Senior Manager of Industrial Engineering & Automation

Virginia Transformer Corp; Roanoke (VA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Virginia Transformer Corp. is seeking a Senior Manager of Industrial Engineering & Automation to lead hands-on process engineering and automation initiatives in a low-volume, high-mix production environment.

You will assess bottlenecks, optimize layouts, and specify practical tooling and controls to boost safety, quality, labor productivity, and capacity on the factory floor. The role requires coordinating with maintenance, IT/OT, facilities, and operations to deliver measurable improvements,

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in industrial, mechanical, manufacturing, electrical, or automation engineering.
• 8+ years in manufacturing/process engineering or factory automation with demonstrated project leadership.
• Experience designing production methods, analyzing labor/equipment utilization, and installing industrial equipment in a working factory.
• Knowledge of PLC-driven equipment, process controls, equipment safety, capital budgeting, and industrial material handling.
• Ability to work daily with operators, supervisors, maintenance, vendors, and plant leadership.
• Experience measuring labor content and line/process capacity on high-mix industrial products with large physical handling constraints.
• Experience writing equipment functional specifications and validating production benefits after commissioning.

Responsibilities

• Study coil winding, core cutting/stacking, tank fabrication, welding, assembly, oil processing, and related manufacturing processes to identify losses and improvement opportunities.
• Develop time studies, standard work, labor-hour baselines, workstation layouts, material-flow maps, and department capacity analyses.
• Analyze setup time, machine downtime, crane waits, excessive transport, staging congestion, and quality-related rework.
• Work with manufacturing supervisors to pilot practical methods and verify output gains under actual transformer product mix and shop conditions.

Skills

Project leadership

Industrial engineering

Automation design

Lean improvements

PLC controls

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering

Tools

PLC systems

CNC/robotics

MES/data capture

Job description

Senior Manager of Industrial Engineering & Automation

Job Type: Full-Time | On-Site

On the Heels of Achieving 3X Growth, Virginia Transformer Is Hiring to Do It Again!

Virginia Transformer is the largest U.S.-owned manufacturer of power transformers in North America, delivering custom-\!engineered power solutions to utilities, industrial customers, renewable energy providers, and data centers.

After achieving 3X growth, we are preparing for our next 3X growth cycle, expanding our manufacturing capabilities, strengthening our leadership teams, and investing in the people and processes that will drive our continued success.

With multiple manufacturing facilities across North America and continued investment in additional capacity, Virginia Transformer offers an opportunity to join a rapidly growing organization where accountability, execution, and customer commitment are essential.

We are looking for experienced professionals who thrive in fast-paced, engineered-to-order manufacturing environments and are ready to help drive the next phase of our growth.

One Team. One Mission. One Source.

Position Summary

Manage hands-on industrial engineering and automation improvement projects within Virginia Transformer’s low-volume, high-mix production environment. The Senior Manager will evaluate work content, equipment bottlenecks, material movement, shop layouts, and repeatable process steps; specify and implement practical tooling, machinery, and automation that improve safety, quality, labor productivity, and manufacturing capacity. The role is accountable for executing approved projects and proving that improvements work on the factory floor.

Key Responsibilities

Process Engineering & Work Measurement

• Study coil winding, core cutting/stacking, tank fabrication, welding, assembly, oil processing, and related manufacturing processes to identify losses and improvement opportunities.
• Develop time studies, standard work, labor-hour baselines, workstation layouts, material-flow maps, and department capacity analyses.
• Analyze setup time, machine downtime, crane waits, excessive transport, staging congestion, and quality-related rework.
• Work with manufacturing supervisors to pilot practical methods and verify output gains under actual transformer product mix and shop conditions.

Equipment & Automation Implementation

• Prepare functional specifications for approved winding/core equipment, CNC systems, welding automation, fixtures, lifting aids, sensors, PLC controls, and data capture.
• Coordinate vendor selection, technical evaluations, installation plans, commissioning, site acceptance, safety reviews, and operator handoff.
• Evaluate automation for flexible engineered-to-order production; avoid solutions that depend on repetitive high-volume parts unless the demand supports them.
• Partner with maintenance, IT/OT, facilities, production, and EHS on utilities, foundations, controls integration, guarding, and equipment reliability.

Capital Projects & Sustained Improvement

• Build project scopes, payback estimates, cost estimates, milestones, and measurable acceptance criteria for process and equipment improvements.
• Implement tooling and material handling changes for conductors, cores, tanks, and heavy assemblies with safe lifting and clearances in mind.
• Establish baseline/after measures for labor hours, uptime, scrap, cycle time, and product flow; confirm performance with operations and finance.
• Lead assigned engineers and specialists, document proven methods, and replicate suitable improvements at other facilities when approved.

Transformer Manufacturing Process Studies

• Conduct observed time and motion studies for winding, core processing, tank fabrication, insulation preparation, active-part assembly, oil handling, and final assembly; document product complexity assumptions.
• Develop engineered standard hours, manufacturing routing recommendations, tooling requirements, setup reduction plans, and capacity models that account for high-mix, low-volume transformer builds.
• Map material flow for copper/aluminum, electrical steel, core-and-\!coil assemblies, fabricated tanks, finished transformers, and customer-specific accessories; identify unnecessary lifts, queue time, and floor congestion.
• Partner with frontline supervisors to pilot standardized work, fixtures, ergonomic aids, and process revisions; verify measured improvement before wider deployment.

Practical Automation & Equipment Integration

• Specify and evaluate automation or semi-\!automation for appropriate winding operations, electrical steel cutting, welding, conductor handling, assembly fixtures, and shop-floor production-data capture.
• Prepare equipment requirements covering cycle time, product size range, changeovers, controls, inspection interfaces, guarding, maintainability, and required operator skills.
• Coordinate PLC/control integration, factory or site acceptance testing, installation, vendor start-up, safety validation, and production handover with maintenance, EHS, and plant operations.
• Use a pilot-and-verify approach to avoid installing inflexible high-volume automation where varied transformer designs or low build quantities make the economics poor.
• Prepare ROI and capacity cases for winding machinery, core processing, automated welding, heavy material handling, equipment monitoring, and selected manufacturing modernization projects.
• Check project readiness for crane reach, equipment foundations, floor loads, electrical distribution, compressed air, exhaust, access for shipping/rigging, and required production downtime.
• Track project budgets, design changes, supplier milestones, commissioning issues, first article results, and operators trained before the equipment is accepted into normal production.
• Measure realized changes in direct labor hours, setup time, rework, cycle time, output per constraint, and equipment availability; investigate underperforming investments.
• Document successful manufacturing layouts, tooling, operating standards, and equipment parameter changes so other assigned facilities can evaluate comparable opportunities.
• Train supervisors, operators, and maintenance teams on implemented processes and equipment, including safe startup, changeover, basic troubleshooting, and production quality checkpoints.
• Use engineering and quality feedback to validate that faster winding, welding, fabrication, or assembly methods do not introduce hidden electrical or mechanical defects.
• Maintain an improvement pipeline with baselines, process owners, labor/capacity benefit estimates, approval status, and post-implementation validation results.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in industrial, mechanical, manufacturing, electrical, or automation engineering.
• 8+ years in manufacturing/process engineering or factory automation with demonstrated project leadership.
• Experience designing production methods, analyzing labor/equipment utilization, and installing industrial equipment in a working factory.
• Knowledge of PLC-driven equipment, process controls, equipment safety, capital budgeting, and industrial material handling.
• Ability to work daily with operators, supervisors, maintenance, vendors, and plant leadership.
• Experience measuring labor content and line/process capacity on high-mix industrial products with large physical handling constraints.
• Experience writing equipment functional specifications and validating production benefits after commissioning.

Preferred Qualifications

• Transformer, heavy electrical equipment, or engineered-to-order capital equipment manufacturing exposure.
• Experience with core processing, winding machinery, fabrication/welding automation, cranes, and heavy loads.
• Lean, ergonomic improvement, CNC/robotics, MES/data capture, or multi-plant implementation.
• Process improvement exposure to coil winding, steel processing, heavy fabrication, overhead cranes, or large equipment assembly.
• Working knowledge of machine guarding, functional acceptance tests, PLC-integrated equipment, and industrial equipment vendor management.

Key Performance Indicators

• Verified labor-hour and cycle-time improvement
• Equipment/automation project delivery and realized payback
• Reduced bottlenecks, setup time, scrap, or downtime
• Safe commissioning and sustained operator adoption
• Validated labor-hour reduction by improved operation
• Capacity or cycle-time gain at prioritized production constraints
• Automation benefit realization against approved capital case

This is a full-time, on-site position based in Roanoke, Virginia. The role requires regular engagement on the manufacturing floor and close collaboration with plant leadership, operators, maintenance, engineering, and equipment vendors. Travel to other Virginia Transformer facilities may be required for approved cross-site initiatives.

Why Join Virginia Transformer?

Virginia Transformer is entering another significant phase of growth, creating opportunities for experienced leaders to improve manufacturing capability, implement practical automation, and deliver measurable results across our operations.

Join Virginia Transformer and help power our next 3X growth cycle.