Senior Product Industrialization Expert - Hydraulic Hose

Company Description

Continental is a leading tire manufacturer and industry specialist that develops and produces sustainable, safe and convenient solutions for automotive manufacturers as well as industrial and end customers worldwide. Founded in 1871, the company generated sales of €39.7 billion in 2024 and currently employs around 95,000 people in 54 countries and markets.

ContiTech is one of the world’s leading industry specialists. The Continental group sector offers its customers connected, environment-friendly, safe and convenient industry and service solutions using a range of materials for off-highway applications, on rails and roads, in the air, under and above the ground, in industrial environments, for the food sector and the furniture industry. With about 39,000 employees in more than 40 countries and sales of some 6.4 billion euros (2024), the global industrial partner is active with core branches in Asia, Europe and North and South America.
 

Job Description

The Senior Industrialization Engineer – is responsible for industrialization excellence across the IAM organization. This role ensures that new products, technologies, and engineering changes are industrialized and transferred into serial production in a scalable, robust, and cost‑effective manner across multiple manufacturing sites.

Serving as an SME to manufacturing plants, this position leads complex industrialization initiatives and ensures consistent launch readiness, process capability, and stable production performance. Leveraging deep expertise in hydraulic hose manufacturing processes and product–process interactions, the role drives problem solving, standardization, risk mitigation, continuous improvement, and alignment with global industrialization strategies.

The position is responsible for the industrialization of products across multiple hydraulic hose plants within IAM, directly influencing the successful execution, industrialization, and continuous improvement of products representing approximately €300 M in annual revenue.

Location:  ContiTech Fairlawn OH, Open to locations in Norfolk, NE or Mount Pleasant IA. 

HOW YOU WILL MAKE AN IMPACT

• Serve as Business Area technical authority for hydraulic hose manufacturing processes, ensuring consistent standards and capability across all sites.
• Lead end‑to‑end industrialization of new products from design definition through launch and stable serial production.
• Provide expert guidance on manufacturing technologies, materials, and assembly processes, including escalation and problem‑solving support.
• Define and optimize processes, equipment concepts, tooling, and layouts to meet safety, quality, cost, scalability, and capability targets.
• Drive DFM/DFA alignment with Product Development, Quality, Operations, and cross‑functional teams.
• Provide technical support for engineering changes to ensure controlled, disruption‑free implementation.
• Lead improvement initiatives focused on safety, quality, delivery, and cost.
• Support structured problem‑solving using Lean and Six Sigma tools (A3, 8D, DMAIC, SPC, MSA).
• Lead optimization initiatives addressing cycle time, yield, scrap, and cost.
• Deploy and govern manufacturing best practices and technical standards to ensure consistency and long‑term process robustness.
• Support PPI Leadership with reviewing post‑launch manufacturing performance to ensure stable serial production and compliance with industrialization standards.
• Support PPI Leadership with monitoring of KPIs for quality, efficiency, capability, and cost to ensure sustained technical performance.
• Identify and assess industrialization risks and coordinate mitigation actions with plant teams.
• Analyze trends and deviations to prevent recurrence and drive proactive improvement.
• Support PPI Leadership with reporting of of performance, risks, and improvement actions to PPI, Business Area leadership, and Management.
• Drive implementation and adherence to global product and process standards across locations.
• Define, maintain, and deploy technical guidelines and best practices in alignment with sector and plant teams.
• Serve as subject matter expert for hydraulic hose industrialization, providing training, coaching, and technical support to engineers and plant teams.
• Support introduction of new technologies, materials, and processes through proper validation, documentation, and standardization.

Qualifications

WHAT YOU BRING TO THE ROLE

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Manufacturing, Chemical, or a related engineering or science fields
• 7+ years of extensive experience in Process and Manufacturing Engineering, with expertise in hydraulic hose manufacturing processes.
• Comprehensive knowledge and exp