Product Systems Validation Engineer

This entry level/early career professional, product-focused position verifies and validates the functionality of Cummins’ products across a wide range of customer requirements, applications, and environments. The role plans, tracks, and evaluates results from analyses and functional tests to assess product risk and performance, driving quality decisions and proactively resolving product issues before they reach the customer.

Responsibilities

• Obtains input and negotiates with Design Verification Plan and Report (DVP&R) stakeholders to define technical requirements and delivers an optimized component-based analytical and experimental verification plan to the program or project team.
• Makes decisions in verification and validation that impact product performance, reliability, and durability.
• Investigates and addresses potential component concerns or issues, understands causal mechanisms, recommends appropriate action, owns problem resolution, and documents results with guidance from more experienced team members.
• Applies and supports the improvement of processes such as technical requirements, iDFMEA, Engineering Standard Work (ESW), DVP&R, test planning, and problem solving, and tools such as Integrity, Microsoft Power BI, and McParts to enable high-quality decision making.
• Owns problem resolution for moderately complex components, products, systems, subsystems, or services, with increasing technical complexity and ambiguity as experience is gained.
• Provides independent execution of established work processes and systems while developing technology or product knowledge; engages in the improvement of systems and processes.
• Coordinates and directs work amongst technicians and/or temporary student employees with minimal direct management of people.
• Contributes effectively toward team goals, exhibits influence within a work group, and continues to develop proficiency in key competency areas.

Skills & Competencies

• Product Test Integration and Optimization: Develops a physics-based understanding of customer duty cycles via damage modeling using real-world data; compares analytical and experimental results to maintain calibrated models; generates testing plans for optimal coverage.
• Product Failure Mode Avoidance: Mitigates potential product failure modes by identifying interfaces, functions, requirements, interactions, and prioritized failure causes to improve product reliability.
• Product Interface Management and Integration: Analyzes interfaces across system boundaries, specifies requirements, and ensures interactions remain within limits; creates integration plans for seamless system element coordination.
• Product Problem Solving: Solves product problems using a customer-protective process; determines assignable causes, implements data-based solutions, and identifies systemic root causes to prevent recurrence.
• Product Verification and Validation Management: Develops validation plans to identify failure modes, manages product risk, negotiates requirements, evaluates test results, and produces recommendations with technical documentation.
• System Requirements Engineering: Translates stakeholder needs into verifiable requirements, establishes acceptance criteria, tracks requirements throughout the lifecycle, and assesses impact of changes.
• Technical Function Processes and Tools: Executes, improves, trains, or manages technical processes and tools to enable knowledge reuse and functional deliverables in a quality-driven manner.
• Collaboration: Builds partnerships to meet shared objectives.
• Communication: Delivers clear, multi-mode communications tailored to different audiences.
• Decision Quality: Makes timely, well-informed decisions to drive organizational progress.
• Drives Results: Consistently achieves results under challenging circumstances.
• Self-Development: Actively seeks growth opportunities through formal and informal channels.
• Values Differences: Recognizes the value of diverse perspectives and cultures.
• Statistical Methods: Analyzes technical data using descriptive statistics, probability distributions, regression, and design of experiments to make data-driven decisions.
• Systems Thinking: Defines system boundaries, analyzes interactions, and models system behavior to plan and deliver solutions.
• Technical Documentation: Documents technical knowledge to improve productivity and enable effective knowledge transfer.
• Product Development Execution: Plans, schedules, and executes product development activities; monitors progress and ensures product capability meets expectations.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or an appropriate STEM field is required. Post-graduate (Master’s) degree may be required for select roles.
• Entry-level/early career professional. Preferred candidates have relevant experience through internships, co-ops, or extracurricular team activities, or as an early career professional in a technical discipline.
• Knowledge of MS Office tools is preferred.
• This position may require licensing for compliance with export controls or sanctions regulations.
• Designed for external candidates within 2 years of completing their highest degree (Bachelor’s, Master’s, PhD, MBA, or JD) from an accredited U.S. college/university, currently residing in the continental U.S.
• For F-1 visa students: Approved Curricular Practical Training (CPT) or Occupational Practical Training (OPT) related to their degree is required before starting the assignment.

About the Role

• This position is part of the Test Engineer Rotational Program, a 1-year program in one of four areas: Vehicle, System Performance, Simulation, or Test Cell testing, with short rotations in other areas as needed.
• After 1 year, you will transition to a validation role in the Engine Business Unit (EBU) for 2 years.
• The program is designed to help new hires gain experience with engines and engine systems.

Required work location: On-site with flexibility.