Material Process Engineer, Advanced Materials

Lear Corporation • Southfield, MI

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Material Process Engineer on Lear’s Advanced Materials team develops and implements material-flow, warehouse, and intralogistics solutions for North American just-in-time manufacturing facilities. The role supports new program launches and existing operations by translating production requirements into safe, scalable, and cost-effective material-handling concepts, facility layouts, equipment specifications, and implementation plans. The engineer works cross-functionally with plant operations, program management, engineering, supply chain, IT/OT, purchasing, finance, safety, and external suppliers from early concept through launch stabilization and operational handoff.

The position is based at Lear’s World Headquarters in Southfield, Michigan, and follows a hybrid schedule, with four days per week in an office or manufacturing facility depending on business and project needs. Travel may be up to 25%, with increased travel during launches, supplier activities, installations, commissioning, and plant support. Flexibility to work off-shift, weekends, or extended hours may be needed during critical activities.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering, manufacturing engineering, mechanical engineering, supply chain management, logistics, or a related technical field.
• Two to four years of experience in material flow, industrial engineering, manufacturing engineering, supply chain, logistics, or a related function.
• Ability to convert production and supply-chain requirements into practical layouts, equipment concepts, specifications, and implementation plans.
• Strong analytical capability, including data analysis, capacity modeling, business-case development, and structured problem solving.
• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office, particularly Excel and PowerPoint.
• Ability to build effective relationships with plant employees, cross-functional teams, senior leaders, and external suppliers.
• Strong written, verbal, and presentation skills, including the ability to communicate technical concepts to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Ability to work cross-functionally, influence without direct authority, and drive decisions and implementation.
• Self-directed and detail-oriented, with the ability to manage multiple projects, priorities, deadlines, and changing launch requirements with limited supervision.
• Ability to work effectively in manufacturing and construction environments and comply with applicable safety requirements.
• Willingness and ability to travel up to 25% and support off-shift, weekend, or extended-hour activities during critical activities as needed.

Nice To Haves

• Experience leading projects or workstreams.
• AutoCAD experience and ability to develop or review 2D facility and material-flow layouts.
• Experience with discrete-event simulation or digital-modeling tools such as Twiserian, ProModel, or similar.
• Knowledge of lean manufacturing, PFEP, material presentation, supermarket design, tugger or milk-run routing, line balancing, and continuous-improvement methods.
• Experience in automotive manufacturing, preferably in a JIT or just-in-sequence environment.
• Experience with warehouse automation technologies such as AMRs, AGVs, ASRS, vertical lift modules, conveyors, shuttles, flow racks, and automated picking or replenishment systems.
• Experience with WMS, WCS, MES, ERP, SCADA, controls, or industrial system integration.
• Experience developing equipment specifications, managing suppliers, supporting capital approvals, and executing FAT, SAT, commissioning, or launch validation.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Project or comparable scheduling tools.

Responsibilities

• Represent the Advanced Materials team in new program launch planning and guide program and plant teams toward safe, stable material-flow solutions.
• Develop end-to-end material-flow concepts for receiving, storage, replenishment, lineside presentation, empty-container return, work-in-process, and finished-goods movement.
• Create and maintain facility, warehouse, supermarket, and lineside layouts using AutoCAD or equivalent tools, considering aisle strategy, equipment interfaces, ergonomics, safety, fire protection, and future expansion.
• Perform capacity and supply-chain studies, including PFEP analysis, inventory and days-on-hand requirements, storage density, dock and route capacity, labor demand, equipment utilization, and launch-volume scenarios.
• Build digital models and discrete-event simulations to validate concepts, identify constraints, size equipment and labor, and improve plant operations.
• Benchmark, evaluate, and implement Industry 4.0 and warehouse-automation solutions, including ASRS, AMRs, AGVs, vertical lift modules, conveyors, shuttles, flow racks, and related control systems.
• Define functional requirements and interfaces for WMS, WCS, SCADA, MES, ERP, and other operational technology systems with IT/OT and controls teams.
• Lead RFI and RFQ activities, including scope-of-work development, technical specifications, bid clarification, supplier evaluation, technical and commercial alignment, and award recommendations.
• Manage projects from concept through installation, commissioning, validation, and handoff, including schedules, budgets, risks, issues, change control, and stakeholder communication.
• Develop acceptance criteria and support design and simulation reviews, factory, site, and user acceptance testing, ramp-up, and post-launch performance verification.
• Prepare capital requests and cost-benefit analyses considering labor, space, inventory, quality, throughput, safety, and operational-risk impacts, and present recommendations to senior management.
• Partner with plant management and operations leaders on continuous-improvement projects involving material flow, warehouse design, labor productivity, space utilization, inventory accuracy, safety, and launch readiness.
• Identify internal and external supply-chain constraints, determine root causes, develop countermeasures, and drive implementation through closure.
• Develop standards, design guidelines, lessons learned, and reusable specifications for Lear facilities and future programs.
• Track project performance against targets and support operational handoff through training, documentation, spare-parts planning, maintenance strategy, and sustained-performance follow-up.

Benefits

• Direct exposure to senior management, plant leadership, program teams, and global engineering functions.
• Opportunity to influence material-flow strategy from early concept through launch and operational stabilization.
• Broad, end-to-end understanding of Lear’s supply-chain, manufacturing, and launch processes.
• Hands-on experience with advanced automation, digital engineering, operational technology, and large-scale capital projects.
• Opportunity to develop standards and solutions reusable across multiple Lear facilities and programs.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level