Lean and Automation Engineer

Pay range: 45-55/hr depending on exp Education Master's degree in industrial, manufacturing, mechanical engineering, or a related technical discipline is required. Experience 2-3 years of pharmaceutical industry experience is required, including at least 2 years supporting Oral Solid Dosage (OSD) or tableting/compression operations. Demonstrated completion of waste-reduction or automation projects with the candidate as the primary executor, not a coordinator. Required Core Essential Skill Set Lean Manufacturing, DMAIC, Value Stream Mapping, SMED, OEE improvement, statistical analysis, Root Cause Analysis, and hands-on process analysis. Ability to identify opportunities, develop business cases, quantify benefits, and build practical workflows, dashboards, or data tools. Strong project ownership and effective cross-functional execution within GMP, data-integrity, safety, and quality requirements. Preferred Skills: Lean Six Sigma Black Belt; strong Green Belts with proven hands-on delivery considered. A practical project example will be discussed on site. Power BI, Power Automate, advanced Excel, SQL, SAP, MES/EBR, and historian or manufacturing analytics platforms. Experience applying modern analytics and AI-enabled tools to improve operational reliability and performance. Self-starter with strong analytical, troubleshooting, systems-thinking, communication, documentation, and compliance skills. Ability to challenge historical practices and carry an approved idea through build, training, implementation, handoff, and sustainment. Job Summary We're looking for a hands-on Continuous Improvement & Automation Engineer who identifies, assesses, builds, and implements solutions that reduce waste and improve manufacturing performance - not a facilitator or meeting coordinator. You will personally bring approved projects to life through analysis, solution development, automation build, training, implementation, and sustainment. Success is measured by high-quality opportunities identified, approved projects implemented, Finance-validated benefits delivered, and compliant results sustained. This role offers meaningful ownership and impact in a regulated Oral Solid Dosage environment. Key Responsibilities Personally perform process studies, time studies, waste assessments, and bottleneck analysis to identify improvement and automation opportunities. Develop evidence-based opportunity assessments covering the baseline, expected operational and financial benefit, implementation needs, cost, risk, timing, and sustainment approach. Present opportunities to the Site Leadership Team (SLT) for prioritization, approval, and sponsorship; project priority and resource commitment remain with the SLT. Own approved projects from analysis through solution build, training, implementation, benefit realization, and sustainment, working with Operations, Finance, Quality, Engineering, and IT/OT as required. Develop and deploy practical digital and analytics tools, including Power BI dashboards, Power Automate workflows, and electronic data collection, to eliminate non-value-added work. Improve OEE, cleaning and changeover/setup time, labor productivity, throughput, and capacity across manufacturing, laboratories, offices, and warehouse operations. Partner with Finance to classify and validate benefits consistently, maintain one agreed view of project value, and prevent duplicate reporting or double counting. Establish process ownership, standard work, training, controls, documentation, and performance tracking before project closure. Ensure all improvements comply with GMP, data integrity, safety, quality, change-control, and validation requirements in an FDA-regulated environment.