Senior Engineering Group Manager - Automated Manufacturing

Flex•Buffalo Grove, IL

16d•$146,700 - $201,700

About The Position

The Senior Engineering Group Manager is a key member of the Engineering leadership team responsible for providing technical and organizational leadership across multiple engineering disciplines supporting manufacturing operations. Reporting to the Director of Engineering, this role leads Engineering Managers and technical teams responsible for factory engineering, equipment performance, mechanical systems, automation support, and capital equipment execution. The Senior Engineering Group Manager is accountable for building high-performing engineering teams while ensuring the organization has the technical capability, engineering rigor, and execution discipline required to support current manufacturing operations and future growth. This position requires an exceptional engineering leader with deep mechanical aptitude and extensive hands-on experience designing complex automated manufacturing equipment. The successful candidate will have progressed from a strong mechanical machine-design foundation into engineering management and will be ready to take the next step into broader, cross-functional, multi-discipline engineering leadership. The ideal candidate has experience within an OEM machine builder or equipment integrator serving the packaging, medical device, pharmaceutical, or automotive industries, where equipment reliability, precision, automation, throughput, and maintainability are critical to success.

Requirements

Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from an accredited institution.
Minimum 10 years of engineering experience involving the design, development, integration, and support of complex manufacturing equipment. AND a Minimum 3 years of experience directly managing a mechanical engineering or machine-design organization. Must have hire-fire engineering staff management experience.
Extensive professional experience using 3D mechanical design/CAD systems to design production machinery, automation equipment, tooling, mechanisms, or related industrial systems.
Significant experience working for an OEM machine builder, automation integrator, or custom equipment manufacturer supporting the packaging, medical device, pharmaceutical, automotive, or similarly demanding manufacturing industries.
Strong understanding of mechanical machine design principles including mechanisms, pneumatics, servo-driven motion, tooling, material handling, precision assemblies, machine guarding, and equipment maintainability.
Demonstrated progression from hands-on mechanical engineering and machine design into engineering leadership.
Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot complex automated equipment and lead multidisciplinary teams through structured root-cause analysis.
Proven success managing and developing engineers and engineering managers and building high-performing technical teams.
Strong communication skills with the ability to communicate effectively from the manufacturing floor through senior leadership.
Experience with high-speed automated assembly, packaging, precision manufacturing, robotics, Vision systems (e.g. Cognex), servo motion, and advanced manufacturing technologies.
Experience operating within regulated manufacturing environments such as medical device, Food and beverage, or pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Working knowledge of Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, OEE, reliability engineering, and structured problem-solving methodologies.

Nice To Haves

Has exceptional mechanical aptitude and an instinctive understanding of machinery.
Has personally designed complex automated equipment and understands what constitutes good machine design.
Can move comfortably between detailed technical discussions and strategic leadership conversations.
Develops people rather than simply directing work.
Sets a high technical bar while creating an environment where engineers are encouraged to learn, challenge assumptions, and innovate.
Builds strong partnerships across Operations and technical functions.
Uses data and engineering fundamentals to drive decisions.
Thinks beyond today's equipment problem and considers how engineering decisions affect reliability, maintainability, scalability, and future manufacturing capability.
Has successfully led a mechanical engineering organization and is ready to broaden their leadership scope across multiple engineering disciplines.

Responsibilities

Provide leadership and direction to Engineering Managers and multi-disciplinary engineering teams supporting manufacturing operations.
Develop a high-performance engineering organization with clear expectations for technical excellence, ownership, collaboration, accountability, and execution.
Coach and develop Engineering Managers, engineers, and technical leaders while building succession plans and strengthening the organization's technical bench.
Establish consistent engineering standards, processes, and expectations across manufacturing areas.
Partner with Operations, Quality, Maintenance, Reliability, Facilities, and other functional leaders to establish priorities and deliver business results.
Create an environment where engineering teams proactively identify opportunities and solve problems at their root cause rather than repeatedly responding to symptoms.
Serve as a senior technical authority for mechanical equipment design, machine functionality, equipment performance, and engineering problem solving.
Provide technical leadership for the design, modification, integration, commissioning, and lifecycle support of complex automated manufacturing equipment.
Lead engineering reviews of machine concepts, mechanical designs, equipment modifications, and major technical solutions.
Challenge engineering assumptions and ensure solutions demonstrate sound engineering principles, appropriate safety considerations, manufacturability, reliability, maintainability, and lifecycle value.
Guide root-cause analysis of complex or chronic equipment failures involving mechanical, electrical, controls, process, and operational interactions.
Ensure engineering solutions address underlying equipment and process limitations rather than relying on temporary countermeasures.
Support the development of equipment specifications and technical requirements for internally developed and externally sourced manufacturing systems.
Partner with factory leadership to improve equipment availability, throughput, quality, yield, and Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).
Establish engineering priorities based on business impact, equipment performance data, chronic losses, and manufacturing constraints.
Lead engineering efforts addressing recurring equipment failures, bottlenecks, quality losses, and systemic manufacturing issues.
Promote disciplined problem-solving methodologies and data-driven engineering decision making.
Ensure engineering resources are effectively deployed against the highest-value operational opportunities.