Lead Engineer - Product Development & Manufacturing

TrippNT, Inc.; Kansas City (MO); On-site; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Profit sharing

Medical premium coverage 90%

Lunch provided daily

Dog-friendly workplace

Job summary

TrippNT, a Kansas City-based manufacturer, seeks a Lead Engineer to head a small growing team. You will design, prototype, test, and drive products from concept through production handoff, ensuring manufacturability and customer value.

You will work on medical and laboratory carts, casework, and automation projects, spending time on the production floor and collaborating with customers to validate workflows.

Qualifications

• Background in mechanical/manufacturing/product development.
• Experience leading engineering teams.
• Experience with CAD, CNC/fabrication, and production handoff.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop TrippNT's engineering team.
• Own projects from customer problem through design, prototype, validation and successful production handoff.
• Develop simple, manufacturable products that create customer value and profitable production minutes.
• Maintain clear PMRs, design inputs, drawings, programs, BOMs and production instructions.
• Work directly with customers to understand their workflow and validate products in the field.
• Work alongside Production to improve cycle times, eliminate recurring problems and reduce Engineering-caused Andons.
• Use dedicated improvement time to make our products and engineering processes safer, simpler, better and faster.
• Help develop automation, fixtures, processes and new manufacturing capabilities.
• Build an Engineering department capable of supporting TrippNT's continued growth.

Skills

Leadership

CAD

Manufacturing engineering

Prototyping

Production handoff

Education

Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering

Tools

CAD

CNC fabrication

DFM

Job description

TrippNT is looking for a Lead Engineer to lead a small and growing engineering team.

We are a U.S. manufacturer of carts, casework and workflow products for laboratories, healthcare, operating rooms and equipment manufacturers. But we're probably not like most manufacturing companies you've worked for.

We're lean. Very lean.

Every employee has dedicated improvement time. We stop and fix problems instead of learning to live with them. We measure production in minutes. We track when Engineering causes Production to stop. We expect engineers to spend time with customers and on the production floor. And we believe the engineer's job isn't finished when the drawing is released.

It's finished when Production can repeatedly build the product correctly, efficiently and without needing the engineer standing beside them.

What you'll lead

You’ll lead our engineering function and initially a team of two engineers, with the opportunity to help build the department as TrippNT grows.

You’ll work on everything from a new surgical implant cart developed alongside OR staff, to OEM carts for medical and laboratory equipment, polypropylene fabrication, laboratory casework, automation and entirely new products.

This is a hands-on position. You’ll design, prototype, build, test, visit customers, improve processes and spend time on the production floor.

You’ll also help us get much better at the handoffs between Customer – Sales – Engineering – Production.

We use Product Master Records and design inputs to clearly define what we're trying to accomplish before designing it. We want engineers who understand the customer's workflow and problem—not engineers who simply turn someone's sketch into CAD.

What we're trying to accomplish

Today, one of our cart production lines produces roughly 6,500 productive minutes per month.

Our long-term target is approximately 41,000 productive minutes across six cart lines.

Why do we care about minutes?

Because minutes represent capacity. Capacity creates profitable growth. And profitable growth allows us to share the results with the people creating it.

We have a long-term goal of producing enough sustainable profit to distribute approximately $10,000 per profit-share unit per quarter.

Engineering has a huge role in making that possible.

A part that takes 20 minutes instead of 40 matters. A program that works correctly the first time matters. A design that eliminates a weld matters. A clear production instruction matters. A fixture that eliminates variation matters. And an engineering mistake that stops a production line matters.

We measure these things—not to punish mistakes, but because problems give us something to improve.

Who we're looking for

We're looking for an engineer who gets excited about that environment.

You should be comfortable designing real physical products and getting your hands dirty building them. You should understand manufacturing and design for manufacturability. CAD and engineering fundamentals matter, but curiosity, leadership and problem-solving matter just as much.

• Why are we making it this way?
• What problem is the customer actually trying to solve?
• Can Production build this more simply?
• Can we eliminate a part, operation or setup?
• How do we prevent this problem from happening again?
• How do we make the next one better?

We're looking for someone who can lead people without needing to have every answer, who enjoys developing younger engineers, and who is comfortable being accountable for the performance of the entire engineering system—not just their own projects.

What you'll be responsible for

• Lead and develop TrippNT's engineering team.
• Own projects from customer problem through design, prototype, validation and successful production handoff.
• Develop simple, manufacturable products that create customer value and profitable production minutes.
• Maintain clear PMRs, design inputs, drawings, programs, BOMs and production instructions.
• Work directly with customers to understand their workflow and validate products in the field.
• Work alongside Production to improve cycle times, eliminate recurring problems and reduce Engineering-caused Andons.
• Use dedicated improvement time to make our products and engineering processes safer, simpler, better and faster.
• Help develop automation, fixtures, processes and new manufacturing capabilities.
• Build an Engineering department capable of supporting TrippNT's continued growth.

Experience

We're open-minded about the exact background.

Mechanical engineering, manufacturing engineering, product development, industrial engineering or a similar discipline could all fit.

Experience with CAD, CNC/fabrication processes, design for manufacturing, prototyping and bringing physical products into production is important. Experience leading engineers or technical teams is strongly preferred.

Lean manufacturing experience is valuable, but we're more interested in whether you think lean than whether you have a certification hanging on the wall.

We can teach our processes.

We're looking for someone who wants to help us improve them.

About TrippNT

TrippNT has been manufacturing in Kansas City since 1993.

Our philosophy is pretty simple.

Grow people. Strengthen communities. Pursue excellence through small, daily improvements.

We're building a company where people are trusted to identify problems, improve their own work and share in the results they help create.

Our benefits are not just competitive but rich, including profit sharing, 90% medical premium coverage, a complimentary and delicious lunch daily and even dogs at work.

If that sounds like the kind of engineering department you'd like to lead, we'd like to meet you.