Manufacturing Space Supervisor and CNC Support Specialist

Req Id: 41663

Job Title: Manufacturing Space Supervisor and CNC Support Specialist

City: West Lafayette

Job Description:

Job Summary

The position serves as an instructional lab supervisor, providing direct support to faculty, staff, and students using the CNC machining instructional lab and welding lab. This position also provides supervision as needed for users of the manual machine shop, sheet metal shop, woodworking shop, casting lab, and metrology lab spaces.

Day-to-day responsibilities include direct support of the CNC lab used in the Mechanical Engineering Manufacturing courses. This position will provide direct supervision and training to users of CNC machining equipment. This position will be expected to assist in developing preventative maintenance and repair plans for the equipment. This position may be called upon to provide engineering solutions to complex problems to safely implement the ME curriculum in this space while maintaining course objectives and desired outcomes.

This position will also coordinate and provide supervision as required to support other manufacturing space staff within the welding, sheet metal, and woodworking, or machining spaces to ensure lab availability for all course needs. This may include working with students, staff, and faculty in the use of these other facilities.

This position will support individual student project groups from other courses in the use of the facilities. This process includes design development, design for manufacturing, modeling, toolpath modeling, material choice, and manufacturing of custom parts. The parts to be manufactured are typically complex and novel in nature.

This position will participate in periodic course meetings for all courses using the CNC instructional lab to ensure the safe and consistent operation of the facility.

This position will provide strategic guidance in the development of new laboratory experiments and apparatus to further modernize the school's undergraduate program. In this role, given new concepts in lab apparatus, this position will lead the design efforts to physically implement this concept idea. This position will engage collaborators and resources as needed to develop the proposed solution and bring the proposal through the design review process, fabrication process, and implementation process.

This position will recruit, train, and schedule student employees to work in the CNC lab and associated manufacturing spaces. The training will include specialized instruction for the specific machines in the lab as well as generalized OSHA and EHS required training for working in a shop environment.

What Youll Be Doing:

• Serve as a point of contact in the ME formal manufacturing spaces for experiential learning. Provide safety supervision for lab courses utilizing the CNC lab. This involves training teaching assistants and student employees in the safe use of the equipment. Provide subject matter expertise in the safe use of the equipment and tools in the manufacturing spaces.
• Provide training and guidance to instructors, course assistants, and student employees related to functionality of equipment, design of lab curriculum to target desired educational outcomes, and all information related to maintenance/repair of equipment and functional lab setup. Develop process documentation related to specification, design, fabrication, testing, and repair of equipment. Ensure all equipment is properly calibrated prior to course utilization. Provide instruction to students on proper techniques for using systems, tools, and equipment. Verify student machine code and setup prior to running CNC equipment. When required, provide supervisory and teaching assistance to ME Machine shop staff. Collect and analyze data on common problems found in the instructional lab and design and develop proposals to mitigate or eliminate these problems. Perform root cause analysis on all failures of equipment. Engineer solutions and implement as necessary to ensure all students can successfully complete lab assignments during scheduled lab periods and do not experience interruptions in curricular goals.
• Provide repair and reconditioning of machinery and equipment as required to ensure all students can successfully complete assignments and projects during the scheduled lab periods. Keep records of failures and conduct root cause failure analysis to identify patterns of failure. From this analysis and in collaboration with staff in West Lafayette, develop recommendations to modify apparatus to increase reliability while maintaining the functionality needed for achieving desired educational outcomes.
• Serve as a point of contact in the ME formal manufacturing spaces for experiential learning. Provide safety supervision for lab courses that utilize the manufacturing spaces including but not limited to the welding studio, manual machine shop, wood studio and sheet metal studio. This involves training student employees, teaching assistants, and student employees in the safe use of the equipment installed in these spaces.
• Cooperatively design, develop, and implement safety policies and procedures related to the specification, design, fabrication, operation, testing, and repair of equipment to ensure the safe operation of each of the manufacturing spaces. Create and provide training on these procedures for course instructors, teaching assistants, student employees, and student users as needed. Make regular updates based on new information/issues that present over time as equipment is adapted to different needs. Serve as a reviewer for safety concerns on course projects conducted in the manufacturing spaces.
• Complete continuing education activities to improve knowledge of the materials and processes and how to effectively teach safe making methods.
• Work with faculty on the design and development of effective lab activities given the constraints of student count, time, and equipment. Work with faculty area groups on the redevelopment of instructional lab spaces including the development of new apparatus. Provide expertise in the design of apparatus to ensure safety and supportability in the instructional labs.
• Maintain tool inventory and coordinate the ordering of tooling each semester for assigned instructional making spaces. Coordinate the inventory and order supplies as needed for required course project materials used each semester. Assist in the maintenance of the equipment in all of the M.E. manufacturing spaces.

About Us:

The School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University has a mission to change the world for the better, one student at a time. We began in 1882 as experts in locomotives (thus the name "Boilermakers!") and now in the 21st century, we continue to move the world forward by combining the latest technologies with the strongest of fundamentals.

About 2,600 undergraduate students are part of the Purdue ME family in West Lafayette, Indiana. As one of the broadest engineering disciplines, our students and faculty have the widest variety of interests and expertise. We maintain high standards, whether in the classroom, the laboratory, or the workplace. Purdue ME is one of the top ten schools in the country, as ranked by US News & World Report.

For more information about our department, please visit: https://engineering.purdue.edu/ME

What Were Looking For:

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in science, technology, or engineering
• Two (2) years of related experience required
• Equivalent combinations of education and experience will be considered
• Experience in CNC machines and making equipment; and/or with MasterCAM preferred experience in welding; knowledge of general fabrication tools

Skills needed:

• Using hand tools and machine tools
• CAD/CAM software
• Good written and verbal skills
• Proficiency in process/project management
• Ability to interact with faculty, staff, and students and convey information critical to safety and process

Who We Are:

Purdue is a community built on collaboration, with global perspectives, Boilermaker pride and endless opportunity to live, learn and grow. Join us and contribute to our culture.

Additional Information:

• Purdue's benefits summary https://www.purdue.edu/hr/Benefits/
• Purdue will not sponsor employment authorization for this position
• A background check will be required for employment in this position
• FLSA: Exempt (Not Eligible For Overtime)
• Retirement Eligibility: Defined Contribution Waiting Period

Career Stream

Compensation Information:

Professional 2

Pay Band S065

Job Code#20003171

Link to Purdue Universitys Compensation Guidelines: https://www.purdue.edu/hr/mngcareer/compguidelines/index.php

EOE

Purdue University is an EO/EA University

Apply now

Posting Start Date: 4/16/26