Senior Manufacturing Engineer

Key Responsibilities

• Lead hands-on process improvement efforts to improve safety, quality, throughput, delivery, and cost across manufacturing operations.
• Diagnose and resolve complex mechanical and process failures on the production floor using first principles, not just data.
• Develop and refine manufacturing processes that deliver consistent, compliant product with high yield and low variability.
• Drive day-to-day process stability through production troubleshooting, root cause analysis of downtime and defects, line balancing, takt time optimization, and bottleneck elimination.
• Define and lead structured continuous improvement initiatives, including 5S, Kaizen events, waste reduction, cycle time reduction, and labor productivity improvements.
• Design and implement equipment, tooling, and automation solutions that enable productivity gains, reduce labor time, and improve process repeatability.
• Drive new product introduction and scaling: develop production processes, implement DFM improvements, drive pilot builds and ramp-ups, and own capacity planning for growth.
• Optimize factory layouts and material flow to improve work center performance across log yard, kilns, production lines, and finished goods packaging, loading, and shipping.
• Build and maintain production performance metrics to prioritize improvement work and enable data-driven operational decision making.
• Serve as a technical resource and thought partner for the broader operations and engineering team.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Manufacturing, or closely related engineering discipline from an accredited university.
• 5+ years of hands-on experience in a manufacturing environment, with direct ownership of engineering or process improvement projects from problem identification through implementation and results.
• Demonstrated ability to independently diagnose and resolve complex mechanical or process problems on the production floor using first principles.
• Experience in heavy industrial, automotive, or similarly demanding manufacturing environments. Background in aerospace, medical devices, or consumer electronics requires demonstrated transferability to heavy industrial operations.
• Proven track record of delivering measurable results: specific, quantified improvements to safety, quality, throughput, cost, or reliability.
• Strong problem-solving instincts and comfort working directly on heavy equipment and industrial machinery.

Preferred Skills

• Experience in wood products, forestry, or heavy industrial manufacturing (strongest differentiator).
• Working knowledge of Lean manufacturing principles, continuous improvement, and standard work.
• Experience with statistical process control, process capability, or data-driven manufacturing approaches.
• Experience standing up or launching a new production line or process from scratch.
• Capital project ownership end-to-end: justification, design, implementation, and performance validation.
• Comfort spending the majority of your time on the factory floor and collaborating across engineering, operations, and maintenance.
• Able to independently own and drive complex projects in a fast-paced, lean startup environment where priorities shift and resources are limited.