Injection Molding Engineering Manager

What to Expect
The Injection Molding Engineering Manager leads the process and tooling engineering team supporting high-volume injection molding operations. The position owns two domains end to end: the process — how every part is molded, whether that process is capable, repeatable, and running at cycle, and how parts move and are accurately accounted for from press to point of use — and the tooling — the health, availability, and continuous improvement of the mold fleet. The manager is the senior technical decision-maker when a part goes out of specification, when a tool comes out of the press, and when a new program's tooling arrives for tryout.
This role carries a strong quality and industrial engineering mandate alongside the technical scope. The manager owns molded-part quality performance — capability, containment, root cause, and permanent corrective action — and leads Six Sigma and industrial engineering projects covering material flow, part movement and inventory accuracy, cell layout, line balancing, labor standards, WIP, resin delivery, and packaging. Production owns output; this role owns whether the process, the tool, and the material flow are capable of delivering it. This is a hands-on floor role measured on safety, quality, rate, downtime, scrap, cost, and inventory accuracy.
What You’ll Do

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Industrial, Plastics, Polymer, Manufacturing, or Chemical Engineering, or equivalent evidence of exceptional ability
• 7+ years in injection molding process and/or tooling engineering in a high-volume manufacturing environment, with the ability to work the floor across shifts and respond to line-down events as they occur
• 4+ years directly managing engineers, including hiring, development, and performance management
• Deep expertise in scientific/decoupled molding, process window development, and statistical process control and capability analysis (Cp/Cpk, Ppk)
• Strong tooling fundamentals: mold construction, hot runner systems, cooling and venting, mold actions and slides, and hands-on troubleshooting with a tool on the bench
• Strong quality background: APQP/PPAP, control plans, PFMEA, GD&T and dimensional/CMM analysis, containment and 8D discipline, and audit-ready quality system experience (IATF 16949 or equivalent)
• Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt with completed projects delivering quantified results in scrap, cycle time, downtime, or cost
• Industrial engineering and material flow capability: cell layout, line balancing, time and motion study, labor standards, part movement and material handling, WIP and kanban sizing, inventory accuracy and cycle count discipline, resin delivery systems, and packaging/dunnage design

What You’ll Bring

• Manage, coach, and develop a team of injection molding process and tooling engineers — hiring, onboarding, shift and area coverage, and performance management — with each engineer accountable for named cells, tools, and metrics
• Own process development and process control across all part numbers, including scientific/decoupled molding, DOE-driven process windows, locked parameter sets, process change control, and documented setup, startup, and material handling standards
• Own molded-part quality performance: drive first-pass yield and scrap reduction, lead root cause analysis and permanent corrective action on molding and cosmetic defects, and maintain PFMEAs, control plans, containment discipline, and dimensional capability
• Own cycle time and press availability against tool design intent, closing the gap between quoted and actual cycle and eliminating process- and tooling-driven downtime
• Own mold health and the tooling asset record — cycle-count-based preventive maintenance, inspection standards, hot runner and wear-item spares, repair and refurbishment prioritized against demand, engineering change and requalification, repair spend and end-of-life planning — while managing the tool room and external tool shops
• Own part movement and inventory accuracy from press to point of use, including material handling routes, labeling and scan transactions, WIP and kanban sizing, cycle count discipline, and root cause of inventory variance
• Lead Six Sigma and industrial engineering projects across the molding area, including material flow and cell layout optimization, line balancing, labor standards and headcount modeling, resin delivery, and packaging and dunnage improvement
• Lead molded-part launch activity from DFM feedback and tool design reviews through toolmaker buyoff, T0/T1 tryout, dimensional and capability qualification, PPAP, and handoff to production — and manage capital and expense budgets, cross-functional partnership with Production, Quality, Maintenance, and Materials, and safety standards for mold handling, rigging, lockout/tagout, hot work, and press interventions