Job Type
Full-time
Description
Since 1948, Follett Products, LLC, has led the industry in designing and manufacturing high-quality, innovative ice storage bins, ice storage and transport systems, ice machines, ice and water dispensers, ice and beverage dispensers, and medical-grade refrigerators and freezers for the food service and healthcare industries.
Follett currently has an opportunity for a
Validation Engineer to join our team!
Follett’s robust benefits package includes medical, dental, and vision insurance; paid time off; paid holidays; retirement plan with company match, bonus opportunity, and much more.
The Validation Engineer establishes and sustains technical standards for defining products and verifying that product designs and manufacturing processes meet these requirements. This is a senior individual contributor role that leads through technical authority, methodology ownership, and coaching rather than through direct supervision.
The position works cross-functionally, partnering with the Product Design, Industrial Engineering, and Technical Service teams to define methods for establishing product requirements, developing and qualifying test methods, and validating manufacturing equipment and processes. This role also involves warranty data analysis, using the results to improve product requirements planning and test methods.
Essential Functions
Requirements Definition & Design Verification
- Develop methods to establish clear, comprehensive, and measurable product requirements.
- Define and maintain the Design Verification Plan & Report (DVP&R) standard to document traceability of requirements to evidence.
- Champion, partner, and collaborate with Product Design and Industrial engineers in authoring program-level DVP&Rs. Review and approve plans for high-risk programs.
- Proactively define verification and validation exit criteria for product development stage gates.
Test Method Development & Qualification
- Develop and maintain a test method library containing cross-functional contributions.
- Develop new test methods where no qualified method exists. Consider instrumentation strategy, fixture requirements, environmental chamber profiles, data acquisition approach, and measurement uncertainty.
- Partner with the Product Design team, which manages laboratory and environmental chamber facilities, to schedule and prioritize validation activity.
Process & Equipment Validation
- Define standards for installation, operational, and performance qualification (IQ/OQ/PQ) of manufacturing equipment and processes.
- Provide protocols, templates, and technical review for validation activities executed by Industrial Engineering. Establish criteria and triggers for requalification following process, tooling, supplier, or location changes.
- Establish and govern the measurement systems analysis (MSA) standard including gage repeatability and reproducibility, bias, and linearity. Place particular emphasis on leak test and functional test systems where the measurement system constitutes the acceptance decision.
- Set the statistical standard for process capability studies and sampling plans. Ensure validation results are reflected in control plans owned by Industrial Engineering.
- Apply design of experiments (DOE) to optimize product and process performance.
Reliability & Warranty Analysis Support
- Support the cross-functional warranty team with reliability analysis of field data. Use tools such as Weibull analysis to evaluate product lifespans, predict equipment failures, and optimize maintenance schedules.
- Develop test plans that reproduce field failure modes in a laboratory environment and establish correlation between accelerated laboratory testing and observed field life.
- Design accelerated life tests appropriate to refrigeration systems product portfolios, including compressor and control cycling, door and hardware cycle life, joint thermal fatigue, corrosion and condensation exposure, and cleaning chemical compatibility.
- Contribute technical analysis and experimental design to structured problem-solving efforts such as CAPA and 8D investigations, which are facilitated by the Quality function.
- Ensure that recurring and high-cost field failure modes result in a documented change to the product requirements, the test method library, or the process validation standard.
Capability Building
- Train and mentor engineers across Product Design, Industrial Engineering, and Quality in requirements definition, validation planning, applied statistics, and reliability methods.
- Develop and maintain templates, work instructions, and the validation and verification elements of the Quality Management System.
Requirements
Education & Experience
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related engineering discipline. Advanced degree preferred.
- Minimum of ten (10) years of progressive engineering experience in product verification and validation, reliability engineering, test engineering, or advanced quality engineering within a design and manufacturing environment.
- Demonstrated hands-on ownership of design verification plans and process validation protocols. Experience must reflect direct technical execution, not solely oversight of a validation team.
- Experience in commercial food service equipment, appliance, HVAC/R, automotive, or a comparable industry involving thermal, refrigeration, or electromechanical systems is strongly preferred.
Technical Knowledge & Skills
- Design Verification Plan & Report (DVP&R)
- Product Development Stage Gate Process
- Equipment and Process Validation Protocols
- Physics of Failure Modes (e.g., thermal and mechanical fatigue, electrical and control failure, refrigeration system degradation)
- Applied Statistics Tools (e.g., design of experiments, sample size determination, hypothesis testing, process capability analysis, measurement systems analysis)
- Reliability Engineering Tools (e.g., Weibull and life data analysis, B10/L10 life estimation, accelerated life test design)
- Statistical and Reliability Analysis Software (e.g., Minitab, JMP, Weibull++, MATLAB)
- Standards and Compliance (e.g., UL, NSF)
Professional Competencies
- Ability to establish credibility and drive adoption of technical standards across departments without formal authority.
- Effective teaching and coaching skills, with a demonstrated record of raising the technical capability of peers outside the direct reporting structure.
- Clear technical writing, with the ability to produce protocols, reports, and standards that withstand internal and third-party scrutiny.
- Sound judgment in balancing process discipline with program schedule and business risk.
- Ability to protect long-term process development projects against the pull of urgent reactive demands.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office products.
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
- Self-motivated with excellent organizational and time management skills.
- Detail-oriented with excellent critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Working Conditions/Physical Requirements
- Regular presence on the manufacturing floor. Compliance with all personal protective equipment requirements is mandatory.
- Regular work in laboratory environments, including environmental chambers.
- Extended periods of computer-based work including data analysis, technical writing, and documentation review.
- Frequent standing, walking, bending, kneeling, and reaching while conducting equipment observation, test setup, instrumentation, and failure analysis.
- Ability to lift and carry up to 40 pounds occasionally.
- Visual acuity sufficient to read instrumentation, inspect components and joints, and evaluate detailed technical documentation.
- Occasional work outside standard business hours to support extended-duration testing, production trials, and time-sensitive investigations.
Travel Requirements
- Travel is estimated at 10-20% annually.
- Travel between Follett business locations.
- Travel to attend meetings or training outside the company as requested.
- Supplier facility visits to support purchased part qualification, process validation, and supplier-based failure investigation.
- Customer and field site visits to support investigation of significant or recurring warranty failure modes.
If you meet the position’s qualifications and are looking for an exciting and challenging career with growth opportunities, then Follett is the place for you. Follett Products, LLC is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EOE/M/F/Vets/Disabled) employer and welcomes all qualified applicants.
