Manufacturing Process Engineer
Listed on 2026-09-12
-
Manufacturing / Production
Manufacturing Engineer, Quality Engineering, Lean Manufacturing / Six Sigma -
Engineering
Manufacturing Engineer, Process Engineer, Quality Engineering, Lean Manufacturing / Six Sigma
About the Position
Manufacturing Process Engineer
Engineering Manager
In Office, Ventura, California
Full Time, Hourly
Defense, Space, Aircraft, Medical
The Manufacturing Process Engineer is responsible for owning, improving, validating, and sustaining the manufacturing processes used to produce high-precision wire and cable assemblies at Strand Products, a 100% employee-owned manufacturer serving the medical device, aerospace, and defense industries.
This is a hands-on, production-focused role with a strong presence on the manufacturing floor. The Manufacturing Process Engineer works cross-functionally with Engineering, Quality, Production, Maintenance, and Supply Chain to improve process capability, quality, throughput, equipment performance, labor efficiency, and manufacturing cost. A central responsibility of the role is converting improvement opportunities into stable, documented, repeatable production processes through automation, tooling, equipment, data, and disciplined process control.
The role also owns the manufacturing-engineering handoff from New Product Introduction (NPI) into sustaining production. The Manufacturing Process Engineer ensures new processes are production-ready before transfer, establishes clear acceptance criteria and documentation, closes transfer gaps, and remains accountable for process performance after release to production.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities Production Process Ownership & Continuous Improvement- Own assigned manufacturing processes from release through sustaining production, including process performance, capability, documentation, and improvement.
- Develop, validate, standardize, document, and continuously improve manufacturing methods and process controls.
- Analyze production data and manufacturing KPIs to identify constraints, recurring defects, sources of variation, excessive labor content, downtime, and cost opportunities.
- Lead improvements that increase throughput, yield, first-pass quality, OEE, capacity, and labor efficiency while reducing scrap, rework, downtime, and process variation.
- Perform time studies, capacity analysis, line balancing, workflow analysis, and workstation/process optimization as appropriate.
- Use structured problem-solving and statistical methods, including capability studies, GR&R, DOE, trend analysis, and Minitab, to make data-based process decisions.
- Design and optimize tooling, fixtures, work holding, and production methods to improve repeatability, ergonomics, safety, quality, and cycle time.
- Lead Lean, Kaizen, waste-reduction, standard-work, and other continuous-improvement initiatives.
- Establish and monitor meaningful process metrics and verify that implemented improvements deliver sustained results.
- Identify and implement cost-reduction opportunities through process optimization, automation, waste elimination, material utilization, and equipment improvements.
- Identify manufacturing operations that are strong candidates for automation or semi-automation based on safety, quality, repeatability, labor content, capacity, and return on investment.
- Develop business cases and technical requirements for automation and equipment projects, including expected benefits, risks, implementation needs, and measurable success criteria.
- Specify, source, install, qualify, and integrate manufacturing equipment and automated systems.
- Lead or support automation initiatives involving PLC-controlled equipment, machine vision, sensors, data acquisition, motion control, error-proofing, and manufacturing equipment integration.
- Work with internal teams, integrators, and equipment suppliers from concept through factory/site acceptance, installation, qualification, training, and production release.
- Ensure new equipment and automation are safe, maintainable, documented, validated as required, and practical for production operators and maintenance personnel.
- Collaborate with Maintenance to improve equipment reliability, preventive maintenance effectiveness, uptime, and long-term supportability.
- Develop tooling, fixtures, and 3D-printed solutions when they provide an effective and scalable manufacturing improvement.
- Serve as the manufacturing-process owner for the transition of new products and processes from NPI into sustaining production.
- Partner with Product/Design Engineering, Quality, Production, Supply Chain, and other stakeholders during NPI to ensure manufacturability, process…
(If this job is in fact in your jurisdiction, then you may be using a Proxy or VPN to access this site, and to progress further, you should change your connectivity to another mobile device or PC).