Cost Engineer

About us
Dorel Industries Inc. (TSX: DII.B, DII.A) is a global organization, operating two distinct businesses in juvenile products and home products. Dorel’s strength lies in the diversity, innovation, and quality of its products as well as the superiority of its brands. Dorel Juvenile’s powerfully branded products include global brands Maxi-Cosi and Tiny Love, complemented by regional brands such as Safety 1st, BebeConfort, Cosco, and Infanti. Dorel Home, with its comprehensive e-commerce platform, markets a wide assortment of domestically produced and imported furniture. Dorel has annual sales of US$1.7 billion and employs approximately 4,200 people in facilities located in twenty-two countries worldwide.
Your mission
As the Cost Engineer, you will work as a member of a cross-functional team driving value into a broad range of products across several categories. As a member of our team, you will be challenged with understanding, predicting, and improving cost across our portfolio and process.
The immediate focus will be on soft goods; however, this role is wide ranging in scope. From product to production process, current products to new product development, design to delivery.
Key responsibilities
• Analyzing factory supplied BOMs, of hard and soft goods, to create and maintain current cost database and apply it in the benchmarking and cost estimating of current and new products.
• Accurately predicting cost for new product briefs and new feature requirements as defined by Marketing.
• Understanding what elements of our supply chain can be manipulated to improve efficiency.
• Providing creative engineering solutions to sometimes ambiguous challenges in hard and soft goods.
• Identifying, documenting and driving changes from concept to production through the change management process.
• In collaboration with the Fashion team, creating and maintaining our own fabric cost database for creating benchmark pricing for new products. Suggest strategies for fabric based on brand.
• Using Marketing and Design guidance to document the brand language - in terms of features, laminations, battings, fabric types - that can be used as a “template” to create brand appropriate soft goods that maintain unique identity to the 3 major car seat brands – Cosco, Safety 1st, Maxi-Cosi.
• Building a “Cost Avoidance Guide” - offering guidance to the design & development teams to reduce cost from onset of product or new feature launch.
• Screening current products for VAVE opportunities and following up to make changes on hard and soft goods, for both internally manufactured and sourced projects.
• Providing direction to remote teams and suppliers using appropriate tools (meetings, sketches, BOMs, CAD, etc.).
Your profile
• Bachelor’s degree in engineering or a related field along with 2-5 years of relevant experience.
• Experience in VAVE and Cost Engineering.
• Ability to evaluate 2D concept drawings, 3D surface and CAD models.
• Experience working with soft goods, including sewing, pattern development, etc.
• Knowledge of plastic and metal materials and manufacturing processes, from raw materials to finished goods.
• Understanding of the interaction between design, manufacturing, and regulations, to achieve the most efficient cost within competing parameters.
• Strong computer skills, specifically in MS Office Suite. Experience with Adobe Creative Suite and 3D CAD Software (preferably Solid Works) is recommended.
• Familiarity with overseas manufacturing and experience communicating across language and cultural barriers.
Interpersonal Skills/Competencies
• Self-motivation, excellent communication and follow up skills a must.
• Comfortable collaborating with a wide cross-functional team, in person and remotely.
• A strong team player, able to work autonomously when necessary.
Are you ready to grow with us?
Dorel Juvenile provides people the invaluable opportunity to make a difference. To work on leading brands together with talented people across the globe, and to keep growing both personally and professionally. Take the next step in your career and join our quest to improve the parenting journey for millions of families around the world.