Job Overview

Shift Schedule: 7:30 AM - 4:30 PM - Onsite (Fairview/Arden, NC)

As a Senior Manufacturing Engineer focused on sustaining and continuous improvement, you will provide engineering ownership for existing products, production processes, equipment, tooling, and documentation. You will be responsible for improving safety, quality, delivery, cost, and productivity performance across established manufacturing lines while supporting day-to-day production needs, engineering changes, capacity improvements, and operational problem solving. In this role, you will collaborate closely with Operations, Quality, Maintenance, Supply Chain, Product Engineering, and other stakeholders to stabilize, optimize, and standardize manufacturing processes for existing products. You will lead root-cause analysis, implement corrective and preventive actions, drive Lean and Six Sigma improvements, and ensure manufacturing processes remain capable, documented, controlled, and aligned with TE’s quality, safety, and regulatory standards.

Please note: This position may involve working with technical data, technology, software/source code, hardware, or other items (collectively "items") subject to U.S. and non-U.S. export control laws and regulations. Under these regulations, it may be necessary for TE to verify a candidate's national origin and/or citizenship status to determine whether a U.S. or other government export license is required prior to releasing its technologies to the candidate. If TE determines that TE will require a license or will be prohibited by applicable laws from providing the candidate with items necessary for the performance of this position, then TE expressly reserves the right to either a) make an offer of employment contingent upon TE receiving required export licenses from the appropriate government agency, b) consider the candidate for a different position that is not subject to such restrictions, on whatever terms and conditions TE shall establish in its sole discretion, or c) decline to move forward with the candidate's application.

Job Requirements

• Provide sustaining manufacturing engineering support for existing products, production lines, tooling, fixtures, equipment, and assembly processes.
• Lead structured root-cause analysis and corrective action for production, quality, yield, scrap, rework, downtime, and customer-return issues using tools such as DMAIC, 5 Whys, 8D, fishbone analysis, and statistical methods.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives that improve safety, quality, delivery, cost, productivity, ergonomics, and process stability across existing manufacturing operations.
• Evaluate process performance through capability studies, yield analysis, cycle-time studies, downtime analysis, capacity reviews, and production data trending.
• Develop and implement process improvements involving work methods, tooling, fixtures, automation, mistake-proofing, line layout, standard work, and material flow.
• Own and maintain manufacturing documentation for existing products, including process flow charts, PFMEAs, control plans, work instructions, standard operating procedures, routings, and equipment documentation.
• Support engineering change requests, product changes, supplier changes, alternate materials, tooling updates, and process changes while ensuring proper validation, documentation, and production readiness.
• Partner with Quality and Operations to resolve nonconformances, reduce customer complaints, improve first-pass yield, and strengthen process controls.
• Work with Maintenance and production teams to improve equipment reliability, reduce unplanned downtime, support TPM activities, and identify opportunities for preventive maintenance improvements.
• Identify, justify, and execute cost-reduction projects through labor efficiency, scrap reduction, tooling improvements, automation, process optimization, and waste elimination.
• Support capacity planning and production line balancing for existing product families, including equipment utilization, staffing assumptions, bottleneck analysis, and layout improvements.
• Lead or support commissioning, qualification, and validation of replacement equipment, upgraded tooling, revised fixtures, and modified production processes.
• Provide technical leadership and mentoring to technicians, operators, maintenance personnel, and less experienced engineers on troubleshooting, process control, and standard work.
• Collaborate with global and local cross-functional teams to transfer lessons learned, standardize best practices, and sustain improvements across manufacturing sites where applicable.

What your background should look like

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related technical discipline is REQUIRED.
• 7–10 years of relevant manufacturing engineering experience in a production environment, with demonstrated ownership of existing products, assembly processes, tooling, equipment, and continuous improvement projects.
• Strong hands-on troubleshooting skills with experience resolving production, quality, equipment, tooling, and process-performance issues.
• Experience applying Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, standard work, waste elimination, line balancing, and variation-reduction methods in an active manufacturing operation.
• Working knowledge of PFMEA, control plans, work instructions, process flow documentation, capability analysis, statistical process control, and corrective action systems.
• Familiarity with BOMs, routings, ERP/MES systems, engineering change control, production documentation, and manufacturing data analysis.
• Experience supporting manual, semi-automated, and automated assembly processes, including fixture design, tooling improvements, equipment upgrades, and process validation.
• Ability to lead cross-functional projects, influence stakeholders, communicate technical issues clearly, and drive actions to closure in a fast-paced production environment.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office tools; experience with CAD, data analysis tools, or manufacturing systems is preferred.
• Knowledge of RFO, cable assemblies, harnesses, electromechanical assemblies, or similar high-mix assembly operations is an added advantage.

• Proven experience sustaining existing product lines and improving established manufacturing processes after product launch.
• Demonstrated success leading quality, productivity, scrap reduction, downtime reduction, and cost-improvement initiatives, including TPM or equipment-reliability projects.
• Experience translating shop-floor issues into practical engineering solutions that are validated, documented, trained, and sustained in production.

Competencies