Engineering Leader

FPC National; Detroit (MI); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive base bonus

Healthcare

401(k) with match

Relocation assistance

Job summary

FPC National is seeking an engineering leader in eastern Michigan, an hour north of Metro Detroit. You will head product, process, tooling, equipment and controls, reporting to the VP of Engineering.

Expect to build and mentor a small team and influence cross-functional decisions in manufacturing. We value hands-on problem solving, a background in plant-made parts, and the ability to move from line issues to geometry, tooling and measurement tradeoffs without relying on slides.

Qualifications

• 8–12 years in engineering leadership with project or people management.
• Experience in plant design and manufacture (springs, wire, stampings, formed metal, or in-house equipment).
• Able to move from line down to geometry, tooling, measurement, and tradeoffs without relying on slides.
• Hands-on problem solving in a small to mid-size company.

Responsibilities

• Make the engineering system faster and less heroic through priorities, launches, problem solving, and decisions.
• Improve manufacturing efficiency: quality, capacity, cost, capability; including work on machines and processes.
• Develop engineers with direct coaching and mentorship.
• Bridge manufacturing, quality, commercial, and suppliers to influence business direction.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Manufacturing engineering

Project management

Process optimization

Tooling & equipment

Quality systems

Coaching & development

Education

BS in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering

Job description

This is a plant job with a wide scope. It is not a corporate engineering director seat, and it is not a specialist role where you inherit one box and optimize it.

You will work in eastern Michigan (about an hour north of Metro Detroit). We need you in the building most of the week. Hybrid days exist when the work allows. Remote-first is not this job.

You report to the VP of Engineering. Depending on who you are, you may start with a couple of engineers or a small team. Over time the job is to lead product, process, tooling, equipment, and controls — not all of it on day one. We would rather hire someone who can think and own than someone who has held the title for ten years and stopped growing.

What you will actually do

• Make the engineering system faster and less heroic: priorities, launches, problem solving, decisions.
• Improve how we make parts — quality, capacity, cost, capability. That includes unglamorous work on machines, process, and the physics of the product.
• Develop engineers. High bar, direct coaching, no theater.
• Sit in the middle of manufacturing, quality, commercial, and suppliers. Engineering here is supposed to help decide where the business goes, not write reports about what operations already decided.

Who this is for

An engineering leader with roughly 8–12 years, some of it leading projects or people, who has lived in a plant that designs and makes things — springs, wire, stampings, formed metal, precision parts, or equipment built in-house. You do not have to have run this exact product. You do have to get from “the line is down / the load is off” to geometry, tooling, measurement, and a tradeoff without a slide.

You have been in a company small enough that problems were not pre-chewed for you. Big-OEM careers only work here if you can prove you still get your hands in the process.

You are looking for more scope and a higher standard, not a softer landing or a title bump.

Who should not apply

• You need a finished org chart, a large staff, and a playbook on day one.
• You interview by narrating programs and go quiet when the problem is still messy.
• You want the job more than the work.

What we offer

• Competitive base and bonus for a company our size, healthcare, 401(k) with match.
• Relocation help is real and not gold-plated: move your household and reasonable temporary living if you are coming from elsewhere in the Midwest.