About Golf Pride® Grips

For five generations, Golf Pride® has been the global leader in golf grips. Throughout our history, Golf Pride® has believed in the importance of developing the best performing, most innovative grips for the world’s best golfers and amateurs alike. As the only brand that touches every golfer, we are obsessed with the connectedness of the hands to the club and this inspires every Golf Pride employee in everything we do. Combine that passion with the resources of Eaton, a $20B global leader that powers businesses worldwide, and it makes for an exciting place to work.

About the Position

Golf Pride® Grips, #1 golf grip brand worldwide, is seeking a motivated, innovative, and detail-oriented Lead Materials Engineer to join our fast-paced team, specializing in materials design and development of golf grips.  The successful candidate will need deep understanding of polymer chemistry, sulfur vulcanization, and other polymer technologies for molded products. The successful candidate will need to be able to lead globally, have strong problem-solving skills, and an innovative mindset.  The role offers an excellent opportunity for a role in an exciting industry in a supportive and innovative environment.  The candidate will lead the organization’s Materials Center of Excellence and be expected to interact with peers both inside and outside of Eaton.

Mission:  To develop new golf grip materials that address customer needs, manage the formulation portfolio, and continuously improve current formulations for cost savings, simplification, and supply security

• OEM/Retail/Continuous Improvement – development of new materials when no current material is available
• New Material Development - from prototyping to production initiation
• Formulations – responsible for management of global formulations
• Raw Material Supply – works closely with sourcing to identify and qualify alternative and new raw materials

As a Lead Materials Engineer, you will:

• Demonstrate use of their unique skills and technical knowledge to lead multiple large scale projects while working with global teams.  
• Perform failure analysis, investigate, and troubleshoot issues, coordinate all work within the scope and ensure projects objectives are met. 
• Understand and incorporate external trends into relevant projects. Provide work leadership, auditing, consulting, and mentoring to technical staff.
• Plan & Coordinate: Work closely with other functions, including project management, to manage tasks and ensure milestone success by engaging cross-functional teams. 
• Create technical reports and presentations for both internal and external stakeholders.
• Lead challenging technical projects and be self-directed.
• Independently perform assignments with minimal guidance and understand the business impact of different solutions.
• Communication ability and style are critical to this role.
• Innovate, invent, and secure critical intellectual property by driving patent filings and technology transfer to supporting business units.
• Apply advanced engineering principles, theories, and concepts.
• Proficient at application of appropriate tools & processes such as Design For Six Sigma or Lean.
• Recognized within the organization as an expert in several products and processes.
• Can assess trade-offs between business needs, technology requirements, and cost. 
• Generate IP and publications in support of business needs.
• Define instrumentation strategies in conjunction with the test lab.  
• Support Growth: Be a role model, providing technical support to junior colleagues.
• Work closely with external contributors and stakeholders (business units, universities, project partners and customers)".
• Lead engineering process improvement initiatives across multiple sites within business or across product line.
• Agile learner in adjacent technical domains.

Qualifications:

• Advanced Degree (PhD preferred) in Materials Science, Chemistry, Polymer Science, Chemical Engineering, or related disciplines.
• Minimum 4+ years’ experience in polymer research and development.
• Strong understanding of rubber compounding, formulation development, and testing.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
• Demonstrated ability to lead projects.
• Experience in injection molding, compression molding, and additive manufacturing.

Skills:

• Expertise in sulfur vulcanization, rubber processing, and effects on final material performance.
• Continuous improvement and problem-solving.
• Expertise in raw material qualification.
• Strong project management and organizational skills.
• Ability to innovate, learn new technologies, and develop new materials to address customer requirements.
• Ability to develop strategy for the COE, plan, and execute.
• Design materials for manufacturing.
• Demonstrated high level of documentation skills.