Senior Manufacturing Engineer

At Industrial Recyclers, we partner with customers to provide full-service recycling, custom grinding, blending, reprocessing, and full compounding services for post-consumer and post-industrial plastics, as well as virgin polyolefins. We deliver tailored solutions to maximize material value and promote sustainability in polymer applications.

Industrial Recyclers and Recycled Polymer Solutions (RPS) operate together as part of a vertically integrated plastics and recycling organization serving customers across the Midwest. We are committed to excellence in materials recovery, product innovation, and responsible stewardship. Our people are our greatest strength — hard-working, disciplined, and united by shared values:
Faith, Family, Integrity, Hard Work, Partnership, Stability, Learning, and Growth.

About the Role

We are a small but fast-growing company seeking a hands-on Manufacturing/Industrial Engineer who can both architect the future factory and work directly on the floor to get machines and processes running correctly. This role reports to the CTO, combining strategic planning with real-world execution.

Responsibilities

Value Stream & Continuous Improvement

• Own end-to-end VSM (current/future state), analyze flow, lead time, WIP, and bottlenecks; validate improvements through on-floor observation, time studies, and production trials.

Factory Layout & Materials Processing

• Own and maintain the master facility layout in CAD; plan equipment placement, flow, utilities, safety paths, and future expansion.
• Work on the floor to move machines, re-route utilities, adjust conveyors/material handling paths, validate clearances/ergonomics, and confirm layouts physically before implementation.

Troubleshooting & Machine Optimization

• Work with Projects/Engineering to modify machines, fixtures, tooling, guards, feeds, or settings to improve uptime, cycle time, flow, and scrap; diagnose issues through real production runs.

Capacity Planning & Expansion

• Build capacity models (1–10 years), identify upcoming constraints, recommend expansions; develop Cap Ex justifications (ROI, payback, NPV); validate assumptions with real machine uptime and floor-level data.

Special Projects / New Technology Integration

• Partner with Special Projects/R&D to bring new equipment into production; ensure machines are designed for manufacturability/layout; define acceptance criteria; support physical integration, trials, and debugging.

Collaboration & Communication

• Work daily with operators, maintenance, quality, and the Projects team; communicate clearly to both floor staff and executives; maintain high presence on the floor to verify real-world performance.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor’s in Manufacturing, Industrial, Mechanical Engineering, or equivalent.
• 5–10+ years in manufacturing engineering with both strategic layout and hands-on troubleshooting experience.
• Strong in CAD (AutoCAD required; Inventor/Solid Works preferred), Lean/VSM, time studies, and process optimization.
• Comfortable in a small-company environment where you design the plan and execute it yourself.

Preferred

• Experience with materials processing equipment (plastics, grinding, extrusion, molding, machining).
• Experience with simulation tools (Flex Sim/Simio/Arena) or willingness to learn.
• Strong data analysis skills (Excel, Minitab/JMP, Power BI).

Who You Are

A systems thinker with a hands-on mentality; comfortable architecting a future-state factory while rolling up your sleeves to fix today’s production issues. Curious, collaborative, practical, and driven.