Title: Senior Industrial Engineer - Robotic Welding
Company: Global Power Components - www.globalpowercomponents.com
Location: Milwaukee, WI (onsite 5 days/week)
Hire Type: Direct Hire
Position Summary: We are looking for a results-oriented Senior Industrial Engineer with 5-15 years of manufacturing experience and hands-on expertise in robotic welding and MIG welding processes to lead process optimization, labor efficiency, plant layout, capacity planning, and continuous improvement initiatives in a complex engineered-to-order (ETO) manufacturing environment. This role is ideal for a hands-on engineer who thrives on the production floor, understands weld cell programming and integration, can influence teams across departments, and has a proven record of improving throughput, weld quality, and cost reduction through automation.
Responsibilities: - Lead plant-wide continuous improvement initiatives focused on productivity, quality, safety, and cost reduction, with particular emphasis on welding and fabrication operations.
- Analyze and optimize workflows across fabrication, robotic welding, MIG welding, paint, assembly, and shipping operations.
- Support the specification, programming, deployment, and continuous improvement of robotic welding cells, including fixturing, weld path optimization, and cycle time reduction.
- Partner with welding engineers and technicians to troubleshoot robotic and manual MIG welding processes, improve weld consistency, and reduce rework/scrap.
- Develop labor standards, capacity models, staffing plans, and production metrics to support growth across both manual and automated welding operations.
- Identify bottlenecks and implement sustainable process improvements that increase throughput and on-time delivery.
- Design and improve plant layouts, material flow, weld cell placement, workstation ergonomics, and factory organization.
- Lead root cause analysis and corrective actions related to downtime, weld defects, scrap, rework, and inefficiencies.
- Create and maintain SOPs, standard work, and weld process documentation across departments.
- Evaluate capital equipment investments, robotic welding automation opportunities, and ROI-driven manufacturing improvements.
- Partner closely with Production, Quality, Safety, Supply Chain, and Engineering leaders to execute operational priorities.
- Mentor junior engineers and welding technicians, helping elevate continuous improvement and automation culture across the facility.
Qualifications: - Bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Welding Engineering, or related field.
- 5-15 years of Industrial Engineering or Manufacturing Engineering experience in a production environment.
- Hands-on experience with robotic welding systems (e.g., Fanuc, ABB, Yaskawa/Motoman, Lincoln Electric, or similar) including programming, teach pendant operation, and cell troubleshooting.
- Strong working knowledge of MIG welding processes, parameters, and best practices in an industrial/heavy fabrication setting.
- Strong background in metal fabrication, welding, heavy manufacturing, job shop, or engineered-to-order environments preferred.
- Proven success implementing Lean Manufacturing, Kaizen, 5S, value stream mapping, and process improvement initiatives.
- Experience with labor studies, line balancing, plant layout, capacity planning, and KPI management.
- Strong analytical skills with ability to translate data into actionable operational improvements.
- Comfortable leading projects and influencing teams without direct authority.
- ERP/MRP experience required; CAD experience preferred.
- Six Sigma certification, welding certification (AWS or equivalent), or other CI training is a plus.
