Research Manager, Mechanics and Materials - Corning Inc.

Corning is the world leader in specialty glass and ceramics, creating and manufacturing keystone components that enable high-technology systems.

 Corning’s history is filled with breakthrough technologies that have played an important role in the way the world works. We thrive on solving difficult, commercially relevant problems through an innovative and collaborative research and development process. Corning succeeds through sustained investment in R&D, more than 160 years of materials science and process engineering knowledge, and a distinctive collaborative culture.

A world leader in industrial research and development, Corning staunchly believes in change. We thrive on seeking new opportunities to make a difference for mankind and bringing them to life.

Our dedicated scientists conduct their research with the highest integrity, finely tuned processes and superb skill. Breakthroughs occur when our researchers leverage existing technologies across product lines or come as the result of a profound moment of inspiration or even as an unexpected, experimental outcome. That is when research is at its most exciting.

We do everything possible to sustain our culture of innovation. We continually invest in research and development to provide our scientists with the resources they need. This has enabled our scientific community to develop a unique ability to solve complex problems and maintain a keen focus on things that really matter -- technologies that improve our lives and change our world.

R&D is the foundation on which Corning’s history has been built, and we have no doubt it will lead us to future technological triumphs.

To know more about Corning's Science and Technology division, please visit the R&D website at:
http://www.corning.com/r_d/index.aspx

Scope of Position:
Serve as Manager for a department whose members’ primary functions are to serve as technical leads for assessments and prevention of failure modes during early innovation of new products and processes. In this role, the department works with new projects to help them better understand the challenges and advantages their materials, processes and design bring to the proposed Corning solution.

 The department facilitates project teams in identifying potential failure modes and leads experimentation to resolve the challenges identified, capture new intellectual property, and better leverages Corning’s knowledge. The department also provides in depth failure mode analysis & generates predictive life models.

The department’s emphasis is on, but not limited to, materials science & mechanical reliability performance. 

The successful candidate should have a strong research record on mechanical properties and/or material science as well as having a strong understanding of reliability principles. He/she will manage the members of the department and will interface with numerous project groups in other organizations. He/she will also have opportunities to serve as a technical lead/expert or guide her/his members in R&D projects. Must be comfortable in working with a broad and highly diversified group of scientists and engineering across research.  Presentations to upper management may often be required.

Day to Day Responsibilities:
As Manager of the department, day to day activities involve providing guidance employees and interfacing with other Managers and Directors to:

• Identify and prioritize projects and deploy resources to support them. 
• Identify gaps and opportunities in capabilities and develop strategies to resolve.

 Lead projects/assist employees to collaborate with independent new product projects to:

• identify potential critical challenges and failure modes – includes team facilitation to identify risks
• identify the proper testing methods & develop new methods if needed to evaluate the risks
• develop & manage testing plans
• conduct experiments to gain fundamental knowledge to address the technical challenges
• perform data analysis and interpretation
• make recommendations to projects to improve functional performance and reliability
• develop new intellectual property

Travel Requirements:  Variable but expectation is <25%. Maybe international

Hours of work/work schedule/flex-time:  40+ hours per week w/ flex time

Required Education:  At least a Master degree in materials science/engineering or mechanical engineering

Required Years and Area of Experience: Minimum of 5 years of management experience

Required Skills:

• Strong management & organizational skills
• Strong communication skills and comfort interfacing with high level technical personnel
• Strong track record of research & development in mechanics of material/failure prevention or other technical areas of the department
• Familiarity with the area of glass/brittle material fracture mechanics and strength
• Familiarity with reliability engineering concepts
• Familiarity with fractography of brittle materials
• Familiarity with equipment and test methods used in materials testing, particulary strength and fracture testing
• Ability to work across organizational boundaries from research to manufacturing

Desired Skills:

• Reliability tool set including predictive life modeling, FMEA, QFD & Fault Tree Analysis experience.
• Fracture mechanics background
• Fractography experience
• 6-Sigma black belt training
• Broad Industry experience (Manufacturing, R & D)
• Customer facing interaction and communication skills/experience

Soft Skills (Communication/Team/Leadership):

• Excellent communication and presentation skills, ranging from communicating with teams, management to sophisticated outside customers.
• Strong facilitation skills to enable leading of teams through ambiguous evaluations.
• Experience working in small to medium sized cross-functional technical teams
• Comfortable with a hands-on approach to problem solving
• Team player who enjoys collaboration

Corning is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Minorities, women, veterans and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply.