Manufacturing Engineering Manager - Reliability & Controls

About Us

The Michigan Milk Producers Association is a dairy farmer owned cooperative and dairy processor. Founded in 1916, the MMPA serves dairy farmers in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin. Quality milk and dairy products begin on the farm and continue through every step at Superior Dairy. Michigan Milk Producers Association's family dairy farmers take pride in producing wholesome, nutritious milk with care and integrity.

That commitment to quality carries forward as member milk is bottled and processed at Superior Dairy, MMPA's wholly owned subsidiary in Canton, Ohio. Founded in 1922, Superior Dairy honors its Great Lakes heritage while delivering trusted dairy products to customers in 44 states.

• Competitive salary
• Health and wellness benefits with medical coverage through Blue Cross Blue Shield, including mental health benefits
• Disability insurance
• Paid time off
• Employer-matched 401(k) retirement savings plan
• Personal and professional growth opportunities
• Employee appreciation events and recognition awards
• Employee wellness initiatives
• Employee feedback and suggestion forums

Michigan Milk Producers Association is seeking a Manufacturing Engineering Manager - Reliability & Controls to lead a team of Manufacturing Engineers focused on improving equipment reliability, automation performance, and manufacturing capability across multiple dairy manufacturing facilities. This role is responsible for building an engineering function focused on eliminating chronic equipment issues, improving control system performance, and strengthening the technical capability of our manufacturing teams.

The ideal candidate will have a strong background in controls, automation, or manufacturing engineering with the curiosity and problem-solving mindset to grow into broader reliability engineering leadership. This is not a traditional project engineering role. The focus is improving how equipment performs over time, understanding why failures occur, eliminating repeat issues, and creating more reliable manufacturing systems.

• Lead and develop Manufacturing Engineers supporting reliability, controls, and process improvement initiatives.
• Establish engineering priorities focused on eliminating chronic failures and improving plant performance.
• Drive structured problem solving, Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA), and permanent corrective actions.
• Use downtime data, CMMS information, and equipment performance trends to identify reliability opportunities.

• Provide technical leadership for industrial controls systems including PLCs, HMIs, VFDs, instrumentation, and industrial networks.
• Ensure control system changes improve reliability, maintainability, and long-term performance.
• Support troubleshooting of complex automation and process issues through engineering resources.
• Establish expectations for controls documentation and system standards.

• Maintain regular presence on the manufacturing floor to understand equipment performance and operational challenges.
• Work across shifts as needed to identify opportunities that impact reliability and production stability.
• Build strong partnerships with Operations and Maintenance teams through practical problem solving.

• Partner with Maintenance leadership to improve troubleshooting capability and technical understanding.
• Identify recurring skill gaps and support engineering-led training initiatives.
• Develop stronger collaboration between Engineering and Maintenance to reduce repeat failures.

• Identify opportunities to improve equipment performance, process stability, and manufacturing capability.
• Support capital projects when they directly improve reliability, maintainability, or system performance.
• Develop consistent engineering practices across manufacturing facilities.

• Reduction in chronic equipment failures and repeat downtime events
• Improved equipment reliability and production consistency
• Increased effectiveness…