Description:
Title: Continuous Improvement Engineer
Duration: 06 Months
Location: Plymouth, MN 55442
 
About the Role We are seeking a proactive and motivated Continuous Improvement Engineer to support the successful implementation and sustainability of business excellence initiatives at our site. This role plays a critical part in driving cultural transformation, enabling continuous improvement, and ensuring operational standards are upheld across the organization.

Key Responsibilities
1. Production Floor Engagement (70%+)
· Maintain a strong daily presence on the production floor, acting as the first-line engineering resource for operators and supervisors.
· Build deep process knowledge across all stations and understand how work content, takt time, and staffing impact throughput.
· Support operators in issue resolution, performance visibility, and process adherence.

2. Line Balancing & Goal Alignment

· Learn and interpret the line balance to understand expected performance at each station and for the entire line.
· Translate line-balance expectations into clear, actionable performance goals for operators and supervisors.
· Adjust monthly goals to reflect changing headcount, learning curves, product mix, and ramp conditions.

3. Performance Analysis & Feedback

· Measure true line performance and compare it to expected performance from the line balance.
· Identify stations performing above expectation, validate the root cause of over-performance, and update goals accordingly.

· Highlight stations performing below expectation and escalate issues, gather data, or coordinate cross-functional support.
· Communicate performance insights effectively to operations teams in a concise and actionable manner.

4. Cycle Time & Station Optimization
· Conduct time studies, observe operator methods, and quantify variation in work steps across operators.
· Drive cycle-time consistency, standardize best practices, and reduce variation across the team.
· Develop and support execution of incremental improvement roadmaps for target stations.
· Partner with supervisors, technicians, and engineers to implement process improvements, layout adjustments, and waste removal.

5. Continuous Improvement & Shop-Floor Support
· Facilitate quick feedback loops for issues affecting throughput, quality, or safety.
· Assist with creation or updates of standard work, operator instructions, and training materials.
· Support improvement events (Kaizens), rapid experiments, data collection, and pilot runs.
· Ensure that changes implemented on the floor are followed, measured, and sustained.

Required Skills & Competencies
· Bachelor’s degree in Engineering discipline, ex: Industrial Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related discipline.
Candidate must have a bachelor’s degree in engineering from a U.S. institution, with 1-3+ years of experience in medical device manufacturing.
· 0–3 years of experience in manufacturing, production engineering, or continuous improvement preferred.
· Strong analytical skills with proficiency in basic data analysis tools (Excel, Power BI, or equivalent).
· Strong communication skills and ability to work closely with front-line teams.
· Competency in time studies, takt time analysis, and basic capacity modeling (preferred but trainable).
· Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, rapidly evolving production environment.
· Desire to be involved with day-to-day operations – working/shadowing/coaching product builders
Strong ability to be a self starter
· Strong follow-up, execution and organizational skills 
 
At SPECTRAFORCE, we are committed to maintaining a workplace that ensures fair compensation and wage transparency in adherence with all applicable state and local laws. This position’s starting pay is: $ 31.00/hr.