The Advanced Manufacturing Engineer owns end-to-end automation for water-cooled and air-cooled HVAC products, including heat exchangers and full unit assembly for vertical and data center chillers. This role combines deep technical ownership with strong business impact by identifying high-value automation opportunities, building compelling investment cases, and leading projects from concept through commissioning to deliver sustainable performance improvements. The engineer will drive automation delivery, integrate controls and test systems, and ensure that every initiative delivers measurable gains in productivity, quality, and cost.

Responsibilities

• Own the delivery of manufacturing automation across heat exchanger and final assembly processes for water-cooled (shell and tube) and air-cooled (finned tube coil) HVAC products.
• Design and implement automation for water-cooled heat exchangers, including tube bundle handling, tube-to-tube sheet joining via expansion and/or seal welding, shell and nozzle welding, and automated pressure and leak test systems.
• Develop and deploy automation for air-cooled finned tube coils, including tube insertion and expansion, header and manifold joining through brazing, automated coil leak and pressure testing, and coil handling and fixturing solutions.
• Implement flexible automation and assist systems for heavy final assembly operations, including refrigerant charging systems, piping, brazing and welding support, sensor installation, control integration, and end-of-line test automation and reporting.
• Own or support the design, configuration, and maintenance of PLC, HMI, and safety logic for manufacturing automation systems, using platforms such as Rockwell and Siemens.
• Drive reliability improvements in automation systems through enhanced diagnostics, alarm rationalization, and robust fault recovery strategies.
• Build and expand automated test capabilities, including pressure, leak, and functional testing, using recipe-based execution and structured data capture, with LabVIEW as a typical test automation platform.
• Enable or improve product and process traceability and test data capture through manufacturing execution system (MES) interfaces or structured data collection systems.
• Identify and quantify hard savings opportunities tied to automation, including labor reduction, scrap and rework reduction, downtime reduction and uptime gains, yield and first-pass yield improvement, warranty and field failure reduction, and energy and consumables savings.
• Develop clear automation investment cases and capital expenditure requests that document baseline losses and constraints, proposed solution options, financial metrics such as payback period and NPV/IRR when applicable, sensitivity analysis, and detailed implementation costs.
• Prioritize a pipeline of automation projects with a focus on fast payback, scalable solutions that can be replicated across production lines and product families.
• Own benefits realization by creating savings tracking plans with Finance, validating savings at 30, 60, and 90 days and on a quarterly basis, and putting controls in place to sustain savings through standard work, training, and audits.
• Lead suppliers and system integrators end to end, including requirements definition, RFQ issuance, technical evaluation, acceptance criteria development, factory and site acceptance testing, commissioning, ramp-up, and handoff to operations.
• Define and enforce run-at-rate metrics and require demonstrable performance in cycle time, uptime, and quality from vendors and integrators.
• Ensure long-term maintainability of automation systems by driving thorough documentation, code management practices, spare parts strategies, preventive maintenance plans, and training packages for maintenance and operations teams.
• Embed safety and compliance requirements into automation design and commissioning activities, including risk assessments, guarding, interlocks, lockout/tagout readiness, and safety validation.
• Partner with New Product Introduction, Manufacturing Engineering, and Quality teams to maintain PFMEAs, control plans, reaction plans, and capability checks for automated processes.
• Drive defect reduction and escape prevention in welding, brazing, and leak test operations through robust process controls and continuous improvement.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives using data-based root cause analysis tools such as 8D, 5 Why, and Fishbone diagrams, along with Lean methodologies.
• Develop and standardize automation design practices, including preferred sensor types, safety architectures, HMI conventions, and test data formats.
• Reduce reliance on tribal knowledge by building repeatable processes, standard operating procedures, and troubles