Automation & Continuous-Improvement Lead

The Wonderful Company

Del Rey (CA)

On-site

USD 110,000 - 115,000

Full time

2 days ago

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Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage

401k with match

Career advancement

Mentorship program

Continuous Improvement training

Job summary

The Wonderful Company is seeking an Advanced Manufacturing Manager in California to lead development and rollout of advanced manufacturing technologies and continuous improvement strategies across our operations. You will partner with Operations, Maintenance, Engineering, Quality, EHS, IT/OT, and suppliers to identify opportunities, build compelling business cases, and drive measurable benefits.

Responsibilities include steering automation projects, data-driven optimization, and sustaining

Qualifications

Experience leading manufacturing improvement and automation projects.
Strong knowledge of Lean, TPM, Six Sigma, A3, DMAIC, root-cause analysis.
Experience with PLCs, HMIs, VFDs, robotics, machine vision, and safety systems.
Ability to develop project scopes, business cases, capital requests, budgets, and ROI analyses.
Bilingual English and Spanish preferred.

Responsibilities

Develop and maintain a prioritized advanced manufacturing and continuous improvement roadmap aligned with plant and business objectives.
Identify and evaluate opportunities to improve manufacturing processes through robotics, machine vision, AI, and automation.
Lead automation projects from opportunity identification to implementation and handoff.
Conduct capacity, downtime, reliability, waste, quality, labor, and OEE analyses to identify improvements.
Lead A3 problem solving, DMAIC, root-cause analysis, Kaizen, value-stream mapping, TPM, standard work, and other structured continuous improvement activities.
Determine whether manufacturing losses are best addressed through automation, maintenance, training, process redesign, standard work, or other countermeasures.
Translate operational needs into project charters, functional requirements, scopes of work, acceptance criteria, budgets, schedules, and implementation plans.
Develop capital requests and ROI analyses that define the problem, investment, risks, expected operational impact, and financial return.
Coordinate cross-functional technical and design reviews with Operations, Maintenance, Engineering, Quality, EHS, IT/OT, OEMs, and system integrators.
Participate in factory acceptance testing, site acceptance testing, commissioning, performance validation, and project closeout.
Ensure automation projects address machine safety, food safety, hygienic design, sanitation, maintainability, software backups, spare parts, technical documentation, training, and lifecycle support.
Evaluate practical AI applications including predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, computer vision, process optimization, automated reporting, knowledge management, and operator decision support.
Partner with Electrical and Controls leadership to establish requirements for equipment integration, controls architecture, industrial networking, data collection, system backups, and documentation.
Establish project baselines, performance targets, control plans, and benefits-verification methods; confirm that completed improvements are sustained.
Coach cross-functional teams in structured problem solving, data-driven decision making, and effective adoption of new processes and technologies.
Maintain a prioritized project portfolio showing ownership, timing, investment, status, expected value, and realized benefits. Communicate project priorities, risks, status, and results to plant and senior leadership