Automation Engineering Director

Description DIRECTOR OF MANUFACTURING AUTOMATION

Who We Are Founded in 1964, Tech Etch specializes in manufacturing precision-engineered components and flexible printed circuits in the Aerospace and Defense, Medical Devices, and Electronics and Telecommunications industries. Our mission is to inspire, create, and provide innovative solutions that enhance lives globally. We develop meaningful, long-term partnerships between our employee-owners and the industry leaders we serve. Our employees make up a united team of individuals who value positivity, teamwork, and growth with a mission to advance their skillsets and success. Tech Etch operates facilities in Plymouth, MA, Fall River, MA, and Litchfield, MN.

About The Job We are seeking a strategic and hands-on Director of Manufacturing Automation to lead Tech Etch’s automation roadmap and project portfolio. This role identifies and delivers automation solutions that expand capacity, reduce labor requirements, improve quality and throughput, and support new business opportunities. The Director partners across Operations, OpEx, Engineering, Quality, Finance, IT, Sales, and external suppliers to ensure investments produce measurable, sustainable results.

SHIFT: Full-time, Monday-Friday, standard business hours with flexibility to support installations, startups, and travel between facilities.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain a multiyear manufacturing automation strategy, standards, and prioritized project roadmap aligned with business goals.
• Identify and evaluate opportunities involving robotics, controls, machine vision, automated inspection, material handling, data collection, and related technologies.
• Develop automation strategies for new products and new customer programs that improve competitiveness, support capacity growth, and reduce long-term operating costs.
• Build business cases and capital requests that define cost, return, capacity, labor, quality, revenue, risk, and payback expectations.
• Lead projects from concept and design through fabrication, programming, installation, validation, training, commissioning, and production handoff.
• Manage project scope, schedule, budget, resources, technical risk, vendor performance, and realized business benefits; escalate or correct issues when results are at risk.
• Lead and develop a multidisciplinary team and coordinate internal employees, integrators, external partners, equipment builders, contractors, and suppliers.
• Partner with production employees and cross-functional leaders to define requirements, support adoption, and ensure effective training, documentation, maintenance, and sustainment.
• Ensure systems meet safety, quality, regulatory, cybersecurity, reliability, maintainability, and change-control requirements.
• Track portfolio performance and implemented-system results, incorporate lessons learned, and scale successful solutions across products, processes, and locations.
• Partner with the Operational Excellence team to identify and eliminate upstream process variation through the application of Lean and Six Sigma methodologies, ensuring manufacturing processes are stable, capable, and standardized in support of automation solutions that operate reliably without continuous human intervention.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical, electrical, manufacturing, automation, robotics, mechatronics, or a related engineering discipline.
• Progressive leadership experience in manufacturing automation, capital equipment, or manufacturing technology, including projects delivered from concept through production.
• Demonstrated ability to develop financial justifications, manage budgets and schedules, and lead multidisciplinary teams and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Working knowledge of manufacturing operations, equipment integration, process improvement, production support, and industrial safety and quality requirements.
• Strong business judgment, technical decision-making, project leadership, communication, coaching, and structured problem-solving skills.
• Experience with robotics, PLCs, controls, machine vision, automated inspection, motion control, sensors, material handling, or manufacturing data integration preferred.
• Experience in a low-volume, high-mix or regulated manufacturing environment and Lean, Six Sigma, or project management certification preferred.

WORK CONDITIONS & PHYSICAL DEMANDS

• Work is performed in office, engineering, laboratory, and manufacturing environments, with regular time on the production floor.
• Ability to travel between company facilities and supplier or integrator locations as business needs require.
• Ability to support equipment installation, testing, commissioning, and production startup activities and to use required personal protective equipment.

Benefits

• Competitive Pay with Bonus Potential
• Employee Stock Ownership
• 20 Vacation Days + 10 Holidays
• Low-Cost Medical, Dental, Vision, and Voluntary Life Insurance
• Flex Spending Accounts
• 401k with Company Match
• Wellness Incentive Program
• Employee Assistance Program
• Professional Development & Career Advancement Pathways
• Tuition Assistance Program
• Quarterly & Personal Performance Bonus Opportunities

SALARY RANGE: $115,000-$180,000 annual base salary. This is the full salary range for the position. Most new hires can expect to start around the start of the range.

Final compensation will be determined based on factors such as experience, skills, education, and internal equity.

HEAR FROM OUR TEAM: https://youtu.be/\_dOS4Z7-Loo

Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled

Export Control Notice: This position may involve access to information subject to U.S. export control laws. Employment eligibility for this role is contingent upon the candidate meeting applicable export control requirements in accordance with U.S. law.

ISO 9001:2015 & AS9100D certified.