Manufacturing Engineering Manager

The Michigan Milk Producers Association (MMPA) is a member-owned and operated milk marketing cooperative known for producing high-quality, award-winning dairy products. Established in 1916, MMPA markets 5 billion pounds of milk annually and is the ninth largest dairy farmer-owned cooperative in the United States, serving members in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin. At MMPA, commitment to milk quality begins on the farm and extends through five processing facilities and wholly owned subsidiary brands, Superior Dairy and Heritage Ridge Creamery.

Why You’ll Love Working Here

• Competitive salary
• Health and wellness benefits with medical coverage through Blue Cross Blue Shield, including mental health benefits
• Disability insurance
• Paid time off
• Retirement including 401k with employer contributions
• Personal and professional growth opportunities
• Employee appreciation events and recognition awards
• Employee wellness initiatives
• Employee feedback and suggestion forums

About the Role

Michigan Milk Producers Association is seeking a Manufacturing Engineering Manager – Reliability & Controls to lead a team of Manufacturing Engineers focused on improving equipment reliability, automation performance, and manufacturing capability across multiple dairy manufacturing facilities. This role is responsible for building an engineering function focused on eliminating chronic equipment issues, improving control system performance, and strengthening the technical capability of our manufacturing teams.

The ideal candidate will have a strong background in controls, automation, or manufacturing engineering with the curiosity and problem-solving mindset to grow into broader reliability engineering leadership. This is not a traditional project engineering role. The focus is improving how equipment performs over time, understanding why failures occur, eliminating repeat issues, and creating more reliable manufacturing systems.

Responsibilities

Engineering Leadership & Reliability Improvement

• Lead and develop Manufacturing Engineers supporting reliability, controls, and process improvement initiatives.
• Establish engineering priorities focused on eliminating chronic failures and improving plant performance.
• Drive structured problem solving, Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA), and permanent corrective actions.
• Use downtime data, CMMS information, and equipment performance trends to identify reliability opportunities.

Controls & Automation Leadership

• Provide technical leadership for industrial controls systems including PLCs, HMIs, VFDs, instrumentation, and industrial networks.
• Ensure control system changes improve reliability, maintainability, and long-term performance.
• Support troubleshooting of complex automation and process issues through engineering resources.
• Establish expectations for controls documentation and system standards.

Field-Based Manufacturing Support

• Maintain regular presence on the manufacturing floor to understand equipment performance and operational challenges.
• Work across shifts as needed to identify opportunities that impact reliability and production stability.
• Build strong partnerships with Operations and Maintenance teams through practical problem solving.

Maintenance Capability Development

• Partner with Maintenance leadership to improve troubleshooting capability and technical understanding.
• Identify recurring skill gaps and support engineering-led training initiatives.
• Develop stronger collaboration between Engineering and Maintenance to reduce repeat failures.

Continuous Improvement & Technical Development

• Identify opportunities to improve equipment performance, process stability, and manufacturing capability.
• Support capital projects when they directly improve reliability, maintainability, or system performance.
• Develop consistent engineering practices across manufacturing facilities.

Success in This Role Will Be Measured By

• Reduction in chronic equipment failures and repeat downtime events
• Improved equipment reliability and production consistency
• Increased effectiveness of troubleshooting and problem resolution
• Improved controls system stability and documentation
• Development of stronger technical capability within Engineering and Maintenance teams

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or equivalent technical experience.
• 7+ years of experience in manufacturing engineering, controls engineering, automation, or related technical roles.
• Strong experience with industrial controls systems including PLCs, HMIs, VFDs, instrumentation, and industrial networks.
• Experience troubleshooting complex manufacturing systems involving mechanical, electrical, and process interactions.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze problems, identify root causes, and implement sustainable solutions.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to work effectively across Operations, Maintenance, and Engineering.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with reliability engineering practices such as RCFA, FMEA, or predictive maintenance.
• Food or dairy manufacturing experience.
• CMMS experience and use of maintenance data for improvement.
• Experience mentoring or leading technical teams.
• Interest in developing deeper reliability engineering expertise.

Physical & Operational Requirements

• Regular presence in manufacturing environments.
• Ability to work across multiple shifts, including occasional nights and weekends, to understand operational variability.
• Ability to safely navigate industrial manufacturing environments.
• Travel between manufacturing facilities as required.

Benefits

• Competitive salary
• Health and wellness benefits with medical coverage through Blue Cross Blue Shield, including mental health benefits
• Disability insurance
• Paid time off
• Retirement including 401k with employer contributions
• Personal and professional growth opportunities
• Employee appreciation events and recognition awards
• Employee wellness initiatives
• Employee feedback and suggestion forums