Advanced Manufacturing Engineering Director

We are conducting a confidential search for an Advanced Manufacturing Engineering Director to lead manufacturing engineering for a manufacturing organisation based in Osaka, working on-site. Osaka remains one of Japan's deepest advanced manufacturing clusters, and this is a director-level opportunity for an engineering leader who can drive kaizen-led process improvement and monozukuri craftsmanship discipline across a multi-line production operation.

In this role, you will own the manufacturing engineering roadmap across process design, tooling, and line automation, lead continuous improvement under kaizen and monozukuri principles to lift yield, cycle time, and first-pass quality, and ensure compliance with JIS industrial standards and customer-specific quality requirements. You will direct new product introduction (NPI) engineering from design transfer through production ramp, and oversee equipment reliability, TPM, and capital equipment planning across the plant.

You will build and lead a team of manufacturing and process engineers, partner with quality, procurement, and R&D on design-for-manufacturability reviews, and represent manufacturing engineering to plant leadership and corporate headquarters. You will also drive automation and robotics adoption on the line and mentor engineers in genba-first problem solving.

Nice to Have:

• Experience with kaizen, monozukuri, or Toyota Production System methodology
• Background ensuring compliance with JIS or equivalent industrial standards
• Track record leading new product introduction (NPI) into high-volume manufacturing
• Experience with factory automation and robotics integration
• Working proficiency in Japanese manufacturing floor communication norms

Nice to have

• Experience with kaizen, monozukuri, or Toyota Production System methodology
• Background ensuring compliance with JIS or equivalent industrial standards
• Track record leading new product introduction (NPI) into high-volume manufacturing
• Experience with factory automation and robotics integration
• Working proficiency in Japanese manufacturing floor communication norms