Early Careers Product Development Professional

We are seeking an Early Careers Product Development Professional to join our team at Cummins Inc.

This is a product-focused position that performs established technical tasks at the sub-system and/or component level for current and future products within a given business unit or corporate area. The role involves work across many steps in the product life cycle, with a central point of coordination and decision-making between product line engineers, customer teams, systems engineers, purchasing, suppliers, and manufacturing.

• Investigate product problems, understand causal mechanisms, recommend appropriate action, own problem resolution, and document results with guidance from more experienced team members.
• Main focus will include working in business processes such as Product Preceding Technology (PPT), Value Package Introduction (VPI), or Current Product Support (CPS) and executing technical processes like Engineering Standard Work (ESW), iDFMEA, Failure Incident Review Group (FIRG) while using tools such as 7-step problem-solving, design review checklist, and other specialized tools required to support the processes and enable high-quality decision-making.
• Obtain input from stakeholders such as technical managers, project leaders, other product and manufacturing engineers, and supplier partners to deliver information and recommendations that lead to quality product decisions.
• Apply academic knowledge and existing experience to take action and make decisions that progress projects forward without sacrificing project quality expectations.
• Examples of these decisions include day-to-day project details, analysis or test work instruction details, coordination across discipline areas that are necessary to make quality progress.
• Own problem resolution for moderately complex components, products, systems, subsystems, or services with technical complexity and ambiguity increasing as experience is gained in the role.
• Provide independent execution of established work processes and systems, while still developing technology or product knowledge; engage with the improvement of systems and processes. Involves minimal direct management of people, but could involve the coordination and direction of work amongst technicians and/or temporary student employees.

• Principles of Statistical Methods - Analyze technical data using descriptive statistics, probability distributions, graphical analysis, and statistical inference (population and sample, confidence intervals, and hypothesis testing); model relationships between response and independent variables using analysis of variance, regression, and design of experiments to make rigorous, data-based decisions.
• Cross-Functional Design Integration - Translate the value package requirements that include the voices of many stakeholders into virtual designs, and communicate the capability of the design through an approved cross-functional design review.
• Design and Application of Open/Closed Loop Controls - Specify software features that interact with mechanical, hydraulic, chemical, and electronic systems to deliver desired system states; specify control system architectures which include appropriate measurements, correct actuation, and algorithms for Cummins' products; configure and/or understand open/closed loop feedback controls features and the system interactions between hardware and software in Cummins' products.
• Mechanical Design of Mechanical Systems - Acquire and apply an in-depth understanding of mechanical systems through working knowledge that guides a designer's ability to create innovative and sound design concepts to meet Cummins and customer expectations; design for requirements of all lifecycle stages by considering the customer requirements in different operating environments to ensure a robust system.
• Mechanical Design Specification - Create complete specifications in the form of solid models, configured engineering bill of materials, and detailed drawings that cross-functionally communicate the information required to manufacture and inspect a product per its design intent; consider national, international, industry, and Cummins standards that accurately and concisely define the part specification.
• Product Configuration and Change Management - Establish a baseline of identified product artifacts to be placed under configuration management; release, track, control, and communicate changes from concept to obsolescence often through work requests; establish and maintain the integrity of the product artifact baselines.
• Product Development Execution, Monitoring, and Control - Plan, schedule, coordinate, and execute the activities involved in developing a product to a respectively aligned hierarchy of requirements and technical profiles; monitor and communicate across functional boundaries to meet project resource and quality expectations; ensure product capability meets or exceeds expectations and takes mitigating actions when project risks are higher than expected; understand the full product life cycle process and stakeholders.
• Product Failure Mode Avoidance - Mitigate potential product failure modes, by identifying interfaces, functions, functional requirements, interactions, control factors, noise factors, and prioritized potential failure modes and potential failure causes for the system of interest to effectively and efficiently improve the reliability of Cummins products.
• Product Function Modeling, Simulation, and Analysis - Impact product design decisions through the utilization and/or interpretation of computational tools and methods that predict the capability of a product's function relative to its system, sub-system, and/or component level requirements.
• Product Interface Management and Integration - Identify and analyze the interfaces and interactions across system boundaries by specifying the requirements and limits to ensure that the product meets requirements; control the interactions across the system element boundaries by making sure that they remain within specified limits; integrate system elements by creating an integration plan, including identification of method and timing for each activity to make it easier to find, isolate, diagnose, and correct.
• Product Problem Solving - Solve product problems using a process that protects the customer; determine the assignable cause; implement robust, data-based solutions; and identify the systemic root causes and recommended actions to prevent problem reoccurrence.
• Product Verification and Validation Management - Develop product systems validation plans from a variety of inputs to identify failure modes, while managing product risk and relative priority; negotiate product requirements against capability to guide project scope; evaluate analytical, simulation, and physical test results to verify product capability and validate requirements; assess legacy versus proposed system solution capabilities and produce recommendations with technical documentation to support product decisions.
• System Requirements Engineering - Use appropriate methods and tools to translate stakeholder needs into verifiable requirements to which designs are developed; establish acceptance criteria for the system of interest through analysis, allocation, and negotiation; track the status of requirements throughout the system lifecycle; assess the impact of changes to system requirements on project scope, schedule, and resources; create and maintain information linkages to related artifacts.
• Systems Thinking - Define the system of interest by drawing the boundaries, identifying its context within its environment, its interfaces, and that it has a lifecycle to aid in planning the problem statement, scope, and deliverables; analyze linkages and interactions between elements that comprise the system of interest by using appropriate methods, models, and integration of outcomes to understand the system, predict its behavior, and devise modifications to it in order to produce the desired effects.
• Technical Documentation - Document information based on knowledge gained as part of technical function activities; communicate to stakeholders with the goal of enabling improved technical productivity and effective knowledge transfer to others who were not originally part of the initial learning.
• Collaborate - Building partnerships and working collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives.
• Communicate Effectively - Developing and delivering multi-mode communications that convey a clear understanding of the unique needs of different audiences.
• Decision Quality - Making good and timely decisions that keep the organization moving forward.
• Drive Results - Consistently achieving results, even under tough circumstances.
• Self-Development - Actively seeking new ways to grow and be challenged using both formal and informal development channels.
• Values Differences - Recognizing the value that different perspectives and cultures bring to an organization.

• College, university, or equivalent Bachelor's degree in Engineering or an appropriate STEM field is required.
• Post-graduate (Master's) degree relevant to this discipline area may be required for select roles.
• This position may require licensing for compliance with export controls or sanctions regulations.

• Entry-level/early-career professional. Preferred candidates would have relevant experience working in either a temporary student employment environment (intern, co-op, or other extracurricular team activities) or as an early-career professional in a relevant technical discipline area. Knowledge of MS Office tools is also preferred.