Senior Research Engineer - Measurement / Inspection

About the role

The Senior Research Engineer position offers an opportunity to transition from other private, public, government, or military environments to a 3M career. You will collaborate with innovative 3Mers around the world, developing new optical inspection and metrology methods for advanced product and process applications.

Responsibilities

• Tap into your curiosity and collaborate with some of the most innovative and diverse people around the world.
• Design, build, and validate benchtop inspection systems to detect, characterize, and quantify critical defects and quality attributes.
• Create inspection approaches for a broad range of defect modes, including scratches, chips, cracks, inclusions, contamination, edge defects, coating defects, cosmetic defects, and dimensional variation.
• Apply optical engineering, imaging, and machine vision principles to develop robust methods using transmitted light, reflected light, bright field, dark field, polarization, structured illumination, and other contrast mechanisms as appropriate.
• Develop image acquisition, analysis, and data interpretation workflows to improve defect detection sensitivity, repeatability, and overall method capability.
• Partner closely with R&D, process development, product development, quality, manufacturing, and equipment teams to define inspection requirements and translate technical needs into scalable solutions.
• Support the transfer of inspection methods from laboratory concept through pilot evaluation and into manufacturing implementation.
• Specify and support production inspection equipment and contribute technical expertise to capital equipment projects.
• Design experiments, analyze data, and conduct method validation activities, including measurement systems analysis, gauge capability, and robustness studies.
• Create technical documentation, operating procedures, specifications, and reports to support development, qualification, and deployment of inspection methods.
• Support troubleshooting and root cause analysis related to quality, defect generation, and inspection performance.
• Contribute to a culture of technical rigor, collaboration, and continuous improvement while working within applicable quality system requirements.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in science or engineering from an accredited university completed and verified prior to start AND five (5) years of experience in optical inspection, optical metrology, machine vision, imaging systems, glass characterization, or related technical work in a private, public, government, or military environment.
• Ph.D. in Optical Engineering, Physics, Materials Science, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or Imaging Science from an accredited university completed and verified prior to start.

Qualifications

• Experience developing, evaluating, or implementing inspection or metrology methods for manufactured parts, components, materials, or optical systems.
• Experience with experimental design, technical problem solving, and data analysis.
• Experience detecting and characterizing scratches, chips, cracks, inclusions, contamination, edge defects, coating defects, cosmetic defects, and dimensional variation.
• Strong understanding of optical inspection principles, including illumination design, lens and camera selection, resolution, contrast, polarization, depth of field, and signal-to-noise optimization.
• Experience designing and building benchtop optical inspection or metrology systems.
• Experience specifying, evaluating, or deploying production inspection equipment in manufacturing environments.
• Experience supporting capital equipment projects, including equipment requirements, vendor interactions, acceptance criteria, and startup support.
• Experience with machine vision systems, industrial cameras, optics, lighting, and image processing workflows.
• Experience with software and analysis tools such as Python, OpenCV, MATLAB, LabVIEW, Minitab, or equivalent.
• Experience with optical design or modeling tools such as Zemax or similar software.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to document methods clearly and communicate technical findings to cross-functional teams.

Benefits

Details on benefits are available at: https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/careers-us/working-at-3m/benefits/

Pay

The expected compensation range for this position is $124,127 - $151,710, which includes base pay plus variable incentive pay, if eligible.

Schedule

This role follows an on-site working model, requiring the employee to work at least four days a week in Woodbury, MN.

Travel

May include up to 10% domestic/international travel.

Relocation Assistance

May be authorized.

Legal Requirement

Must be legally authorized to work in country of employment without sponsorship for employment visa status.

Equal Opportunity Employer

3M is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in compliance with applicable laws. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability during the application or interview process, please let us know.