Field Services Engineer

Fortune Brands - Deerfield, IL

Full-time - Mid Level

Deerfield, IL

Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing

About the position

The Field Service Engineer at Fortune Brands Innovations plays a crucial role in addressing consumer quality field issues efficiently and cost-effectively. This position involves direct interaction with customers and consumers who report quality issues related to Fortune Brand products. The ideal candidate will possess a strong engineering background, exceptional problem-solving abilities, and excellent customer interaction skills. The Field Service Team is dedicated to resolving these issues promptly, ensuring customer satisfaction and maintaining the integrity of the brand. In this role, the Field Service Engineer will work closely with field sales teams, customers, and consumers to identify and resolve perceived quality issues. This includes developing test plans and coordinating support resources to conduct thorough root cause analyses of field-related problems. The engineer will also support investigations stemming from various sources, including field sales and consumer contact center calls, to understand complaints and determine the underlying causes of issues. Additionally, the Field Service Engineer will provide engineering support to the claims team and Fortune Brands attorneys, which may involve joint investigations and offering expert engineering opinions for potential lawsuits. The role requires managing issues through investigation and field remediation, as well as developing and tracking metrics related to new product launches and field performance. The engineer will also travel to customer locations to gather information on failures and represent Fortune Brand companies during these visits, ensuring that short-term corrective actions are implemented to restore operational functionality at customer sites. Collaboration with internal resources, such as design, marketing, manufacturing, and supplier quality teams, is essential for developing long-term corrective actions for field issues. The engineer will participate in design reviews, providing valuable customer feedback to the design community and managing product quality improvement projects until they are transitioned to product engineering.

Responsibilities

• Work directly with field sales, customers and consumers to resolve perceived Fortune Brand quality issues.
• Develop test plans and direct support resources to execute the test plans to support root cause analysis of field related issues.
• Support investigations of field related issues from Outdoors, Security and Water Innovations field sales and consumer contact center calls to understand the complaint and develop root cause of problem.
• Provide engineering support to the claims team and Fortune Brands attorneys which may include joint investigations and providing expert engineering opinions which may be used in lawsuits.
• Manage issues through investigation and field remediation.
• Develop, implement and track New Product Launch field performance including teardown and inspection of initial customer complaint returned units.
• Develop, implement and track weekly/monthly metrics for field issues including development of cause-based reporting (Design and Executive tracking).
• Travel to customer locations to gather information on field related failures and represent various Fortune Brand companies during these visits.
• Provide short term corrective actions at the product and system level to get a customer site operational.
• Partner with internal resources to develop long term corrective actions for field issues. Internal resources include but are not limited to: design resources, Marketing, Manufacturing and Assembly, and Supplier Quality.
• Participate in design reviews providing the 'voice of the customer' feedback to the design community.
• Manage product quality related improvement projects until projects are assigned to product engineering.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree in engineering or physics is required.
• Minimum of 3 years of engineering experience, preferably in Design, Quality, or Field Service in the building materials industry.
• Prior laboratory and testing experience.
• Proven root cause analysis and technical problem solving skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills for dealing with all levels of associates, customers, and vendors.
• Ability and willingness to travel 10-20% of the time.

Nice-to-haves

• Master's Degree is preferred.
• Experience with SAP, Oracle and other business software.
• Experience with negotiating and settling labor and damage claims.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health plans
• Market-leading 401(k) program with company contribution
• Product discounts
• Flexible time off benefits including half-day summer Fridays
• Inclusive fertility/adoption benefits
• Numerous Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) to support inclusivity and belonging at work.