Lead Manufacturing Engineer, Capacity Expansion

Eaton Corporation•Greenwood, SC

5d•$97,000 - $143,000

About The Position

Eaton’s ES AMER ARS division is seeking a Lead Manufacturing Engineer to provide technical and functional leadership for new manufacturing plant startups, facility expansions, major transfers, and new production-line installations. The role leads manufacturing engineering activities from concept development through equipment installation, production validation, launch, stabilization, and operational handoff. It translates business and product requirements into safe, capable, scalable, and cost-effective manufacturing systems, while establishing the processes, layouts, equipment, capacity, documentation, and workforce readiness needed for successful launches. The position leads manufacturing engineering workstreams and cross-functional teams, developing launch strategies, work plans, technical milestones, readiness criteria, and manufacturing standards. It designs processes and layouts; defines capacity, labor, material flow, tooling, and infrastructure requirements; and leads equipment specification, procurement, commissioning, and qualification. It also oversees process validation, production readiness, workforce training, ramp-up performance, issue resolution, and transition to plant operations. The role provides technical direction and mentoring to engineers and project resources and may require travel up to 50% to support site activities during critical launch periods. The role is based near one of the following Eaton locations: Charlotte, North Carolina; Asheville/Arden, North Carolina; or Greenwood, South Carolina. The stated annual salary range is $97,000–$143,000. Eaton does not provide employment immigration sponsorship or support for this position.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Manufacturing Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or another related technical engineering discipline from an accredited institution.
At least 5 years of progressive manufacturing engineering experience, including responsibility for complex manufacturing projects.
Demonstrated experience leading at least one significant manufacturing launch, plant expansion, production-line installation, equipment implementation, or manufacturing transfer.
At least 3 years of experience specifying, purchasing, installing, debugging, commissioning, and qualifying manufacturing equipment and tooling.
At least 3 years of experience with production-line design, facility layout, process development, capacity analysis, labor planning, and material flow.
Ability to travel up to 50% to support site activities during critical launch periods.
Must not require employment immigration sponsorship or support from Eaton for this position.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in Engineering, Engineering Management, Operations, or Business Administration.
Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional technical teams and manage multiple interconnected project workstreams.
Experience leading a greenfield or brownfield manufacturing plant launch or multiple new production-line launches.
Experience taking a project from facility design and capital approval through commissioning, start of production, and operational stabilization.
Experience with high-volume manufacturing, configured-to-order products, engineered-to-order products, or complex assembly operations.
Experience with automation, robotics, machine vision, error-proofing, advanced manufacturing, additive manufacturing, or automated test systems.
Experience implementing Manufacturing Execution Systems, digital work instructions, electronic production reporting, statistical process control, and real-time performance monitoring.
Working knowledge of ERP and manufacturing systems such as SAP, and layout and design tools such as AutoCAD.
Experience managing equipment integrators, general contractors, architecture and engineering firms, and other external suppliers.
Experience supporting multi-site or international manufacturing projects.
Project management certification or formal project management training, such as Project Management Professional certification.
Lean or Six Sigma certification.

Responsibilities

Lead manufacturing engineering workstreams for greenfield and brownfield plant launches, facility expansions, major transfers, and production-line installations from concept through operational handoff.
Develop launch strategies, engineering work plans, technical milestones, resource requirements, and readiness criteria.
Coordinate manufacturing engineering activities across Operations, Product Engineering, Quality, EHS, Supply Chain, Facilities, IT, Finance, and external partners.
Translate forecasts, customer requirements, and business objectives into capacity, equipment, labor, space, utility, and material-flow requirements.
Establish scalable manufacturing standards and launch practices for future sites and production lines.
Lead design and launch-readiness reviews, identify risks and gaps, and drive mitigation and closure plans; communicate engineering progress, decisions, dependencies, risks, capital requirements, and readiness to project leadership.
Design manufacturing processes for fabrication, assembly, testing, packaging, and material movement; develop process flows, value-stream maps, capacity and labor models, cycle-time requirements, workstation designs, and line-balancing strategies.
Create plant and production-line layouts that optimize safety, flow, ergonomics, quality, productivity, flexibility, and future expansion.
Define material presentation, storage, point-of-use inventory, replenishment, conveyance, staging, finished-goods flow, and internal logistics requirements.
Apply Design for Manufacturing and Assembly and Lean principles, and evaluate manufacturing technologies, automation, digital solutions, tooling, and process-control methods.
Develop technical specifications and user requirements for production equipment, tooling, fixtures, test systems, automation, material-handling systems, and manufacturing infrastructure.
Lead supplier evaluations, technical bid and design reviews, and equipment acceptance planning; partner with Finance and project leadership on capital requests, justifications, estimates, forecasts, and implementation plans.
Coordinate equipment procurement, fabrication, delivery, installation, utility connection, debugging, and acceptance; lead or oversee factory and site acceptance testing, commissioning, capability verification, and production qualification.
Ensure equipment and tooling meet company requirements for safety, ergonomics, quality, maintainability, cybersecurity, and operational performance; resolve technical changes, supplier issues, installation conflicts, and equipment constraints.
Ensure spare parts, preventive-maintenance requirements, equipment documentation, maintenance training, and support plans are ready before operational handoff.
Develop process documentation, including process-flow diagrams, PFMEAs, control plans, standardized work, work instructions, setup documentation, method sheets, and reaction plans.
Establish exit criteria for engineering builds, pilot production, pre-production, launch, and stabilization; coordinate builds to validate processes, equipment, tooling, staffing, and material flow.
Lead process capability studies, run-at-rate activities, line-capacity verification, and production-readiness assessments.
Ensure processes meet safety, quality, delivery, cost, capacity, and customer-performance requirements; lead structured problem-solving and develop contingency plans for high-risk launch dependencies.
Partner with Quality to establish inspection strategies, measurement systems, traceability, nonconformance controls, and quality gates before launch.
Define staffing assumptions, skill requirements, training needs, and certification plans with Operations and Human Resources; support training for operators and other plant personnel.
Establish standard work, visual controls, escalation paths, tiered accountability, production reporting, and daily management processes before start of production.
Provide on-site technical leadership during installation, commissioning, pilot builds, start of production, and ramp-up; monitor launch metrics and lead rapid issue resolution and sustained corrective actions.
Establish structured handoff to the receiving plant team, including ownership, documentation, training, open-item management, and performance expectations; capture lessons learned and improve launch standards.
Provide technical direction, work coordination, and mentoring to manufacturing engineers, contractors, integrators, and other project resources; establish priorities, standards, and deliverables and review or approve technical work within assigned authority.
Build relationships with plant leaders, project teams, suppliers, contractors, and corporate engineering; champion safety, quality, accountability, urgency, continuous improvement, and disciplined execution.
Benchmark operations to identify technologies and practices that strengthen launch execution and long-term plant performance.