Patrick Hermans

Patrick M. Hermans
907 Lake Ct. Madison, WI 53715 | Patrick@PHermans.com | (C) 763-257-2095

Objective

Passionate technology evangelist seeking to deliver high quality, high reliability electronics.

Core Strengths

• PCB Design (Altium) • Process Development • Supplier Control
• Automated Test Development • Root Cause Analysis • Change Control
• Research and Development • Troubleshooting • Version Control (Git,SVN)
• Project Management • Design for Manufacturability • Web Systems Implementation
• Leadership • Verification and Validation (JIRA, Confluence, Trac)
• System Engineering • Quality System Development • Training

Professional Experience

Spectrum Brands –Madison, WI
Principal Hardware Design Engineer, Remington New Product Development, Intense Pulsed Light [8/2017 to present] • Led electrical hardware design team
• Stood up Altium based SVN design repository from scratch
• Implemented Jira, Confluence, Bit Bucket, and Slack to support development process
Senior Manager New Product Development, Global Batteries & Appliances [3/2017 to 8/2017] • Led qualification & safety testing of internal Li-Ion secondary battery cells for sourced products
• Technical leader for all Varta and Rayovac Power Banks and sourced secondary cells; NiMH & Li-Ion
• Provided test data statistical analysis and modeling for my projects and others.
• Setup and introduced Jira and Confluence as project management tools
Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals (formerly Ikaria)–Madison, WI
Design Quality Engineer, Quality Department, Drug & Device Engineering [5/2015 to 3/2017] • Developed and executed automated hardware testing for components and systems with python
• Rigorously reviewed and simulated printed circuit board designs in Altium. Trained other design staff on Altium’s use
• Provided statistical analysis, data mining, and real-time process auditing for development projects
Teledyne Cetac Technologies–Omaha, NE
Project Manager, Research & Development [8/2013 to 5/2015] • Led the project team that delivered the 4th generation of the organization’s flagship (40% of revenue) automation platform:
The ASX-560 Series of Autosamplers.
o Guided a team of six engineers and technicians through a two year, $1.3M development effort
o Drove electrical, mechanical, and systems design to focus on simplicity, reliability, and manufacturability
o Reduced manufacturing cost by 28% (19% material, 9% labor) through conversion to injection molded parts, use of
new (ARM) electronics, outsourcing subassemblies, standardizing stepper motors, and design for manufacturing
o Reduced part count by 38% over previous generation
o Improved positional accuracy by 64%, repeatability by 86%
o Executed design failure mode effect analysis to determine verification testing plan. Led subsequent testing effort
focused on equal or greater overall reliability and new materials. >15M simulated samples processed during testing.
o Determined requirements for and oversaw implementation of automated production test hardware and software
• Developed and enforced project schedules, system level bill of materials, and product specifications
• Developed touchscreen based accuracy and repeatability hardware test system driven by IronPython
• Implemented JIRA based development task tracking and production part transfer tracking processes

Electrical Design Engineer, Research & Development [2/2012 to 8/2013] • Developed custom electronics (Altium) to augment a base XYZ robotics platform for OEM customers. Created, tested, and
delivered prototype systems
• Designed PCB layout for a four axis stepper motor control board. Developed liquid level detection and IO expansion boards
• Executed reliability testing for custom applications which resulted in electrical and mechanical design improvements rolling
up to the base platform
• Developed IronPython based automated functional hardware test systems for new products releasing into production
• Led fast prototype engineering team devoted to supporting product management and sales needs
• Developed two Trac based web processes; one for companywide non-conformance reporting and another for requirements
gathering, evaluation, and tracking of small scope development projects
Patrick M. Hermans
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Avionics Interface Technology –Omaha, NE [10/2010 to 2/2012] Software Quality Engineer
• Developed complete AS9100 Rev C & ISO 9001:2008 certified quality management system in thirteen months. Managed
development project while reporting to the CFO
• Implemented a Trac wiki based management system for procedures, processes, templates and approvals. Authored twenty-
eight procedures, trained staff, arbitrated over process execution, and conducted a full organization internal audit
• Led organization through initial multi-site full certification audit resulting in six minor findings
• Verified conformance of all engineering development outputs against the requirements of the development process and their
specific project specifications
Boston Scientific –Arden Hills, MN [2/2009 to 10/2010] Supplier Quality Engineer, Supplier Management, Cardiac Rhythm Management
• Supported suppliers of discrete electronics, specifically ceramic capacitors and oscillator crystals. Facilitated corrective
action with suppliers due to component failures and process shifts to increase internal first pass and manufacturing yields
• Certified as lead auditor of ISO 13485:2003 quality systems via AQS management 36 hour lead auditor course. Performed
nine quality system audits on nine different suppliers
• Assisted with root cause analysis and process failure mode effect analysis to help suppliers identify areas of high risk and
implement mitigation activities
• Maintained and developed incoming inspection procedures, trained operators on inspection and dispositioned nonconforming
material

Education & Intern Experience

University of Minnesota –Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN [9/2004 to 12/2008] Institute of Technology: Bachelor of Electrical Engineering
• Focused on embedded systems design both hardware and firmware
• Coursework on project management and web systems
• Marching band tuba section, Rank Lieutenant

Medtronic –Mounds View, MN [5/2008 to 12/2008] Engineering Intern, Sensors Research & Development, Cardiac Rhythm Disease Management
• Developed an automated system for characterizing electric potential versus position within a saline volume as a part of early
feasibility research into wireless intra-body communication. The test system was controlled by a LabVIEW virtual instrument
that linked a lock-in amplifier to a precision XYZ gantry which delivered nano-volt level signal strengths at sub-millimeter
location resolution. The system was capable of autonomously collecting data for several days. The collected data was used to
verify existing FEA simulations which led to further experiments
• Designed and constructed analog signal handling hardware built to reject low levels of common-mode noise as well as
prevent the effects of parasitic capacitance. This hardware was used in acute pre-clinical studies focused on measuring
electric potential in a heterogeneous medium. Refined over several pre-clinical studies, this hardware was used for feasibility
research after my tenure

Minco Products Inc. –Fridley, MN [4/2007 to 4/2008] Student Engineer, Research & Development
• Modified a Microchip (PIC) based stand-alone fluid bag heater that was already in a prototype stage to use a heat-flux sensor
in tandem with a resistance-temperature-detector. The two sensors allowed for proportional-derivative control of the heater
resulting in faster heatup times and setpoint ripple reduction
• Developed a PC (hyperterminal) interface for changing an embedded heater controller’s setpoints by designing and building a
serial-to-SPI translator along with all the SPI related code in the heater controller
• Administered internal Wiki including: server side installation and setup, extension development, staff training and editing to
maintain style standards
• Supported production lines through circuit troubleshooting and PCB rework

Senior Design –Professor B. Stadler [Spring 2008] • Designed and built hardware (Microchip based), software and a test bench that combined multiple Honeywell digital
compass ICs to achieve a 48% improvement in accuracy. More information available at http://phermans.com/sd

Development Environments: Altium, LabVIEW, MATLAB/Octave, Visual Studio, MPLAB
Programming Languages: C, C++, C#, Python, IronPython, Trac, MediaWiki, VB (Macros)
Software Tools: Excel, MS Project, JIRA/Confluence, InkScape, Minitab, SVN, Git
Activities: Adult hockey, Waterskiing, Skype cribbage, Autosampler anthems, Homebrewing