Graduate Trainee - Compounds Specialist

About VAT Group

At VAT, we change the world with vacuum solutions. As the world’s leading supplier of high-performance vacuum valves, we have been driving innovation for more than 60 years. With over 3,200 employees worldwide, we operate from our headquarters in Haag, Switzerland, with manufacturing sites in Switzerland, Malaysia and Romania, as well as sales and service hubs around the world. We are guided by our passions integrity, teamwork, customer centricity, and innovation – always working together as #oneVAT.

Joining us means becoming part of a passionate, international team where your voice is heard, your ideas matter, and your career growth is supported.

• Perform professional engineering evaluations and qualifications of VAT suppliers for metallic materials production, surface treatment processes, elastomer polymer materials and vulcanized elastomers
• Ability to understand and explain vulcanization / crosslinking mechanisms, structure-property relationships, compound formulation, physical property testing, chemical resistance behaviour, outgassing behaviour and vacuum compatibility
• Ability to understand and explain international standards, semiconductor standards, VAT-specific standards and customer standards related to material composition, mechanical properties, surface treatment processes, critical process requirements and high purity cleanliness
• Perform analysis of existing/new materials and processes, and identifies improvement potentials for improved process capability, process efficiency, and cost reductions
• Develop product testing methods and perform Design of Experiments and provide accurate, reliable test results or data analysis to strengthen the statistical back-up in all relevant projects and department activities.
• Initiate and recommend corrective and preventive actions from failure analysis investigations of quality issues
• Introduces and trains suppliers and internal team on VAT-specific processes, VAT standards, international standards and customer requirements
• Coordinate and collaborate with suppliers, product groups and other functions regarding new projects and quality issues
• Support the Purchasing department in sourcing and developing new supply chain concepts
• Provide internal support during customer certifications and audits
• Ability to review journal articles related to materials science and elastomer polymer chemistry for process innovations and technology developments
• Support set up, implementation and testing in the internal Hard Anodizing, RGA and Compound testing facility
• To ensure all practices adhere to the company environmental, quality and health & safety policy at all times.

Our commitment to inclusion, fairness and equal opportunities

We believe in meaningful careers, continuous learning, and equal opportunities for everyone to drive our innovation and success. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and are dedicated to fostering an inclusive and respectful workplace. If you have concerns, our compliance channel is available at our website. All reports are handled with strict confidentiality and in accordance with our Code of Conduct.