Manufacturing Engineering Manager

About Evans Capacitor Company: Evans, an electronic components company, is a trusted partner in the military, aerospace, industrial, and commercial markets, with over a century of combined experience as a reliable problem-solver. Being part of the Evans Group portfolio has enabled Evans to continue developing cutting-edge capacitor technology alongside other world-class technology companies that represent the future of mission-critical electronics. Evans, with sites in East Providence, RI, Sanford, ME, and Phoenix, AZ, manufactures high-energy-density capacitors for demanding, mission-critical applications. We have the most power-dense capacitor technology in the industry and are routinely specified for defense, aerospace, and energy exploration applications where high reliability and SWaP (space, weight, and power) savings are critical design considerations. Job Summary: Evans is experiencing significant growth and is seeking an experienced Manufacturing Engineering Manager to lead the Manufacturing Engineering organization across our East Providence, RI, Sanford, ME, and Phoenix, AZ facilities. The primary location for this role is East Providence, RI. This role will report to the Director of Engineering and is responsible for building, leading, and strengthening a high performing Manufacturing Engineering team while driving operational excellence, equipment reliability, process improvement, and manufacturing scalability across all locations. The Manufacturing Engineering Manager will establish clear priorities, accountability, and ownership throughout the organization while creating an environment where employees are empowered to solve problems and continuously improve. The successful candidate must be an equally strong people leader and technical leader. We are looking for someone with a proven track record of building engaged, accountable teams and developing talent, not simply managing projects, products, or technical initiatives. This is a hands on leadership role. The Manufacturing Engineering Manager is expected to spend significant time on the manufacturing floor working directly with operators, technicians, maintenance personnel, and engineers to solve problems, improve processes, remove barriers, and drive results. The role encompasses oversight of manufacturing engineering, equipment reliability, maintenance and facilities support, process improvement initiatives, quality support, capital projects, and cross functional operational initiatives that are critical to business success. Key Responsibilities: Leadership and Team Building • Lead, coach, and develop the Manufacturing Engineering, Maintenance, and Facilities teams across multiple locations. • Build a cohesive, engaged, and accountable engineering organization aligned around common goals and business objectives. • Establish clear priorities, performance expectations, ownership, and accountability across the team. • Create an environment where team members understand their responsibilities, are empowered to make decisions, and are held accountable for results. • Develop and implement career development plans for direct reports and support the professional growth of the team. • Recruit, retain, and build strong engineering talent to support current business needs and future growth. • Foster a culture of ownership, collaboration, urgency, continuous improvement, and operational excellence. • Ensure effective communication and alignment between engineering teams located in Rhode Island, Maine, and Arizona. • Build strong partnerships with Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, Finance, and Sales leaders to drive business performance. • Participate as a key member of the operational leadership team, contributing to strategic planning, prioritization, and execution across the organization. Process Improvement and Manufacturing Excellence • Lead efforts to optimize and refine manufacturing processes with a focus on quality, reliability, efficiency, throughput, cost reduction, and waste reduction. • Identify, prioritize, and implement process improvements that improve yields, reduce defects, increase output, and support customer delivery. • Foster a culture of continuous improvement through the practical application of Lean, Six Sigma, root cause analysis, and other problem-solving methodologies. • Champion cross-functional initiatives that improve end-to-end operational performance, from order intake through customer delivery. • Use data and performance metrics to identify trends, solve problems, and drive sustainable improvements. • Work directly with operators, technicians, engineers, and manufacturing leaders to troubleshoot issues and implement practical solutions. • Balance short-term production needs with long-term process capability, capacity, and scalability. Quality, Risk Management, and Compliance • Partner with the Quality team to ensure processes, materials, equipment, and products meet internal requirements, customer requirements, and applicable quality standards. • Support corrective action, preventive action, root cause analysis, and continuous improvement activities to prevent recurrence of quality issues. • Utilize data-driven approaches to enhance product quality, process stability, and reliability. • Establish, maintain, and drive effective use of FMEA processes to identify and reduce operational, product, and process risks. • Identify potential risks to process stability, product quality, equipment reliability, safety, and operational efficiency. • Develop and implement risk mitigation strategies to reduce impact to business operations. • Support CMMC Level 2 readiness and assessment activities related to manufacturing engineering, equipment, systems, processes, documentation, and operational controls. • Ensure compliance with safety, regulatory, environmental, export control, and company requirements. • Actively support business continuity planning and operational risk management across departments. Equipment Reliability, Maintenance, and Facilities • Oversee the maintenance, reliability, and optimization of critical manufacturing equipment to minimize downtime and maximize operational performance. • Lead the implementation and effective use of UpKeep or similar maintenance management software to manage preventive maintenance, work orders, assets, maintenance history, and equipment performance. • Develop and implement preventive and predictive maintenance programs in partnership with Maintenance and Facilities teams. • Establish and manage a critical spares strategy to improve uptime and reduce business risk. • Ensure facility readiness, equipment availability, operational uptime, and capacity planning are aligned with business needs. • Partner with Operations and Maintenance to identify recurring equipment issues and implement sustainable corrective actions. • Support capital equipment planning, equipment qualification, installation, and operational readiness activities. • Ensure maintenance and facilities priorities are clearly defined, resourced, tracked, and executed. Project Management and Resource Allocation • Lead and manage multiple engineering and operational projects, ensuring on-time delivery, budget adherence, and quality outcomes. • Allocate resources effectively to meet project timelines and prioritize initiatives based on business impact. • Create clear project plans, ownership, timelines, metrics, and communication cadences. • Foster collaboration between cross-functional teams to ensure smooth project execution. • Proactively balance day-to-day execution with longer-term capacity building to support future growth. • Communicate project status, risks, decisions, and resource needs clearly to leadership and stakeholders. Additional duties as assigned. What Success Looks Like in the First 12 Months: Within the first year, the successful Manufacturing Engineering Manager will have: • Established a high performing Manufacturing Engineering organization across Rhode Island, Maine, and Arizona with clearly defined priorities, responsibilities, accountabilities, and decision-making authority. • Created clarity for the team around what matters most, how success is measured, and where the team is empowered to make decisions. • Developed and implemented career development plans for all direct reports, creating a culture focused on growth, accountability, engagement, and retention. • Built credibility as a hands-on leader who is visible on the manufacturing floor and actively engaged with the people, equipment, and processes that drive performance. • Successfully led Engineering support for the organization's CMMC Level 2 assessment and achieved the required assessment objectives. • Established and implemented a critical spares strategy that improves equipment uptime, reduces maintenance related delays, and mitigates operational risk. • Fully implemented and driven adoption of the UpKeep maintenance management system, ensuring preventive maintenance, asset management, work order tracking, and maintenance activities are consistently managed. • Established and standardized FMEA and processes and ensured they are routinely used to identify, prioritize, and mitigate operational and product risks. • Improved equipment reliability, manufacturing throughput, and process capability through disciplined execution of continuous improvement initiatives. • Strengthened collaboration between Manufacturing Engineering, Operations, Quality, Supply Chain, Maintenance, Facilities, Finance, and Sales.