Lead Advanced Manufacturing Engineer

Job Overview

We are currently looking for a Lead Advanced Manufacturing Engineer to join our team onsite in Holland, MI. 

This role is pivotal in driving innovation across Haworth’s architectural and office furniture manufacturing operations. The Lead Advanced Manufacturing Engineer will join a team of Advanced Manufacturing Engineers dedicated to developing and implementing innovative manufacturing solutions throughout the product development lifecycle, from concept and design through full-scale production. In addition to leading individual projects, this position will provide technical leadership, guidance, and mentorship to fellow engineers, helping to advance best practices and engineering excellence across the team.

A primary focus of this role is the integration of technology solutions that enable seamless communication and data exchange between people, equipment, and enterprise systems, including ERP and MES platforms. The successful candidate will serve as a key link between manufacturing operations and digital technologies, driving initiatives that improve connectivity, visibility, efficiency, and decision-making across the organization.

Responsibilities may also include projects that require manufacturing feasibility, optimizing material flow, and developing strategies for labor utilization, equipment implementation, and new material integration. The Lead Advanced Manufacturing Engineer will play a critical role in identifying and executing opportunities to enhance productivity, quality, and operational performance while supporting Haworth’s long-term manufacturing strategy.

The ideal candidate brings a strong foundation in manufacturing engineering, exceptional problem-solving and analytical skills, experience with manufacturing data systems and programming, and the ability to effectively bridge manufacturing and IT disciplines. Additional qualifications include demonstrated project management expertise, encompassing business case development, capital equipment procurement, implementation, and execution. Success in this role requires the ability to align technical solutions with customer requirements, manufacturing capabilities, and financial objectives to deliver sustainable business value.

Essential Functions

• Contribute to the development of long-term manufacturing strategy, providing expert insights and recommendations.
• Develop and implement best practices and standards for manufacturing engineering, ensuring consistency and continuous improvement.
• Drive innovation in manufacturing processes, exploring and implementing advanced technologies and methodologies.  Ability to develop plans to prove that a consideration for a new technology, process, or methodology is statistically capable of providing the desired outcome (Examples:  1:  A prove-out plan for a new poka yoke is used to determine its percent effectiveness of detecting failures on the manufacturing process it was being considered for; 2)  A prove-out plan for a new process to ensure that the process produces product that meets mechanical test requirements and has a dimensionally capability of Ppk=1.33).  
• Lead complex problem-solving initiatives, utilizing advanced analytical techniques to identify root causes and implement effective solutions.  Ability to analyze scrap data, downtime data, complete dimensional analysis, interpret lab analysis, etc.  Ability to differentiate between Special Cause and Common Cause variation to determine appropriate tool/s for determinization of root cause analysis (Kepner Trego (is/is not), Shainin Red-X, hypothesis testing, DOE, correlation study, ANOVA, etc.).  Basic statistic skills and understanding. 
• Lead cross-functional teams for large-scale manufacturing projects, ensuring alignment and collaboration across departments.
• Lead the development and implementation of strategic manufacturing initiatives aligned with overall business objectives.  Possess understanding of manufacturing cost drivers to enable creation of initial business case analys