Plastics Engineer

Role Overview

This position owns the technical side of plastics production — the person in this seat spends their days on the floor and in the data, tuning molding and extrusion parameters, chasing down the causes of scrap and downtime, and validating the materials and designs that go into new or revised products. Every improvement delivered here shows up directly in yield, cycle time, part consistency, and cost per unit, which is why the role sits at the centre of the operation rather than on its periphery. The engineer also acts as the technical reference point for production, quality, maintenance, and procurement teams when a process drifts or a new part has to be proven out.

Key Responsibilities

• Establish, tune, and document plastics processing parameters — including cycle times, temperatures, pressures, and material throughput — to hit output, quality, and efficiency targets.
• Monitor running processes against key indicators and intervene with corrective actions when performance, scrap rates, or dimensional consistency slip outside specification.
• Investigate recurring defects, tooling and machine faults, and unplanned stoppages, using structured root-cause analysis to separate symptoms from the underlying process or equipment problem.
• Select and qualify polymer and additive materials for specific applications, running trials and validations that confirm the chosen grade performs in production as intended.
• Partner with design and production colleagues during new product introduction and product modification to make sure parts are manufacturable on the available equipment before launch.
• Lead continuous improvement work targeting material waste, energy and cycle-time losses, labour content, and overall manufacturing cost, applying lean and process-improvement methods where they fit.
• Maintain process specifications, engineering reports, change records, and performance documentation so that settings and improvements are reproducible and auditable.
• Advise on equipment performance, preventive and corrective maintenance priorities, and where modification, upgrade, or replacement of machinery is justified; support supplier and cross-functional technical discussions as required.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Plastics Engineering, Polymer Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a closely related engineering discipline.
• Five to ten years of hands-on engineering experience within plastics manufacturing, with direct exposure to production environments rather than laboratory-only work.
• Strong working knowledge of plastics processing and forming techniques, and of the machinery and auxiliary equipment used to run them.
• Demonstrated track record in production process optimisation, quality control, and improvement projects with measurable results.
• Practical competency in polymer and material selection, equipment troubleshooting, and root-cause analysis.
• Able to interpret production data and technical documentation, and to translate findings into clear recommendations for operators, managers, and suppliers.
• Familiarity with the quality, health, safety, and environmental standards that govern plastics production.
• Comfortable working across functions — production, quality assurance, maintenance, procurement, and commercial — and communicating technical trade-offs to non-specialist audiences.