Senior Product Engineer - Expanded Beam Optics

Job Description:

Collaborate with Innovative 3Mers Around the World

Choosing where to start and grow your career has a major impact on your professional and personal life, so it’s equally important you know that the company that you choose to work at, and its leaders, will support and guide you. With a wide variety of people, global locations, technologies and products, 3M is a place where you can collaborate with other curious, creative 3Mers.

This position provides an opportunity to transition from other private, public, government or military environments to a 3M career.

The Impact You’ll Make in this Role
As a Product Engineer in 3M’s Expanded Beam Optics Business, you will have the opportunity to leverage your curiosity and collaborate with innovative professionals worldwide. You will play a pivotal role in driving growth and making a significant impact through customer collaboration, new application development, and product commercialization. Here, you will make an impact by:

• Optimizing interconnect products and ferrules by driving Product and Process Understanding (PPU) efforts, leading strategic projects like raw material substitution, quality improvement, or cost reduction projects
• Leading/supporting change management process and validating product performance for changes in design, process or raw materials through test plan generation and execution using optical laboratory equipment
• Ensuring product performance and stability of existing products by leading product improvement projects through design modifications, as needed
• Driving scale-up activities as a core team member for new product introductions
• Maintaining product standards and specifications, owning claims substantiation process
• Collaborating with cross functional teams (product development, application engineering, business, manufacturing and quality teams), global laboratories and manufacturing sites
• Utilizing strong communication skills to inspire, influence, motivate and teach other team members

Your Skills and Expertise 

To set you up for success in this role from day one, 3M requires (at a minimum) the following qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in science or engineering field (completed and verified prior to start) from an accredited institution
• Four (4) years of combined product, materials, and/or process engineering experience in a private, public, government or military environment

Additional qualifications that could help you succeed even further in this role include:

• Master's degree or higher studying chemistry, physics, or optics or related discipline from an accredited institution
• Experience working in Quality and/or Manufacturing/Production and/or Product Development and/ or Engineering in a private, public, government or military environment supporting connectors and/or optical connectors or optical ferrules
• Experience with scaling up technology and/or products to large scale manufacturing, especially optical materials or coatings
• Hands-on problem solving mind set using laboratory equipment
• Strong ability to prioritize tasks and manage multiple projects simultaneously, ensuring that critical deadlines are met without compromising quality.
• Experience with Lean Six Sigma, Design of Experiments (DOE), and Statistical Analysis

Work location: This role follows an on-site working model, requiring the employee to work at least four days a week in office in Maplewood, MN.

Travel: May include up to 10%

Relocation Assistance: Not authorized

Must be legally authorized to work in country of employment without sponsorship for employment visa status (e.g., H1B status).

Responsibilities of this position may include direct and/or indirect physical or logical access to information, systems, technologies subjected to the regulations/compliance with U.S. Export Control Laws.

U.S. Export Control laws and U.S. Government Department of Defense contracts and sub-contracts impose certain restrictions on companies and their ability to share export-controlled and other technology and services with certain "non-U.S. persons" (persons who are not U.S. citizens or nationals, lawful permanent residents of the U.S., refugees, "Temporary Residents" (granted Amnesty or Special Agricultural Worker provisions), or persons granted asylum.

To comply with these laws, 3M must help assess candidates' U.S. person status.

The questions asked in this application are intended to assess this and will be used for evaluation purposes only. Failure to provide the necessary information in this regard will result in our inability to consider you further for this particular position.

Supporting Your Well-being 

3M offers many programs to help you live your best life – both physically and financially. To ensure competitive pay and benefits, 3M regularly benchmarks with other companies that are comparable in size and scope. 

Chat with Max

For assistance with searching through our current job openings or for more information about all things 3M, visit Max, our virtual recruiting assistant on 3M.com/careers.

Applicable to US Applicants Only:The expected compensation range for this position is $124,127 - $151,710, which includes base pay plus variable incentive pay, if eligible. This range represents a good faith estimate for this position. The specific compensation offered to a candidate may vary based on factors including, but not limited to, the candidate’s relevant knowledge, training, skills, work location, and/or experience. In addition, this position may be eligible for a range of benefits (e.g., Medical, Dental & Vision, Health Savings Accounts, Health Care & Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts, Disability Benefits, Life Insurance, Voluntary Benefits, Paid Absences and Retirement Benefits, etc.). Additional information is available at: https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/careers-us/working-at-3m/benefits/.

Good Faith Posting Date Range 06/23/2026 To 07/23/2026 Or until filled

All US-based 3M full time employees will need to sign an employee agreement as a condition of employment with 3M. This agreement lays out key terms on using 3M Confidential Information and Trade Secrets. It also has provisions discussing conflicts of interest and how inventions are assigned. Employees that are Job Grade 7 or equivalent and above may also have obligations to not compete against 3M or solicit its employees or customers, both during their employment, and for a period after they leave 3M.

Learn more about 3M’s creative solutions to the world’s problems at www.3M.com or on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn @3M.

Responsibilities of this position include that corporate policies, procedures and security standards are complied with while performing assigned duties.

Safety is a core value at 3M. All employees are expected to contribute to a strong Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) culture by following safety policies, identifying hazards, and engaging in continuous improvement.

Pay & Benefits Overview: https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/careers-us/working-at-3m/benefits/

3M does not discriminate in hiring or employment on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Please note: your application may not be considered if you do not provide your education and work history, either by: 1) uploading a resume, or 2) entering the information into the application fields directly.

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