Manufacturing Engineering Manager

The Manufacturing Engineering Manager is responsible for achieving business goals including product cost and quality, schedule adherence and on-time delivery to customer demand. It is a hands-on position that is responsible for ensuring the manufacturing processes, tooling, and equipment support the safety, quality, delivery and productivity goals of the business. The Manager plays an integral part in plant operations, special projects, OPEX, and is responsible for developing and maintaining a motivated team of Manufacturing and Process Engineers and for achieving budgetary and production targets.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• Supervise Manufacturing and Process Engineers.

Duties and Responsibilities: :

• Lead and develop the Manufacturing Engineering team to effectively support day-to-day operations, new prodcut introductions, operational excellence initiative, and strategic business objectives.

• Establish, standardize, and continuously improve manufacturing processes, procedures, and work instructions to drive consistency, safety, quality, and efficiency.

• Design, develop, and implement manufacturing tooling, fixtures, and process improvements that enhance production capability and throughput.

• Partner with Operations leadership to achieve key performance indicators, including safety, on-time delivery, throughput, backlog reduction, customer lead time, productivity, labor utilization, and overtime management.

• Lead strategies to improve First Pass Yield, reduce scrap, and lower cost of poor quality to achieve operational excellence and margin improvement.

• Drive continuous improvement strategy and initiatives focused on quality, yield improvement, cycle time reduction, productivity gains, and cost optimization through Value Stream Mapping, Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, kaizen and 5S methodologies.

• Lead change management strategy and efforts and ensure the successful implementation and sustainability of process improvements and best practices across manufacturing operations.

• Ensure timely evaluation, implementation, and validation of engineering change orders, collaborating closely with Product Engineering and cross-functional teams.

• Establish and monitor manufacturing performance standards and quality metrics, identifying opportunities to improve product quality, process capability, and operational effectiveness.

• Lead Operational Excellence strategy and cost reduction programs, managing project portfolios, tracking progress, and communicating results to senior leadership.

• Evaluate, justify, and present capital equipment investments, automation opportunities, tooling enhancements, and manufacturing technologies that achieve business growth and operational performance.

• Provide technical leadership and support to internal and external customers regarding manufacturing processes, quality issues, root cause analysis, corrective actions, and repair/rework activities.

• Collaborate with Quality, Engineering, and Operations teams to drive robust problem-solving and continuous improvement initiatives.

• Recruit, develop, coach, and mentor engineering talent through performance management, career development planning, succession planning, and ongoing training initiatives.

• Foster a culture of accountability, innovation, continuous improvement, and employee engagement within the Manufacturing Engineering organization.

• Perform other duties and assignments as required.

Required Skills and Abilities:

• Progressive manufacturing engineering leadership experience in a complex manufacturing environment.

• Strong understanding of thermodynamics, fluid flow, heat transfer, finite element analysis, aerospace engineering principles, product design, and design for manufacturability concepts.

• Demonstrated success leading Lean Manufacturing, Operational Excellence, and continuous improvement initiatives.

• Experience supporting new product introductions, process development, capital projects, and engineering change management.

• Strong leadership, project management, problem-solving, and cross-functional collaboration skills.

• Proficiency with Lean, Six Sigma, 5S, Kaizen, SMED, TPM and other continuous improvement methodologies.

• Proficiency with MRP systems; preferably Oracle.

• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills; fluency in Spanish is a plus.

• Willingness to work a flexible schedule as needed to get the job done.

• Familiarity with assembly, welding, brazing, machining, and testing processes is desired.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering preferred, or other technical related discipline is required; Metallurgical degree is a plus. MBA or other relevant advanced degree is preferred.

• Minimum 5 years of experience in a build-to-order/medium volume/high mix manufacturing environment; preferably in the military or aerospace industry.

• Minimum of 5 years of supervisory experience, including managing salaried and hourly staff.

• Minimum 3 years of experience leading continuous improvement methodologies

• Demonstrated ability and willingness to use AI tools to improve productivity, decision-making, work quality, and to reduce costs. The successful candidate must be able to identify appropriate AI use cases and critically evaluate AI-generated outputs.

Physical Requirements:

• Ability to lift 50lbs.

• This position is very active and requires standing, walking, bending, kneeling, stooping, crouching, crawling, and climbing throughout the day.

• Fine manipulation and repetitive motion may be required for some duties.

Other:

• Due to the nature of our business programs and products, applicants must have the legal right to work in the US and additionally must be legally authorized to access export-controlled information and source code.