Manpower Engineering is closely partnering with an industry leading, established and growing company in Milwaukee, WI on a highly visible and direct hire/permanent Lead Manufacturing Engineer position that has strong development and advancement opportunities.
The company has enjoyed 30 years of continued success and is financially sound and positioned for continued growth, has a great reputation, dynamic and agile, and promotes collaboration. Today, they power more than 100,000 installations in 83 countries - shaping how millions of people experience spaces every day. In this position, you'll have exposure up to the executive leadership team, the opportunity to partner with a great leader, be part of a top performing team, and part of a company that has an outstanding culture, be in a position that's critical to the company to help them continue to grow, make an immediate, visible, and positive impact and your thoughts are heard and valued, and you'll have complete ownership of your work.
- Compensation Plan: Depending on qualifications/experience, this opportunity can offer up to a base salary of $110,000.
- Full Benefits Package (including but not limited to): Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance, 401k match, paid vacation time and holidays, etc.
JOB DESCRIPTION Reporting to the Director of Engineering, the Lead Manufacturing Engineer is the primary owner of manufacturing process performance. This role is responsible for keeping production running smoothly day-to-day while driving continuous improvement in quality, throughput, and efficiency. The Lead Manufacturing Engineer is hands-on, floor-oriented, and accountable for process health, visual work instructions, equipment performance, and structured improvement initiatives.
This is a fast-paced, highly collaborative environment where bias to action, clarity, and ownership are critical.
Responsibilities: - Own manufacturing process performance for assigned products and production lines.
- Provide hands-on, day-to-day engineering support to production; serve as the primary escalation point for process, equipment, and workflow issues.
- Develop, maintain, and control visual work instructions and SOPs, ensuring they are accurate, clear, and actively used on the floor.
- Identify, prioritize, and implement continuous improvement initiatives to increase throughput, reduce downtime, improve yield, and enhance product quality.
- Support quality by leading root cause analysis and corrective actions for manufacturing and quality issues.
- Manage production equipment, including equipment selection, setup, maintenance planning, and safe operation.
- Train and support production staff on processes, equipment, and process controls.
- Partner with R&D during new product introduction to ensure designs are manufacturable and transitions to production are smooth.
- Establish and maintain basic process metrics, charts, and data needed to monitor performance and drive improvement.
- Support offshore manufacturing by providing process guidance and assisting with issue resolution; travel to overseas manufacturing sites up to 1-2 times per year as needed.
Qualifications: - Bachelor's Degree in Engineering or a related field is a plus.
- 3+ years of experience.
- Demonstrated ability to own and improve manufacturing processes in a production environment.
- Strong problem-solving skills; experience with root cause analysis, FMEA, and structured improvement methods (e.g., DMAIC).
- Experience creating and maintaining visual work instructions and SOPs.
- Comfortable working on the production floor and responding to real-time issues.
- Clear written and verbal communication skills; able to work effectively with operators, technicians, and engineers.
- Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and ability to manage priorities independently.
- Six Sigma and ISO experience preferred but not required.
- Spanish language skills a plus.
