The Meet Our Team blog series gives you an inside look into our team members’ careers, exciting new projects, history with KFI, and a general introduction to some of our key players! We hope you enjoy this, and many more blogs, that give you a better idea of the people behind the operation here at KFI.
Our fifth installation in the Meet Our Team series features our Vice President of Engineering, Jamie Noble. Jamie oversees all of KFI’s design engineering responsibilities and has been an integral part of KFI for 23 years.
Q: What is your job title?
A: Vice President of Engineering
Q: How long have you been with KFI?
A: I have been with KFI for 23 years. I started as a design drafter for material handling and then gained increasing levels of responsibility throughout my entire career. I never really stayed in a position for more than 2-3 years without gaining more responsibility.
Q: What do your day-to-day responsibilities look like?
A: I am responsible for all the KFI design engineering responsibilities, emphasizing people, processes, and systems.
Q: What is your favorite part of working for KFI?
A: A couple of things- it is fast-paced and in my experience, it is a broad scope of responsibilities versus other places that try to narrow your scope instead of expanding the boundaries. I am 100% engaged every day. Couple all of that with my personal out-of-work passion being automobiles and then I get to come to work and play with cars!
Q: Can you share a project that your department accomplished that you feel proud of?
A: The Gamma Battery Project really shows collaboration and cross-functional involvement with other departments which makes me proud. That collaborative piece is what I love to see every day. This can be seen in other projects like the Bev3 Battery Tray too. I am also extremely proud of the Ford Box side outer storage projects that really show a tremendous amount of engineering activity, focus, depth, and teamwork.
Q: How does your department embody KFI’s values?
A: We exemplify teamwork above all else – each KFI engineering associate has their core strengths and experience. We have engineers who almost effortlessly solve customer problems with heavy gauge thermoformed products, while at the same time some of our newer engineers bring a fresh perspective of the latest technology to the team. In addition to our design engineers, we also have support roles (Program Manager, Tooling Engineer, Sample Coordinator, and Engineering Techs) in place that complement the product development process. Together, I believe our team shares that balance well.
Q: What is your favorite memory from working at KFI?
A: The one that I would say is my favorite memory was 2-3 years into my start at TriEnda and I had moved into a project engineer role. The VP of Engineering was giving my performance review and he asked, ‘where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?’ I said, ‘I want your job’ and his response was, ‘well at least you gave me enough time to retire.’ It’s interesting how that has now come full circle and I am in that position.
Jamie has obviously been a fixture at KFI for a long time and has one last piece of advice for anyone interested in engineering, “Some of my favorite engineers started on the shop floor as thermoforming operators or jig and fix techs, so I encourage people that have thermoforming experience and are interested in engineering to pursue it or to ask questions.” Interested in being a part of our team? Apply today, we can’t wait to meet you!