Plant Vehicle Engineering, Fastening & Joining Engineer

About the role

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.

Responsibilities

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

Requirements

• 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%.

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.