuous Improvement Engineer-Blending/Process for our First Quality Home Care Products, LLC facility located in Salt Lake City, UT. This position will lead and execute process optimization and improvements in the Blending/Process area with the goal of improving efficiencies, lowering costs, and increasing production while ensuring compliance with quality systems and regulatory requirements. This candidate will also support product development and process/product qualifications.

Primary responsibilities

• Promote an action-oriented safety culture, instilling a safety mindset for all team members to maintain an incident-free workplace.
• Collaborate with Quality to ensure finished products meet all quality standards.
• Organize, implement, and maintain production process flow; develop best practices and innovative solutions to improve production rates and output quality.
• Evaluate, analyze, and identify trends in manufacturing processes/equipment issues and data from failures; create and implement recommendations to prevent recurrence, reducing downtime and waste.
• Complete design and development projects by training, providing technical support, and promoting growth of production personnel to improve understanding of processes.
• Support new product development from concept through commercialization; optimize technical and economic performance of new products.
• Prepare documentation for new manufacturing processes and/or engineering procedures; review design drawings and customer specifications.
• Utilize project management skills to prepare timelines, schedules, and coordinate multiple disciplines to meet schedules.
• Propose, install, start up, and validate new equipment; plan and lead process trials and communicate results.
• Use data and employee input to identify opportunities and implement improvements; apply continuous improvement methods such as lean manufacturing to enhance quality, reliability, or cost-effectiveness.
• Apply knowledge of engineering science and technology to design and production; understand machines, tools, raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and methods to maximize efficient manufacture and distribution.
• Identify, analyze, prioritize, and eliminate losses and inefficiencies; lead root cause analysis (RCA) to resolve chronic losses.
• Support daily operations, building long-term capability into systems and personnel; identify and lead small capital projects with Engineering Project Managers.
• Implement process control improvements to reduce product variability; develop, maintain, and validate standards to achieve performance targets; generate and update work instructions as required.
• Collaborate with operations and other sites to create best solutions; participate in New Product Development processes to evaluate concepts, designs, prototypes, and tests.
• Design and develop equipment improvements, including supplier coordination; resolve safety and customer quality issues with Engineering.
• Work with CI leads and trainers to develop Operator and Mechanic training; perform all other duties as assigned.

The ideal candidate should possess the following:

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering (Industrial, Electrical, Mechanical, Process, etc.) with 2–5 years of engineering experience in a high-speed manufacturing environment.
• Minimum of 2 years in a high-speed, high-volume manufacturing environment.
• Six Sigma, DOE, and SPC; Lean experience preferred.
• Experience with Microsoft Office, AutoCAD, Manufacturing Execution System, Parcview or PI Historian software preferred.
• Strong problem-solving skills with root-cause analysis and implementation of solutions.
• Ability to assess costs and benefits to select appropriate actions.
• Excellent interpersonal and written/verbal communication skills.
• Analytical thinking and ability to break down information into parts; manage multiple projects and priorities; detail-oriented.

What We Offer You

We believe that improving the quality of benefits improves quality of life for our team members and families. First Quality offers:

• Competitive base salary and bonus opportunities
• Paid time off (three weeks minimum)
• Medical, dental, and vision starting day one
• 401(k) with employer match
• Paid parental leave
• Child and family care assistance (dependent care FSA with employer match up to $2500)
• Bundle of Joy benefit (free diapers for a new baby)
• Tuition assistance
• Wellness program with savings up to $4,000 per year on insurance premiums
• ...and more!

First Quality is committed to protecting information under the care of First Quality Enterprises in accordance with leading industry standards and applicable regulations. Annual training on data privacy and security is provided to employees whose roles involve 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 identity, or protected Veteran status.

Seniority level

• Mid-Senior level

Employment type

• Full-time

Job function

• Engineering and Product Management

Industries

• Manufacturing

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.