Manufacturing Engineer (Local Candidates Only)

Location: Aurora, Illinois; local candidates only, with on-site work required and approximately 10% travel, including global travel.

Salary: $85,000–$105,000 USD annually.

Company

hirify.global is part of the Freudenberg Group and operates manufacturing activities across injection molding, extrusion, drill fill, assembly, and warehouse operations.

What you will do

• Stabilize and improve manufacturing operations by defining processes, maintaining standard work, ensuring data accuracy, and driving safe, repeatable shop-floor execution.
• Develop, validate, and control manufacturing routings in SAP or other ERP/MES systems to support scheduling, costing, and work-center utilization.
• Create and maintain work instructions, packaging instructions, assembly layouts, and standard work layouts.
• Lead and support Lean initiatives including SMED, Kaizen, Gemba walks, structured problem solving, and performance management.
• Analyze downtime, scrap, rework, cycle time, labor balance, and material flow issues, then implement practical countermeasures with Quality and other functions.
• Drive cost-reduction initiatives and provide data-based justification for improvement projects and capital investments.

Requirements

• Currently local to Aurora, Illinois and able to work on-site.
• At least 2 years of relevant manufacturing engineering experience, ideally in FMCG or a similar environment.
• Degree in Industrial or Manufacturing Engineering or a comparable technical background is strongly preferred.
• Familiarity with manufacturing processes, ideally including injection molding and factory or warehouse automation.
• Working knowledge of SAP or another ERP system, SPC, KPI dashboards, data analysis, root-cause analysis, and corrective actions.
• Experience supporting multi-area plant operations, improving layouts and standard work, collaborating cross-functionally, and applying safety and ergonomic principles.

Nice to have

• Bilingual English and Spanish communication skills.
• Experience in a fast-moving consumer goods manufacturing environment.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time employment with hirify.global.
• Approximately 10% travel, including global travel.
• Equal opportunity workplace committed to diversity and inclusion.
• Compensation is based on qualifications, experience, education, and alignment with the role.