When Alfred Fain founded a small Rhode Island tire store in 1924, at the time no one could have predicted how Teknor Apex would become an international custom compounder sought out by companies around the world. After a nearly hundred-year journey that’s carried us through acquisitions and expansion, we now have nine U.S. locations, as well as operations in Belgium, Singapore, Germany, and China.

Throughout this global expansion Teknor has remained a privately held company, and today Fain’s grandson sits at the helm, maintaining the family’s tradition of fostering deep employee and customer relationships. These relationships are what allow us—together—to deliver customized compound solutions and help our customer’s create better products.

“Manufacturing is a team sport, and we work together to achieve our goals.” ~Jon Fain, Chairman

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

The Technical Service Engineer role is a specialist in polymer-based material solutions for the Wire & Cable (or Electrical & Electronics) market. This role evaluates customer application needs and recommends or develops new materials to meet customers’ material requirements and performance specifications.

Responsibilities include various polymer and composite technologies; conducting in depth product development utilizing project management and product development principles and reporting and presenting the technology to senior management and industry experts.

The successful candidate will work in a collaborative team environment with internal and external team members and represent Teknor Apex technology to its customers.

• Provide technical leadership to the assigned market segment, support new business development within the segment, and present technical findings and recommendations to senior management and customer technical leadership.
  • Engineer solutions by understanding customer and market needs.
  • Perform customer application analysis to create innovative market solutions, aligning with business goals.
  • Employ multiple approaches for material selection based on design objectives such as end application physical requirements, continuous use temperature requirements, and cost etc.
• Collaborate with the commercial team to enhance engagement of Teknor Apex with customers at the technological level.
• Participate in Customer visits and provide technical support to ensure successful implementation of Teknor Apex’s products
  • Process optimization and troubleshooting of Teknor Apex’s products at customer facilities.
  • Offer working knowledge to assist customers with process and design recommendations to improve efficiency, quality, or performance
• Collaborate with the commercial and R&D team to help build the pipeline of future application opportunities, ensure technical success of the opportunities, and enable business closes resulting in a profitable future for Teknor Apex
  • Identify and communicate product needs (material specification and application requirements) within the organization to enable new business growth.
  • Recognize product gaps within the Teknor Apex portfolio, as compared to material specifications and market needs.
• Conduct benchmarking and performance tests on materials and finished products, analyze product performance data and lab test results for root cause analysis and corrective actions, as needed
  • Perform competitive material assessment.
  • Develop methods as needed to characterize material solutions in the lab to meet cost, performance, industry standards, and desired life cycle behavior.
  • Establish a correlation of the efficiency of the customers process with proposed materials.
• Promote Teknor Apex’s visibility in the marketplace by participation in relevant technical conferences and expositions, as well as industry/government/academia initiatives

Education and/or Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, Materials Science, or equivalent required. Master’s Degree or higher preferred.
• At least 5 years of related experience with application development using plastics materials and compounds, preferably in the Wire & Cable (or Electrical & Electronics) Industry.
• Detailed knowledge of various melt processing methods, equipment and technologies.
• Understanding of material properties, processing effects, and application/part design.
• Proven track record of material selection, recommendation, and application validation and/or product launch.
• Knowledge of polymeric materials and various flame-retardant chemistries and mechanisms is a plus.
• Able to read and interpret applicable Global industry standards (i. e. UL, IEC standards).
• Regional travel as required - may be required to travel up to 25-50% of the time.

Skills/Competencies:

• Proficiency with working collaboratively in a team/matrix environment, self-starter able to work in fast-paced environment promoting continuous improvement.
• Ability to lead projects from initiation to launch.
• Proven technical aptitude in the concepts of thermoplastic materials and Wire & Cable applications. 
• Ability to translate customer needs into commercially viable solutions within Teknor Apex’s capabilities.
• Professional presence, demonstrated in verbal and written communication and presentation skills.