Senior Engineering Manager - Automated Manufacturing Group
Flex · Illinois
- Level
- Manager
- Team
- Manufacturing
- Degree
- Required
- Experience asked
- 10+ years
- Industry
- Industrial
- Posted
- 4 days ago
The role in 30 seconds
A management manufacturing role at Flex (industrial) in Illinois.
- They ask for
- 10+ years · degree required
- Tools it names
- OEE, Root cause, Automation, Tooling
Read from the posting. The full description is below.
From the plant jobs report · week of October 19, 2026
Manufacturing Engineer roles in Illinois: typical posted base $96k–$155k.
Median of the low and high ends of 18 live postings that list pay, out of 34 manufacturing engineer openings in Illinois, read from manufacturers' own careers sites.
Illinois plant jobs report →Pay by team and state →What moves pay →
How this role compares
Against 33 other live manufacturing postings in Illinois.
- Base pay
- Not listed in this posting
- Experience asked
- More than usual (10+ vs 5+)
Typical $89k–$145k, from 16 postings that list pay.
Similar roles usually ask 5+ years.
Skills these teams ask for most
- ✓ Root cause 59%
- ✓ Automation 53%
- Lean 50%
- New product launch 32%
- Validation (IQ/OQ/PQ) 32%
- Cost reduction 26%
✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention it.
At a glance
Pulled from the posting text. If it's not listed here, the posting didn't say.
How to get in at this plant
Five moves over a week or two. The first one takes ten minutes.
- 1
Pick 2–3 people on the Manufacturing team at Flex
We found 1 person at this company and state: 1 in this kind of role. Engineers who joined in the last year or two reply the most. See them ↓
- 2
Send a short, curious note
One real question about their work. No favors yet. Each person gets a different note, written for this role.
Write to Lisa → (free) - 3
Turn a reply into a short call
Questions worth asking about this team:
- What does a normal week look like on your team?
- Is the work mostly new product launches or sustaining existing lines?
- How much time do you spend on the floor versus at a desk?
- How did you land the job? What stood out in your interviews?
- 4
Apply with someone vouching for you
If the call went well, ask whether they’d pass your résumé to the hiring manager. Send your résumé link, apply that day, and let them know.
- 5
Bring proof to the interview
One page of before-and-after numbers from projects you led: scrap, OEE, cycle time, cost. Plant managers hire on results.
Full description from FlexAs posted on their careers site.ShowHide
Position Summary
The Senior Engineering Manager - Automated Manufacturing Group is a key member of the Engineering leadership team responsible for providing technical and organizational leadership across multiple engineering disciplines supporting manufacturing operations.
Reporting to the Director of Engineering, this role leads Engineering Managers and technical teams responsible for factory engineering, equipment performance, mechanical systems, automation support, and capital equipment execution. The Senior Engineering Group Manager is accountable for building high-performing engineering teams while ensuring the organization has the technical capability, engineering rigor, and execution discipline required to support current manufacturing operations and future growth.
This position requires an exceptional engineering leader with deep mechanical aptitude and extensive hands-on experience designing complex automated manufacturing equipment . The successful candidate will have progressed from a strong mechanical machine-design foundation into engineering management and will be ready to take the next step into broader, cross-functional, multi-discipline engineering leadership.
The ideal candidate has experience within an OEM machine builder or equipment integrator serving the packaging, medical device, pharmaceutical, or automotive industries , where equipment reliability, precision, automation, throughput, and maintainability are critical to success.
requirements
for internally developed and externally sourced manufacturing systems.
Required Qualifications
- ✓Minimum of Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from an accredited institution is REQUIRED.
- ✓Minimum 10 years of engineering experience involving the design, development, integration, and support of complex manufacturing equipment. AND a Minimum 3 years of experience directly managing a mechanical engineering or machine-design organization. Must have hire-fire engineering staff management experience.
- ✓Extensive professional experience using 3D mechanical design/CAD systems to design production machinery, automation equipment, tooling, mechanisms, or related industrial systems.
- ✓Significant experience working for an OEM machine builder, automation integrator, or custom equipment manufacturer supporting the packaging, medical device, pharmaceutical, automotive, or similarly demanding manufacturing industries.
- ✓Strong understanding of mechanical machine design principles including mechanisms, pneumatics, servo-driven motion, tooling, material handling, precision assemblies, machine guarding, and equipment maintainability.
- ✓Demonstrated progression from hands-on mechanical engineering and machine design into engineering leadership.
- ✓Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot complex automated equipment and lead multidisciplinary teams through structured root-cause analysis.
- ✓Proven success managing and developin
Show full description ↓Show less ↑
Flex is the diversified manufacturing partner of choice that helps market-leading brands design, build and deliver innovative products that improve the world.
A career at Flex offers the opportunity to make a difference and invest in your growth in a respectful, inclusive, and collaborative environment. If you are excited about a role but don't meet every bullet point, we encourage you to apply and join us to create the extraordinary.
Engineering Leadership
- •Provide leadership and direction to Engineering Managers and multi-disciplinary engineering teams supporting manufacturing operations.
- •Develop a high-performance engineering organization with clear expectations for technical excellence, ownership, collaboration, accountability, and execution.
- •Coach and develop Engineering Managers, engineers, and technical leaders while building succession plans and strengthening the organization's technical bench.
- •Establish consistent engineering standards, processes, and expectations across manufacturing areas.
- •Partner with Operations, Quality, Maintenance, Reliability, Facilities, and other functional leaders to establish priorities and deliver business results.
- •Create an environment where engineering teams proactively identify opportunities and solve problems at their root cause rather than repeatedly responding to symptoms.
Technical & Equipment Leadership
- •Serve as a senior technical authority for mechanical equipment design, machine functionality, equipment performance, and engineering problem solving.
- •Provide technical leadership for the design, modification, integration, commissioning, and lifecycle support of complex automated manufacturing equipment.
- •Lead engineering reviews of machine concepts, mechanical designs, equipment modifications, and major technical solutions.
- •Challenge engineering assumptions and ensure solutions demonstrate sound engineering principles, appropriate safety considerations, manufacturability, reliability, maintainability, and lifecycle value.
- •Guide root-cause analysis of complex or chronic equipment failures involving mechanical, electrical, controls, process, and operational interactions.
- •Ensure engineering solutions address underlying equipment and process limitations rather than relying on temporary countermeasures.
- •Support the development of equipment specifications and technical
Operational Excellence
- •Partner with factory leadership to improve equipment availability, throughput, quality, yield, and Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).
- •Establish engineering priorities based on business impact, equipment performance data, chronic losses, and manufacturing constraints.
- •Lead engineering efforts addressing recurring equipment failures, bottlenecks, quality losses, and systemic manufacturing issues.
- •Promote disciplined problem-solving methodologies and data-driven engineering decision making.
- •Ensure engineering resources are effectively deployed against the highest-value operational opportunities.