Plant Vehicle Engineering, Fastening & Joining Engineer #1061025Job Description:WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR: We are looking for a hands-on Plant Vehicle Engineering, Fastening & Joining Engineer to support launch readiness, production quality, and continuous improvement for fastening and joining applications in the vehicle assembly plant.
This role serves as a Plant Vehicle Engineering subject matter expert and cross-functional technical partner for fastening and joining-related production concerns. The position focuses on protecting product intent, supporting issue resolution, driving root cause analysis, validating corrective actions, and improving build quality during launch and ongoing production.
This role does not own design release or manufacturing process ownership. It is responsible for identifying fastening and joining concerns in production, partnering with the appropriate engineering and manufacturing teams, and escalating product, process, tooling, material, or workmanship issues when requirements are not being met.
WHAT YOU GET TO DO:- Fastening & Torque Support
- Serve as the Plant Vehicle Engineering subject matter expert for fastening-related production concerns, including torque strategy, clamp load, joint integrity, tooling interaction, and fastening data where applicable.
- Support issue resolution involving torque-to-spec, torque-angle behavior, fastener seating, joint stack variation, thread engagement, tool access, and product/process interaction.
- Interpret torque traces and fastening data, or partner with subject matter experts as needed, to identify abnormal joint behavior, tooling concerns, process variation, or product design opportunities.
- Partner with Design & Release Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Production, and Suppliers to resolve fastening issues and validate permanent corrective actions.
- Welding & Joining Support
- Support issue resolution for spot weld, laser weld, and joining-related quality concerns through visual reviews, teardown inspections, weld audits, destructive checks, and vehicle-level investigations.
- Help identify joining concerns related to location, size, appearance, penetration, expulsion, fit-up, material stack, coating, access, or process variation.
- Provide plant feedback into joining strategy, inspection standards, repair guidance, Design for Manufacturing and Assembly reviews, PFMEA input, control plan reviews, and lessons learned.
- Bonding & Adhesive Application Support
- Support issue resolution for bonded and urethane applications in the Bonding Shop and General Assembly as well as closure-related applications.
- Evaluate adhesive application quality, surface preparation, bead location, application consistency, squeeze-out, cure behavior, contamination concerns, and process robustness in partnership with process and materials teams.
- Investigate bond-related defects, water leaks, squeaks/rattles, fit concerns, and durability issues where bonding may be a contributor.
- Launch, Problem Solving & Continuous Improvement
- Lead or support root cause analysis, containment, corrective action development, breakpoint coordination, and validation of permanent fixes.
- Analyze production data, audit findings, teardown results, torque data, repair trends, supplier concerns, and plant feedback to identify risks and improvement opportunities.
- Support prototype, pilot, and production ramp builds, including issue tracking, triage, readiness reporting, containment, breakpoint management, and lessons learned.
- Drive continuous improvement actions that reduce defects, improve first-time quality, minimize rework, and strengthen production consistency for fastening and joining applications.
- SUCCESS MEASURES
- Improve first-time quality for fastening and joining-related build issues.
- Reduce rework related to fasteners, torque concerns, weld quality, bonding, sealing, and joined interfaces.
- Reduce recurring build issues through effective root cause analysis and permanent corrective actions.
- Improve launch readiness by supporting build events, teardown reviews, joining audits, and breakpoint readiness.
- Improve containment effectiveness through clear inspection criteria, repair guidance, documentation, and validation of corrective actions.
- Accelerate issue resolution by partnering effectively with Design & Release Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Production, Suppliers, and plant leadership.
WHAT YOU BRING TO THE TEAM:Education and Experience- 6+ years of related automotive engineering, manufacturing engineering, quality, launch, plant vehicle engineering, fastening, joining, body, general assembly, or similar experience
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Materials, Welding, Industrial Engineering, or related technical field preferred; equivalent hands-on automotive launch, manufacturing, or product engineering experience will be considered.
- Hands-on experience with fastening, joining, assembly, body, general assembly, or related production processes.
- Experience with one or more areas such as fastening systems, torque/clamp load, spot welding, laser welding, adhesive bonding, urethane applications, or vehicle teardown/inspection activity preferred.
- Experience supporting production issue resolution, launch builds, containment, engineering change implementation, and corrective action validation preferred.
Skills:- Working knowledge of fastening fundamentals, such as torque, clamp load, friction, joint stack-up, tooling interaction, thread engagement, and fastener failure modes.
- Ability to interpret drawings, specifications, quality standards, fastening requirements, weld callouts, and process documentation.
- Ability to interpret production data, torque/fastening data, quality data, teardown findings, repair trends, and plant feedback.
- Familiarity with weld quality, adhesive bonding, urethane applications, or joined-structure inspection preferred.
- Understanding of materials, coatings, stack-up variation, joining interfaces, and how product/process variation can affect fastening, welding, and bonding quality.
- Experience with structured problem-solving methods such as Red X, Six Sigma, 8D, 5-Why, fishbone analysis, DOE, or similar.
- Strong technical leadership, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills with the ability to influence corrective actions across Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Production, Suppliers, and plant leadership.
- Hands-on experience supporting assembly lines and driving improvements in build quality, process stability, and production robustness.
- Ability to work on the plant floor more than 50% of the time.
- Ability to travel domestically up to 20%.
- Must be willing to relocate to Warsaw, Indiana.
Additional Info:At FastTek Global,
Our Purpose is
Our People and
Our Planet. We come to work each day and are reminded we are
helping people find their success stories. Also,
Doing the right thing is our mantra. We act responsibly, give back to the communities we serve and have a little fun along the way.
We have been doing this with pride, dedication and plain, old-fashioned hard work for
24 years!
FastTek Global is financially strong, privately held company that is
100% consultant and
client focused.
We've differentiated ourselves by being
fast, flexible, creative and
honest. Throw out everything you've heard, seen, or felt about every other IT Consulting company. We do unique things and we do them for Fortune 10, Fortune 500, and technology start-up companies.
Our benefits are second to none and thanks to our
flexible benefit options you can choose the benefits you need or want, options include:
- Medical and Dental (FastTek pays majority of the medical program)
- Vision
- Personal Time Off (PTO) Program
- Long Term Disability (100% paid)
- Life Insurance (100% paid)
- 401(k) with immediate vesting and 3% (of salary) dollar-for-dollar match
Plus, we have a lucrative employee referral program and an employee recognition culture.
FastTek Global was named one of the
Top Work Places in Michigan by the Detroit Free Press in
2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019,
2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023! To view all of our open positions go to:
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https://www.facebook.com/fasttekglobal/AI & Hiring Disclosure We use AI tools to support parts of our hiring process, such as reviewing applications and identifying potential matches. These tools are designed to promote efficiency, consistency, and fairness, and they are always used under human oversight.
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To learn more or exercise your rights, please contact us at info@fasttek.com.