Continuous Improvement & Manufacturing Engineer Manager

Ingersoll Rand is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances.

Position Summary

The Continuous Improvement & Manufacturing Engineering Manager is responsible for leading the organization's manufacturing engineering, process improvement, operational excellence, and production optimization initiatives within a pressure vessel manufacturing environment. This role oversees manufacturing engineering functions while driving Lean Manufacturing principles to improve safety, quality, productivity, delivery, and cost performance.

The position serves as a strategic leader partnering with Operations, Quality, Engineering, Supply Chain, and Maintenance to develop and implement sustainable manufacturing processes, support ASME code compliance, improve production capacity, and drive continuous improvement throughout the organization.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Manufacturing Engineering Leadership

• Provide leadership and oversight of the Manufacturing Engineering team.
• Develop and maintain manufacturing processes for fabrication, welding, machining, assembly, testing, and finishing operations.
• Design and improve production layouts, workflows, tooling, fixtures, and manufacturing methods.
• Develop and maintain routing structures, labor standards, and process documentation.
• Support new product introduction and manufacturability reviews.
• Collaborate with Design Engineering to improve product quality, manufacturability, and cost efficiency.
• Lead capital equipment evaluations, justifications, and implementation projects.
• Support capacity planning and production scalability initiatives.

Continuous Improvement Leadership

• Develop and execute the company's continuous improvement strategy.
• Lead Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, Kaizen, and operational excellence initiatives.
• Drive waste elimination efforts focused on reducing non-value-added activities throughout manufacturing operations.
• Conduct Value Stream Mapping and identify opportunities to improve throughput and product flow.
• Establish continuous improvement metrics and monitor progress against organizational goals.
• Facilitate problem-solving initiatives utilizing structured methodologies.

Operational Excellence

• Improve manufacturing performance related to:
  • Productivity
  • Labor efficiency
  • Capacity utilization
  • Throughput
  • Quality
  • Delivery performance
• Develop standardized work practices across manufacturing operations.
• Implement visual management systems and performance dashboards.
• Lead bottleneck analysis and process optimization activities.

Quality and ASME Compliance

• Support compliance with:
  • ASME Section VIII
  • ASME Section IX
  • National Board requirements
  • Customer specifications
  • ISO 9001 Quality Management System requirements
• Partner with Quality and Operations teams to reduce defects, non-conformances, and rework.
• Lead root cause investigations and corrective action initiatives.
• Support ASME audits, customer audits, and quality system audits.

Project Management

• Lead cross-functional improvement and engineering projects from concept through implementation.
• Establish project timelines, milestones, budgets, and measurable outcomes.
• Monitor project performance and sustainability of improvements.
• Present project status and business results to senior leadership.

Team Development

• Recruit, mentor, and develop Manufacturing Engineers and Continuous Improvement personnel.
• Foster a culture of accountability, innovation, continuous learning, and operational excellence.
• Train leaders and employees on Lean Manufacturing principles and problem-solving methodologies.
• Support succession planning and technical skills development.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Operations Management, or related technical field.
• Minimum 7 years of manufacturing engineering and/or continuous improvement experience in an industrial manufacturing environment.
• Minimum 3 years of leadership or management experience.
• Demonstrated experience implementing Lean Manufacturing initiatives and process improvements.
• Strong project management and organizational skills.
• Experience analyzing production data and developing performance improvement strategies.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in ASME pressure vessel, boiler, heat exchanger, piping, or heavy industrial fabrication manufacturing.
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, Black Belt, or Master Black Belt certification.
• Working knowledge of:
  • ASME Section VIII
  • ASME Section IX
  • Welding processes and procedures
  • Pressure vessel fabrication
• Experience with ERP and manufacturing execution systems.
• Knowledge of automated welding, robotics, and advanced manufacturing technologies.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

Technical Skills

• Manufacturing process design and optimization
• Welding and fabrication processes
• Industrial engineering principles
• Capacity planning
• Equipment and tooling design
• Statistical analysis and data interpretation
• Production planning concepts

Continuous Improvement Tools

• Lean Manufacturing
• Six Sigma
• Kaizen
• 5S
• Root Cause Analysis
• Problem Solving
• Value Stream Mapping
• Standard Work
• Visual Management
• SPC
• SMED
• Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA)

Leadership Skills

• Strategic thinking
• Team leadership and coaching
• Change management
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Conflict resolution
• Effective communication and presentation skills

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

This position will be evaluated based on:

Operational Metrics

• Manufacturing throughput
• Labor productivity
• Capacity utilization
• On-time delivery performance
• Lead-time reduction

Quality Metrics

• First-pass yield
• Rework reduction
• Scrap reduction
• Cost of quality improvements
• Customer quality performance

Continuous Improvement Metrics

• Annual cost savings achieved
• Improvement project completion rate
• Kaizen participation levels
• Process cycle-time reductions
• Inventory reduction initiatives

Safety Metrics

• Recordable incident rate reduction
• Near-miss reporting improvements
• Safety audit performance

Working Conditions

• Combination of office and manufacturing floor environment.
• Frequent exposure to fabrication, welding, machining, and assembly operations.
• Ability to work in an industrial manufacturing setting while wearing required PPE.
• Occasional travel may be required for supplier visits, customer support, equipment evaluations, and professional development.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is a hands-on engineering leader with extensive experience in pressure vessel fabrication, welding operations, manufacturing engineering, and Lean transformation. They possess a strong understanding of ASME code manufacturing requirements and have a proven track record of improving productivity, reducing costs, increasing throughput, and developing high-performing engineering and operations teams. This individual serves as a strategic business partner who bridges engineering excellence with operational execution to drive sustainable manufacturing performance.

Ingersoll Rand Inc. (NYSE:IR), driven by an entrepreneurial spirit and ownership mindset, is dedicated to helping make life better for our employees, customers and communities. Customers lean on us for our technology-driven excellence in mission-critical flow creation and industrial solutions across 40+ respected brands where our products and services excel in the most complex and harsh conditions. Our employees develop customers for life through their daily commitment to expertise, productivity and efficiency. For more information, visit www.IRCO.com.