Job Description
The Manufacturing Industrial Engineer is a senior individual contributor responsible for analyzing, designing, and continuously improving the end-to-end production flow across the mechanical assembly facility. Reporting directly to the Executive Vice President, this role applies industrial engineering principles to eliminate waste, reduce cycle time, and increase throughput — working in close partnership with department managers in receiving, assembly, quality/test, and shipping, without direct supervisory authority.
The ideal candidate brings 7+ years of hands-on manufacturing engineering experience, a proven track record of measurable operational improvement, and ideally significant experience designing or launching a manufacturing facility or production line from the ground up.
The role owns the efficiency and flow of the complete production value stream: Parts Incoming to Assembly to Testing / QC to Shipping.
Key Responsibilities:
• Flow analysis & design — Conduct value stream mapping, time studies, and capacity analyses across all production stages; translate findings into actionable improvements in workstation layout, routing, and material flow.
• Facility & layout planning — Lead or contribute to facility and floor layout design, including workstation placement, material flow paths, point-of-use storage, and aisle configuration to support efficient production at scale.
• Production scheduling support — Develop and maintain the master production schedule in collaboration with department managers; model capacity scenarios and recommend priority adjustments to protect on-time delivery.
• Incoming parts / receiving — Partner with the receiving manager to ensure material flow from dock to point-of-use is timely and traceable; quantify schedule impact of inbound shortages or non-conformances.
• Assembly process engineering — Establish and document standard work, takt time, and operator balance charts for assembly operations; identify and resolve bottlenecks in coordination with the assembly manager.
• Test & QC throughput — Analyze test cell utilization and rework rates; work with quality management to reduce cycle time through improved test sequencing and failure feedback loops.
• Shipping coordination — Align finished goods completion timing with outbound freight windows; monitor dock-to-ship cycle time and surface systemic delays to the shipping manager.
• Continuous improvement leadership — Initiate and facilitate kaizen events, 5S programs, and waste-reduction projects across the value stream; track and report cost and time savings delivered to the Plant Manager.
• KPI ownership & reporting — Build and maintain the operational performance dashboard; present throughput, cycle time, yield, and delivery metrics to department managers and the Plant Manager with root-cause commentary.
• Cross-functional facilitation — Lead daily and weekly production cadence meetings; serve as the integrating function between departments to surface and resolve sequencing conflicts, resource gaps, and handoff failures.
• Tooling & ergonomics — Evaluate workstation ergonomics and tooling adequacy; recommend changes that improve both safety and efficiency in collaboration with EHS and department managers.
Key Performance Indicators:
· On-time delivery = OTD %
· First-Pass Yield = FPY %
· Cycle Time = vs Takt
· WIP Level = Days on hand
· Throughput = Units / day
· CI Savings = S / Quarter
Qualifications:
Required:
· B.S. in Industrial Engineering or closely related engineering discipline.
· 7+ years of IE or manufacturing engineering experience in a mechanical assembly environment.
· Hands-on proficiency in VSM, time study, line balancing, and standard work development.
· Strong data analysis and visualization skills (Excel, Power BI, or equivalent).
· Experience building production schedules and modeling capacity.
· Ability to read mechanical drawings and interpret BOMs.
· Demonstrated record of driving change through influence, not authority.
· Familiarity with ERP / MES systems.
Preferred:
· Experience designing or launching a new manufacturing facility or production line from the ground up (strongly preferred).
· Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt.
· Experience in high-mix / low-volume or mixed-model assembly environments.
· Familiarity with ISO 9001 QMS requirements.
· ERP / MES experience (SAP, NetSuite, JobBoss, or similar).
· Discrete-event simulation experience (Arena, FlexSim).
· AutoCAD or equivalent for facility layout work.
Core Competencies:
• Systems thinking — Sees the whole value stream, not just individual workstations; understands how upstream decisions affect downstream performance.
• Analytical rigor — Backs all recommendations with data; communicates findings clearly to both floor-level and executive audiences.
• Collaborative influence — Achieves results through structured partnership with department managers rather than direct authority.
• Bias for action — Identifies problems quickly and drives solutions without waiting for direction from above.
• Facility-level perspective — Thinks in terms of flow, space, and scale; experienced in designing layouts that serve long-term operational needs.
