Engineering Manager

Engineering Manager | Automotive Manufacturing

Northeastern Indiana Area

A growing, well-established manufacturer is looking for an Engineering Manager who knows how to lead people and drive technical execution in a demanding production environment.

This is a meaningful plant leadership role with ownership across manufacturing engineering, new product launches, process improvement, tooling, automation, and engineering change management.

WHY THIS ROLE EXISTS

The company needs an experienced engineering leader who can bring accountability, technical judgment, and execution discipline to an established manufacturing operation.

You will lead a team of engineers and technical professionals while working closely with Operations and Quality to make sure new programs, process changes, and manufacturing improvements are executed successfully.

WHAT YOU'LL OWN

• Lead and develop a multidisciplinary manufacturing engineering team.

• Drive new product introductions from manufacturing planning through stable production.

• Own engineering changes, technical priorities, timelines, and open issues.

• Ensure processes, equipment, tooling, and documentation are production-ready.

• Lead manufacturing trials and production-readiness activities.

• Partner with Operations and Quality on difficult process and production problems.

• Drive root cause, corrective action, and continuous improvement.

• Improve engineering execution, accountability, and communication across the operation.

WHAT STRONG CANDIDATES LOOKS LIKE

• Proven leadership experience in Manufacturing Engineering, Process Engineering, or Plant Engineering.

• Experience directly managing engineers and technical professionals.

• Background in high-volume, process-driven manufacturing.

• Strong working knowledge of production equipment, tooling, automation, and manufacturing processes.

• Experience launching new products, programs, or manufacturing processes.

• Comfortable owning engineering changes from technical review through implementation.

• Able to lead controls and automation resources without needing to personally be the controls programmer.

• Strong understanding of structured problem solving and root cause analysis.

• Comfortable working closely with Operations and Quality in a plant environment.

• Strong floor presence and the ability to challenge technical decisions when needed.

• Experience in plastics processing, engineered components, automotive suppliers, consumer products, appliance, or another equipment-intensive manufacturing environment can translate well.

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Engineering Technology, or a related field preferred. Strong equivalent experience will be considered.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU

• Real people leadership with an established technical team.

• Broad engineering ownership rather than a narrowly defined specialty.

• Direct exposure to senior operations and engineering leadership.

• Complex manufacturing environment with meaningful automation, tooling, and capital equipment.

• Opportunity to influence how engineering supports production, launches, and continuous improvement.

• A role where engineering decisions have a visible impact on plant performance.

WHAT THIS ROLE IS NOT

• Not primarily a maintenance or facilities role.

• Not a desk-only project management position.

• Not a pure product design job.

• Not a manager title without meaningful team leadership.

• Not a fit for someone whose experience is limited to maintaining mature processes without launch or engineering-change ownership.

If you have led engineers in a process-heavy manufacturing environment and enjoy being accountable for both the team and what happens on the production floor, this is worth a conversation.