Lean Manufacturing Engineer

Takeda•Los Angeles, CA

3d•Onsite

About The Position

The Lean Manufacturing Engineer supports Takeda’s Los Angeles production facility within the Plasma-Derived Therapies business unit. The role helps stabilize production systems, improve productivity, support site growth, and maintain safety, product quality, and compliance. It primarily supports large-scale, automated, multistep batch processes with significant manual operations. The engineer analyzes processes and systems, identifies and makes improvement opportunities visible, and drives actions to realize and sustain improvements, particularly in production. The role interprets Takeda’s standard Lean operating system and guides its application with a focus on value creation. It also collaborates with other sites and global support teams to improve operating-system standards and share effective practices. The position contributes to planning and executing production-capacity increases, including the 2025 and 2027 expansions, with an emphasis on scalability and sustainability. The incumbent leads and coaches teams, develops Lean capabilities, applies change-management practices, and ensures improvements are integrated into daily operations.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree, preferably in science, engineering, or another related technical field.
At least 6 years of related experience.
At least 5 years of experience deploying and coaching Lean in a manufacturing or industrial engineering role.
Passion for challenging the status quo and improving operations.
Proficiency in manufacturing-system analysis and statistical analysis.
Strong negotiation, influencing, consultation, and facilitation skills.
Structured, logical, critical, and analytical thinking.
Confidence coaching, leading, and guiding others.
Self-motivation and self-direction, with a demonstrated record of results.
Leadership and mentoring skills, including the ability to lead and motivate teams toward business goals.
Advanced digital and data skills, including visualization tools such as Excel, Power BI, or Qlik Sense; analytical tools such as Minitab, Python, or R Shiny; and exposure to cloud data systems.
Excellent communication, presentation, and facilitation skills.
Strong organizational and project-management capabilities, with knowledge of manufacturing processes and continuous-improvement approaches.
Ability to work extended hours and various shifts as needed.
Ability to lift, push, pull, and carry up to 10 pounds.
Ability to work in controlled environments requiring special gowning and protective clothing, with restrictions on makeup, jewelry, contact lenses, nail polish, and artificial fingernails in controlled manufacturing environments.
Ability to work in manufacturing conditions that may be cold and wet, in confined areas, clean rooms, and cool or hot storage conditions.

Nice To Haves

Lean certification.
Experience in the biotechnology or pharmaceutical industry.
Experience in a process industry.
Experience in an FDA-regulated environment, Good Manufacturing Practices, and ISO 9001.
For supervisory positions, at least 1 year of supervisory experience.

Responsibilities

Use Lean, manufacturing engineering, and industrial engineering tools to advance site transformation objectives.
Understand the strategic context, current state, and relevant systems to identify opportunities aligned with site strategy.
Create analytical models and enhance existing models to generate actionable insights.
Build organizational support and momentum for key initiatives.
Lead and coach teams to implement change and develop Lean capabilities.
Ensure improvement outcomes are achieved, visible, sustained, and integrated into daily operations.
Collaborate with global, regional, and Operating Unit groups to bring leading practices to the site and share successful site practices.
Enhance pull systems and continue replacing push-based processes with flow and pull.
Champion change and apply root-cause problem-solving and continuous-improvement methods.
Integrate organizational change management into improvement initiatives.
Research, test, and implement process improvements while maintaining safety, quality, and compliance with applicable regulations and standards.
Help plan and execute the 2025 and 2027 production-capacity increases, focusing on scalability and sustainability.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams to address capacity-expansion and operational-excellence challenges.
Train and work effectively with employees at all levels.
Work multiple shifts, including weekends, and extended hours as needed based on business needs.