Digital Twin Engineer; Manufacturing Simulation

Overview

Onsite – Gastonia, NC. The Manufacturing Digital Twin Engineer owns and builds the plant-level Digital Twin for an IATF-certified automotive manufacturing facility (~375 employees) producing Heavy Duty and Industrial Air and Liquid Filtration. The role develops the capability from the ground up using AutoCAD and Flex Sim to model end-to-end production and internal logistics, run mixed-methods simulations, and provide data-driven recommendations to improve throughput, robustness, and investment decisions — while creating reusable standards/templates for global scaling.

• Own the plant Digital Twin in AutoCAD and Flex Sim
• Establish governed model structure (assets, routings, constraints, assumptions, versioning)
• Keep the model aligned to real-world conditions (including high-mix/low-volume realities)
• Update flows, routings, and process steps end-to-end
• Maintain capacity inputs: cycle times, changeovers, uptime/downtime
• Maintain shift/labor patterns, buffers/WIP rules, and operating constraints
• Model internal logistics: warehouse/supermarkets, tugger/forklift routes, replenishment logic
• Validate and refresh inputs with stakeholders using MED and SAP data
• Run studies for bottlenecks, constraint behavior, line balancing, and rate changes
• Evaluate buffer sizing/WIP strategies and material flow improvements
• Assess staffing concepts and operating policies
• Support investment/expansion scenarios (new lines, automation, warehouse, redesign)
• Use DOE/parameter sweeps, heuristic optimization, and structured experimentation
• Identify new Digital Twin use cases with Manufacturing Engineering, Supply Chain, CI/Lean
• Translate operational problems into simulation questions with defined inputs/outputs
• Build repeatable templates for recurring analyses
• Provide recommendations supporting capex justification, investment prioritization, through output improvements, and robustness/sensitivity analysis
• Communicate results to leadership with clear assumptions, scenarios, findings, and recommendations
• Validate alternative layouts/logistics concepts/capacity changes through simulation
• Collaborate with engineering while protecting model integrity and ownership
• Partner with the Global Digital Twin Program Lead
• Package reusable standards: templates, modeling conventions, scenario libraries

• Bachelors degree in Engineering preferred
• Equivalent combinations of education and/or experience will be considered

• 3 to 5 years of manufacturing engineering, industrial engineering, simulation engineering, or related roles in a manufacturing environment
• Tool/application experience: hands-on building models in Flex Sim (or comparable DES tool) and using AutoCAD for industrial/manufacturing layouts

• Discrete-event simulation (DES) capability
• Flex Sim including building reusable model components
• AutoCAD in manufacturing layout context
• Strong understanding of manufacturing systems (flows, constraints, variability, bottlenecks)
• Ability to create models from ambiguous inputs and validate with stakeholders
• Strong analytical and communication skills; able to explain assumptions/results to non-simulation audiences
• Provide training and coach team members on the use of Flex Sim to support simulation modeling, analysis, and decision-making

• Experience working in the automotive industry
• Basic scripting/analytics exposure: SQL, Python, PowerBI
• Using MES and SAP data for operational analysis
• Optimization approaches: DOE, parameter sweeps, heuristic optimization