Manufacturing Engineering Director

Winland Foods is a leading manufacturer of high-quality food products trusted by households and foodservice partners across North America. Grounded in our values and driven by our One Winland mindset, we are transforming how we operate—from the plant floor to the executive level—to deliver exceptional value to our customers, our employees, and the communities we serve.

We take pride in fostering a culture of continuous improvement, accountability, and innovation. If you’re energized by building high-performing teams, creating sustainable systems, and shaping the future of manufacturing excellence, we’d love to meet you.

Employee Type:

Full time

Location:

IL Oak Brook

Job Type:

Engineering

Job Posting Title:

Manufacturing Engineering Director

Job Description:

Position Overview

The Director of Engineering will lead the development and execution of Winland Foods’ manufacturing engineering strategy, driving capital investment and process optimization across our network of manufacturing facilities. This leader will guide a team of engineers and collaborate deeply with Operations, Supply Chain, Maintenance, Quality, EHS, and Finance to ensure best-in-class performance in safety, cost per pound, service, quality, and sustainability.

We are seeking a transformative leader - someone who is as passionate about coaching and developing talent as they are about technical rigor and data-driven problem solving. 

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Define and execute the engineering strategy aligned to business objectives.
• Advance a continuous improvement culture to improve cost per pound and productivity while enhancing quality and service.
• Drive standardization of processes and best practices across sites.

Capital Management & Innovation

• Lead capital planning and execution to optimize capacity, technology upgrades, cost savings, and facility expansions.
• Develop and manage the 3 year CAPEX plan for the Pasta Plant network.
• Lead and support project development and the presentation of capital authorization documents that are complete, concise, and reflect thorough due diligence to ensure project success.
• Evaluate emerging technologies that enhance automation, sustainability, and throughput.
• Partner with procurement and vendors to manage equipment selection, installation, commissioning, and training.  Drive capital supplier negotiations to optimize cost-benefits.
• Lead and support projects through ideation and stage gating, scoping, approval, final engineering/design, equipment selection and procurement, construction, and commissioning, qualification, and validation.   
• Develops Business Case Screening scopes and cost estimates to give the business team a directional view of a project and the robustness of the business case.

Team & People Development

• Build, mentor, and inspire a high-performing, diverse engineering team.
• Foster a culture of curiosity, collaboration, and accountability.
• Directly engage with plant teams to support capability-building and performance coaching.

Operations & Process Excellence

• Lead engineering efforts related to processing, packaging, and automation to improve efficiency and reliability.
• Partner closely with Operations, Quality and Maintenance to reduce downtime and improve equipment life cycles.
• Ensure safety—employee and food safety—remains a non-negotiable priority in all engineering work.
• Provide leadership, resources, and on-site troubleshooting to support resolution of plant related technical issues. 

What Great Looks Like

• A proactive, visible leader who builds trust and alignment across teams.
• A strategic thinker who also loves rolling up their sleeves on the plant floor.  Travel of ~50% to 65% is expected.
• Compelled by measurable results, sustainable standard work, and continuous improvement.
• Strong communicator who energizes others and champions Winland Values across functions.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Industrial, Chemical, or related).
• 10+ years of manufacturing engineering experience; with at least 5 years in a multi-site environment.
• Proven track record in capital planning and execution and project management.
• Demonstrated leadership by building and developing high-performing engineering teams.
• Strong ability to collaborate cross-functionally and influence at all organizational levels.
• Working knowledge of sani