David joined Haemonetics in 2013 as a Quality Engineer. In his current role as a Manager of Quality Assurance, David ensures that the overall quality functions at our Pittsburgh, PA plant operate smoothly and effectively to meet the needs of our business, customers and patients who use our products every day.
David received a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and Philosophy from Carnegie Mellon University. He previously worked for IBM as a Defect Yield Engineer.
Working at Haemonetics
Q: What do you think about the culture here?
A: The culture at Haemonetics is incredibly collaborative. It’s very clear that the progress of this organization is being driven by the hard work and intellect of our great employees. We have some of the best engineers who are working to produce our current products and are developing the next generation of offerings. Working at Haemonetics, you experience how the work of dozens or even hundreds of people across the globe can come together to produce incredible results.
Q: How connected is your job with other departments of the organization?
A: I work very closely with most parts of our organization. I partner with the manufacturing team to ensure that all of the products we produce and documentation are meeting expected quality levels. I also work closely with the Regulatory team to confirm compliance with U.S. and international regulations, as well as the Marketing team to ensure that we’re meeting the needs of the customers.
My team and I are also very involved with introducing new products. This process involves creating manufacturing protocols, inspection procedures and equipment/process validations to ensure the new product can be produced consistently. We ensure that quality is being built into the process early.
Q: How connected do you feel with saving lives of patients or helping the community?
A: I feel incredibly connected! The products we produce in Pittsburgh are used in many blood applications, such as plasma collection, surgical cell wash, hemostasis management and multiple others. It’s amazing to think that we have such a direct impact on so many lives—the donor whose blood is traveling through our devices and consumables before being returned back to them, the end patient receiving the life-saving plasma pharmaceutical products, and the trauma patient who is able to have their bleeding controlled during surgery.
Q: What are three words to describe Haemonetics?
A: Engaging, fun and challenging.
Q: How do you balance your career at Haemonetics and your family (e.g., the work-life balance)?
A: While being successful at Haemonetics requires a very strong work ethic, at no point in my time here have I ever felt that I was expected to dedicate an unreasonable amount of my time outside of standard working hours to Haemonetics’ work. As a manager, I pass that culture directly onto my team as well. It’s very important to me that my team has their well-deserved personal time to pursue endeavors that are important to them.
Job Responsibilities & Projects
Q: What has been your favorite project?
A: My favorite project so far was while working on a technology transfer between manufacturing and development shortly after joining Haemonetics. The project team identified the need for custom software to address a certain part of the final product presentation, but software design for manufacturing was not part of the original project scope and we didn’t have the programming skills within our particular group. Nonetheless, we understood how the software needed to function. I led the initial development of the requirements document that was eventually used by a person outside of our core team to produce software exactly to our specifications that passed all functional validations. It’s pretty cool to see a solution that we imagined and articulated come to fruition and successfully address the need.
Q: What do you find the most challenging at Haemonetics?
A: I would say the wide array of skills that are tested on any given day. We’re reliant on the problem-solving skills and creativity of our teams to overcome obstacles. Often those teams require members to wear many hats, take on new roles and contribute in different ways.
Career Growth & Development
Q: How has Haemonetics helped you in your career development?
A: After producing high-level work and showing an aptitude for managing projects and project teams, I moved into roles that better used my leadership skills in a formal capacity. As a part of this development, I took company-sponsored leadership education through Penn State, as well as graduate courses in performance management and coaching at Carnegie Mellon University. These courses provided much of the foundation for my leap into true management roles.
Q: What have you gained from working at Haemonetics?
A: Working at Haemonetics has offered me an opportunity to develop and grow professionally in exactly the direction that I wanted to. Even in my relatively short period here so far, I’ve worked in multiple levels of the organization and was met with positive learning opportunities and experiences at every juncture. My desire to learn and to excel was greeted with great support from management, and I’ve always felt that I was in the driver’s seat of my own career. Now, I get to pass that opportunity onto others that also want to grow to be their very best.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish in the next five years at Haemonetics?
A: I intend to continue developing my technical and interpersonal leadership skills to prepare myself for roles with increasing responsibility and opportunities to guide quality strategy on a corporate level. Eventually, I could see myself managing quality at multiple plants in a director role and beyond.
Tips for Future Employees
Q: What skills are critical to your success in your job?
A: There are quite a few skills critical to anyone working in quality including thoroughness and attention to detail. When you’re aiming to produce top-quality products, quality must be built into the process wherever possible.
As with any engineering role, quality engineering and management requires great breadth. It combines both incredibly strong technical skills (statistics, process control, root cause analysis) with the interpersonal skills of working effectively in a team setting, and communicating effectively across demographic and geographic borders.
Q: What personality traits do you think are needed to be successful in your job?
A: I think the most important personality trait required in my role is the ability to “think systemically.” Recognizing how multiple systems and processes interact is the key to eliminating sources of variation and driving quality improvements in any organization.
Q: What advice do you have for prospective job candidates?
A: Working at Haemonetics provides an excellent opportunity to join a great company and have an immediate impact. We value diverse employees with a self-start attitude.
Q: What’s one piece of advice you’d give to recent college grads that aspire to become an employee in your department?
A: Differentiate yourself from other candidates. We’re looking for new, innovative approaches to the problems we face every day, and an individual with a unique set of experiences can bring exactly that. When I’m looking over resumes of recent grads, I’m trying to understand their ability to take an idea and make it happen. I want to see their ability to make their vision a reality.
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