R&T Leader - Internal Cables & Connectors

Job Overview

As a member of the Digital Data Networks (DDN) business in TE Connectivity you will play a key role in the design of products for high-speed products in the connector, cable assembly, and/or radio system industry—targeting high-speed communications and connectivity within datacenters and wireless infrastructure.

ROLE DESCRIPTION

The Internal Cables & Connectors Reliability & Testing (R&T) Leader will lead a dedicated team of R&T engineers and will have responsibility for driving standardized Design for Reliability Engineering (DfRE) and Robustness Validation (RV) Methodologies for all Internal Cable & Connectors Products in the DDN Portfolio.  He/she and their team will work extremely closely with customers, Product Development Engineering (PDE) teams, Manufacturing Process Development Engineering (MPDE) teams, Field Application Engineering (FAE) and Advanced Quality Engineering (AQE) to deeply understand the end application requirements and the associated “mission profile”.  They will partner with the Global R&T COE to drive the application of standardized methodologies and alignment on all Reliability Testing and Test & Validation plans for each of the assigned new product development programs.  They will identify unique product line test needs and application testing requirements and work with the R&T COE to develop custom Test System & Software as required to support the unique testing requirements for each product line.  In addition, he/she will also partner with the Global R&T COE to co-develop Reliability Test Plans and Test & Validation Plans aligned with TE’s LeanPD stage gate approach for product development.

The Internal Cable & Connectors R&T Leader will oversee integrating reliability considerations during technology & product evaluation, NPI product development from receipt of Customer Spec (“mission profile”) through Product Release into mass production.  DfRE Experts in the Global R&T COE will help determine the appropriate test strategy to collect data using destructive Highly Accelerated Life Test (HALT) or Highly Accelerated Stress Tests (HAST) techniques to evaluate product reliability.  Based on collected data and in close collaboration with PDE teams, they will identify weak design/process features or components and work closely with PDE and AQE on the development of corrective actions and improvement plans, engaging with material and component experts to evaluate improvements of the corrective actions by technics such a stress/accelerated screening.

Long Description

The Internal Cable & Connectors R&T Leader will be instrumental partnering with PDE’s to quickly produce and evaluate first samples to expedite speed to market and drive fast and iterative product design improvements.  They will drive Early Concept Testing identifying potential weaknesses and failure mechanisms in the product design.  They will also work very closely with MPDE about Process Developments and Equipment Developments, developing comprehensive test plans to ensure capability to six sigma standards and driving world-class Simultaneous Engineering (Concurrent Engineering).  They will also support failure analysis (F/A) and Root Cause and Corrective Action (RCCA) of line scrap and customer returns as well as competitive benchmarking activities.

The Internal Cable & Connectors R&T Leader and their team will also have responsibility for designing and developing detailed Test & Validation (T&V) plans for Early Validation Testing (EVT), Design Validation Testing (DVT) and Process Validation Testing (PVT), ensuring products are validated to meet customer requirements and TE requirements in accordance with all applicable industry standards.  They will also coordinate all testing activities with internal T&V labs or any external contracted T&V labs, including all environmental, mechanical, electrical, electronic, EMI/EMC, software testing and application testing.

The Internal Cable & Connectors R&T Leader and their team will also have responsibility for designing and developing Ongoing Reliability Test (ORT) Plans in accordance with customer requirements, and coordinate with Manufacturing Quality Engineering (MQE) to ensure proactive detection of latent manufacturing defects, supply chain drift, or design fatigue for products in mass production.

The Internal Cable & Connectors R&T Leader and their team will also have responsibility for designing and developing Packaging Test & Validation Plans to ensure the packaging is optimally designed to protect the product or assembly and minimize the effects of loads experienced during shipping and logistics.

R&T Engineers and DfREs will leverage a reliability approach as defined in structured development approach such as Design for Six Sigma (DFSS), Toyota inspired LPDS methodologies and Robust Design principles, and will master reliability data sources, stress acceleration models, ALT and Test to Failure analysis and other reliability tools in order to drive data and capability based decisions to ensure the reliability and robustness of DDN products meet and/or exceed customer expectations.

Job Requirements

•    Primary responsibility for developing and driving standardized Design for Reliability Engineering (DfRE) and Robustness Validation (RV) Methodologies for all Internal Cable & Connector Products.
•    Drive a DFSS culture, one of innovation, constant learning, and continuous improvement that aspires to deliver "First Time Right"; provide product development and DFSS training, coaching, and mentoring to product design teams to create a world class product development organization.
•    Drive excellence in Design for Reliability ensuring comprehensive utilization of modeling and simulation, structured DOE approaches, robust product validation including HALT/HAST and Test to Failure (TTF) methodologies.  Oversee integrating reliability considerations during technology & product evaluation, NPI product development from receipt of Customer Spec (Mission Profile) through Product Release into mass production; will have T&V Plan + Reliability Test Plan Finalization Authority for Internal Cable & Connectors Products.
•    Partner with PDE’s to quickly produce and evaluate first samples to expedite speed to market and drive fast and iterative product design improvements; drive Early Concept Testing identifying potential weaknesses and failure mechanisms in the product design and validating all improvements through testing and capability analysis.
•    Work very closely with MPDE about Process Developments and Equipment Developments, developing comprehensive test plans to ensure capability to six sigma standards and driving world-class Simultaneous Engineering (Concurrent Engineering).
•    Design and develop detailed Test & Validation (T&V) plans for Early Validation Testing (EVT), Design Validation Testing (DVT) and Process Validation Testing (PVT), ensuring products are validated to meet customer requirements and TE requirements in accordance with all applicable industry standards.
•    Design and develop Ongoing Reliability Test (ORT) Plans in accordance with customer requirements, and coordinate with Manufacturing Quality Engineering (MQE) to ensure proactive detection of latent manufacturing defects, supply chain drift, or design fatigue for products in mass production.
•    Design and develop Packaging Test & Validation Plans to ensure the packaging is optimally designed to protect the product or assembly and minimize the effects of loads experienced during shipping and logistics.
•    Support Mfg Quality with failure analysis (F/A) and Root Cause and Corrective Action (RCCA) of line scrap and customer returns as well as competitive benchmarking activities.
•    Lead the identification of special testing needs and requirements and partner with Global R&T COE to develop Custom Test Equipment, Tests & Test Specifications.  Oversee all application testing for Internal Cable & Connector Products.
•    Drive high performance organization by providing your team routine coaching and feedback, holding your team accountable to meet performance objectives, and providing meaningful development to increase individual/team capability. 
•    Manage employee well-being by prioritizing work, effectively managing resource loading, and providing flexibility to enable employees to successfully balance their work and personal lives.
•    Drive organization effectiveness by structuring your organization in a way that best enables the BU strategy, maximizes resource efficiency and productivity, and provides role clarity and clear lines of accountability.
•    Manage the talent in your organization to support the business now and to proactively prepare for the future by identifying organization skillset/role gaps, implementing plans to fill any skillset/role gaps, and assessing current talent fit to ensure the right talent is matched to the right roles to best meet the needs of the business.

What your background should look like

    Bachelor/ Master’s degree in technical discipline (Electrical Engineering, Electronics, Mechatronics)
    10+ years of Experience a high-speed hardware engineering role serving telecommunications market or data center applications.
    Seasoned people leader, experience managing engineering teams in global corporate matrixed environment.
    Must also have many years of experience working with test equipment, test systems, test labs, development and deployment of HALT/HAST testing, Test & Validation Plans, development of custom test systems and performing “application tests.”  Must have a good balance between theory and practice.
    Experience interacting with global cross-functional engineering teams in multi-site global organization.
    Experience with high-speed test equipment (Digital Sampling Oscilloscope, Vector Network Analyzer, Bit Error Rate Tester, TDR, Pattern Generators, Power Supplies, etc.)
    In depth familiarity with IEEE 802.3: The cornerstone for Ethernet networking. Recent iterations (e.g., 802.3ck) define standards for 100 Gb/s, 200 Gb/s, and 400 Gb/s operation over copper and fiber, as well as Next-Gen (800G/1.6T) data center requirements.
    Expertise with electronic assembly product development and validation of hardware and software.
    Excellent English, both verbal and written, and the ability to interact professionally with customers, leadership, stakeholders, cross functional teams and subject matter experts.
    Exceptional analytical, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills and ability to make decisions when presented with a series of challenges, conflicts and constraints.  Ability to drive to big picture goals and milestones while valuing and maintaining strong attention to the details.
    Knowledge on FIT estimation methodology, statistical analysis for reliability calculation such as Weibull-analysis or 2-statistics, application of Bayes theorem, random failure principle, FMEDA, FTA
    Reliability Engineering training from company, ASQ, TUV, Reliasoft or equivalent
    Experience with custom product development, working closely with customers to define mission profile of the end application and optimizing reliability strategy based on customer needs.
    Experience in running statistical analysis for reliability calculation for mechatronic products.
    A high curiosity in understanding how systems/products work along with a reverse engineering mindset.
    Willingness to travel as required, ~20% 

WE VALUE - 
+    DFSS Blackbelt or DFSS Green Belt Certified
+    Standards Knowledge - ANSI/TIA-942 Standard, ANSI/TIA-568-E Standard,  ISO/IEC 11801 Standard, ISO/IEC 24764 Standard, EIA-364 1000B, IPC Standards for Interconnecting and Packaging Electronic Assemblies, UL Standards for Data Center Component Level Certifications (i.e. UL 1977, UL 444, UL 817, UL 2416).
+    Knowledge in data center architecture, connectors, sockets, wire harnesses, High-Speed connectivity products, electronics, measurement & signal processing.
+    Experience in product development for data center applications
+    Experience in product development, test & validation of connectors & sockets, High-Speed interconnect solutions.

#NATAUV #LI-REMOTE

Competencies