Manufacturing Engineering Lead for Food & Bakery Growth

Dessert Holdings; Saint Paul (MN); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Dessert Holdings, a leading premium dessert company, seeks a Senior Manager of Manufacturing Engineering to drive engineering initiatives across its food manufacturing network. You will lead major capital projects, optimize processes, and collaborate with Operations, Quality, and R&D to scale and sustain performance.

Reporting to the VP of Engineering & Reliability, you will develop standards, guide feasibility studies, and champion continuous improvement to achieve safety, quality, and

Qualifications

• Leadership experience managing engineers, technical teams, or cross-functional initiatives.
• Experience supporting manufacturing operations through process optimization or continuous improvement.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing processes, production systems and performance metrics.
• Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, or continuous improvement certification preferred.
• Ability to travel up to 60–75% within North America (US/Canada).

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a high-performing Manufacturing Engineering team across multiple facilities.
• Establish and drive manufacturing engineering standards and governance for consistency and excellence.
• Partner with plant and business leaders to identify improvement opportunities and resource priorities.
• Lead major capital projects from scope to commissioning and validation.
• Collaborate with Operations, Maintenance, Reliability, Quality, Supply Chain, R&D, and OEMs for project execution and readiness.
• Lead product commercialization activities including feasibility, scale-up, validation, and launch readiness planning.
• Drive continuous improvement focusing on productivity, throughput, yield, labor efficiency, quality, and OEE.
• Analyze processes and equipment performance to identify root causes and sustainable improvements.
• Lead capacity planning, studies, and network optimization for growth and expansion.
• Develop roadmaps, business cases, and technical recommendations for future investments.
• Promote standardization and replication of best practices across the network.
• Act as cross-functional technical leader to improve safety, quality, service, cost, and long-term capability.

Skills

Leadership experience

Process optimization

Program leadership

Manufacturing knowledge

Lean / Six Sigma

Travel readiness

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering

Job description

Dessert Holdings, a leading premium dessert company, seeks a Senior Manager of Manufacturing Engineering to drive engineering initiatives across its food manufacturing network. You will lead major capital projects, optimize processes, and collaborate with Operations, Quality, and R&D to scale and sustain performance.

Reporting to the VP of Engineering & Reliability, you will develop standards, guide feasibility studies, and champion continuous improvement to achieve safety, quality, and