A Plating Machine Operator operates and maintains plating or coating machines, including electrolyte processes, to coat metal or plastic products with chromium, zinc, copper, cadmium, nickel, or other metal to protect or decorate surfaces.
Accel International is seeking a hands-on Chemical Engineer with a strong chemistry background to support and stabilize the chemistry of our continuous flow wire plating line, which runs sulfamate Nickel, Tin and Silver deposits. In this role you will own the day-to-day health of the plating baths — monitoring, analyzing, and adjusting tank chemistry to keep deposition consistent, defect rates low, and the line running at rate. You will combine analytical chemistry rigor with practical process-engineering judgment to troubleshoot excursions, drive process improvements, and ensure our nickel and silver finishes meet specification every shift. This is an ideal role for an engineer who is comfortable on the shop floor with the operators as well as at the bench with a titration and an instrument, and who wants direct ownership of a live, high-throughput plating process.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Stabilize tank chemistry: monitor, analyze, and control the composition of the sulfamate nickel and silver plating and pretreatment baths (metal concentration, pH, additives/brighteners, conductivity, temperature, and — for nickel — internal stress) across the continuous flow line, keeping each bath within its operating window. Bath maintenance & control: establish and manage analysis schedules, replenishment/dosing rates, additive feed strategies, filtration, and bath make-up and dump/replacement cycles to minimize variation and downtime.
Analytical testing:
perform and oversee wet chemistry and instrumental analysis (titration, AA/ICP, Hull cell, XRF thickness, pH/conductivity) to characterize baths and finished deposits; interpret results and act on them.
Troubleshooting:
diagnose plating defects and process excursions — adhesion, thickness, coverage, burning, roughness, pitting, staining, contamination — and drive them to root cause and corrective action.
Process optimization:
improve deposition consistency, current efficiency, throughput, and chemical/precious-metal utilization on the flow line; lead trials and scale changes into production. Documentation & control plans: maintain bath specifications, control limits, SPC charts, standard operating procedures, and process records; support quality, traceability, and audit requirements.
Cross-functional support:
partner with operators, maintenance, quality, and EHS to sustain line performance, implement changes, and train the team on chemistry fundamentals and best practices. Compliance & safety: ensure safe handling of process chemicals and adherence to environmental, wastewater/waste-treatment, and regulatory requirements.
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, or a closely related field. Approximately 3-7 years of relevant experience in electroplating, surface finishing, or process chemistry in a manufacturing environment. Strong working knowledge of electroplating fundamentals — electrochemistry, bath chemistry, deposition, and the variables that drive plating quality; direct experience with nickel and/or silver systems is highly desirable.
Hands-on analytical chemistry skills:
titrations, bath analysis, and interpreting lab and instrument data to make process decisions. Demonstrated troubleshooting ability on a live process, with a structured, root-cause approach to defects and excursions. Comfortable working on the production floor and safely handling acids, bases, and metal-bearing process solutions. Solid data and communication skills; able to document work clearly and collaborate across operations, quality, and maintenance.
PREFERRED / ADVANTAGEOUS
Experience with continuous / reel-to-reel (flow) plating lines rather than only rack or barrel plating. Wire industry plating experience (continuous wire / strand plating) — strongly advantageous. Direct experience with sulfamate nickel (deposit stress control) and silver plating, including managing precious-metal (silver) bath economics and recovery. Familiarity with SPC, Six Sigma / Lean, or other structured process-improvement methods. Experience with wastewater treatment and environmental compliance for a plating operation. Working knowledge of instrumental methods such as XRF, AA, or
ICP. WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE
Within your first year, the nickel and silver baths run predictably within control limits with fewer chemistry-driven excursions; defects tied to bath composition are trending down; and the line holds rate with improved consistency and better chemical and silver utilization. You will be the go-to technical resource the operations team relies on to keep the plating chemistry stable and the finishes on-spec.
Pay:
$100,000.00 - $125,000.00 per year
Benefits:
401(k) 401(k) matching Health insurance Paid time off Referral program Vision insurance Application Question(s): Please provide your personal email address:
