Continuous Improvement & Engineering Manager

At Eagle Foods we are builders.  We are builders of brands, categories, and people.  Eagle Foods enjoys a rich heritage with brands that have proven category leadership for more than 150 years.  Eagle is a diversified food company producing and marketing sweetened condensed and evaporated milk, snacks and convenient meal solutions products.  As a company, Eagle Foods is passionate about fostering an entrepreneurial spirit that boldly builds better people and better brands while focusing on the positive impact our company, our products and our people have on the world.  Eagle Foods has a bold family of brands that consumers have come to rely on for decades, including Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk and Evaporated Milk, Magnolia® Sweetened Condensed Milk, PET® Milk, Popcorn Indiana, Cretors Popcorn, Helper and Suddenly Salad.  Eagle Foods products are marketed and distributed across all U.S. retail channels, including grocery stores, club stores and mass-merchandisers, as well as foodservice and export, U.S. military, and private label business.

Job Description Summary

The Continuous Improvement and Engineering Manager will be responsible for driving a culture of continuous improvement and strengthening the plant systems required to deliver sustainable operational results. This role is primarily focused on leading the site’s continuous improvement strategy, implementing lean management principles, improving KPI visibility and actionability, strengthening structured problem solving, and ensuring layered/tiered auditing and sustainment systems are in place and effective.

This individual will own the site’s technical training system for plant-specific technical skills and ensure alignment between technical documentation, training requirements, and standardization needs that support effective execution and long-term capability building. The role will work cross-functionally with Operations, Maintenance, Quality, and site leadership to identify loss, improve plant performance, support problem resolution, and drive measurable cost savings.

This position is expected to maintain floor presence and support plant needs where required, but its primary focus is long-term systems implementation, accountability, and sustainment rather than day-to-day ownership of maintenance, capital project execution, startup/commissioning, or reliability program management.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Own and manage the overall CI program at the site with a focus on improving plant performance, cost, accountability, and long-term capability.
• Understand and apply the Eagle Performance System and the pillar concept. Become familiar with the pillar tools and develop a competency level with each tool to be able to both lead small group activities using the tools and teach others to do the same.
• Serve as site owner with engagement from Operations and QA, for the standardized setup and use of RedZone to collect line event and compliance data and create real-time reporting capability.
• Quantify major loss themes and ensure loss data is translated into clear priorities for scrap, downtime, throughput, and utility/waste reduction.
• Lead and facilitate use of CI tools (A3, 5 Why, fishbone, kaizen, etc.) to eliminate loss and build site capability.
• Facilitate development of a site loss recovery opportunity list and support prioritization of improvement work tied to business needs.
• Identify and execute cost savings opportunities that positively impact plant financial performance
• Facilitate the site strategic planning process (CI Steering Committee) and ensure adherence to higher-level scorecard review, gap analysis, and follow-up.
• Lead weekly and monthly plant result reviews and ensure performance trends are translated into actionable priorities.
• Lead GEMBA walks and develop a ‘Manage by Walking Around’ approach to reinforce standards and identify barriers.
• Lead and coordinate 5S, standardization, and visual management as practical solutions to operational problems.
• Develop and manage auditing approaches to ensure systems are sustained through normal operating conditions and transitions.
• Own rollout and management of layered process auditing, including structure, assignments, follow-up, and escalation.
• Train and coach teams in structured problem solving and ensuring corrective actions are followed through to effectiveness.
• Own the site technical training system for plant-specific skills, including alignment of documentation, training matrices, standard work, and one-point lessons.
• Partner with project owners and engineers to define required documentation and deliverables for knowledge transfer.
• Verify that technical training is conducted effectively and documentation supports sustainment.
• Participate in DDS meetings and ensure issues are identified, escalated, and acted upon with discipline.
• Maintain floor presence to validate systems, support teams, and identify barriers.
• Support supervisors and leadership in resolving process and performance issues.
• Identify process and packaging barriers and help drive solutions.
• Support plant trials through coordination, readiness, documentation, and training support.
• Identify areas of waste and support cost reduction efforts.
• Leverage systems, including RedZone and Infor M3, to improve KPI visibility and decision-making.
• Provide cross-functional support while maintaining focus on long-term systems improvement.
• Support compliance readiness through systems, documentation for internal customers, and regulatory requirements, including SQF, SMETA, safety, and quality programs
• Perform other duties as assigned

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Business Administration, Operations Management, Industrial Engineering, or a related field.
• Five or more years of experience in operations, process improvement, or related function
• Proven track record in leading Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, or similar process improvement initiatives.
• Lean Six Sigma certification preferred.
• Knowledge of methodologies such as 5S, Value Stream Mapping (VSM), Root Cause Analysis (RCA), and PDCA.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams and facilitate improvement workshops or Kaizen events.
• Strong change management skills and the ability to influence others across all levels of the organization.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.