Night Shift Process Engineer

Job Description

Job Description

Job Title: Process Engineer, Mechanical Assembly (Night Shift)

Job Description

The Process Engineer, Mechanical Assembly (Night Shift) serves as the senior technical authority on the production floor during overnight hours, owning line performance, leading a team of technicians, and ensuring operational continuity in a high-complexity, automated manufacturing environment. This role operates with reduced cross-functional support, requiring significant autonomy in decision-making, sound escalation judgment, and real-time problem solving. The engineer brings deep mechanical intuition, strong leadership capabilities, and a data-driven mindset to drive performance outcomes, mentor the night shift team, and provide critical feedback to daytime engineering and design teams.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical authority on the production floor during overnight hours, making autonomous decisions on escalations, downtime response, and operational continuity in the absence of day-shift support.
• Lead and mentor a team of night shift technicians, setting clear daily priorities, stabilizing line cadence, building team capability, and driving accountability to production targets.
• Track and analyze key performance indicators such as overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), yield, and cycle times to identify bottlenecks and implement data-driven improvements that carry through to the day-shift handoff.
• Apply strong mechanical intuition to rapidly assess equipment and process issues, ensuring that proposed fixes are robust, safe, and effective rather than temporary stop-gaps.
• Document overnight issues in a clear, structured manner and communicate them to day-shift engineering, manufacturing, and quality teams to ensure seamless continuity and to address recurring production constraints.
• Initiate and execute tactical continuous improvement projects on the floor to eliminate waste, improve operator ergonomics, and optimize machine reliability.
• Act as the voice of the shop floor by identifying human factors and usability challenges specific to night shift operations and providing actionable design feedback to system engineering teams.
• Use downtime tracking and root-cause analysis to drive sustainable improvements in equipment reliability and process stability.
• Coordinate with cross-functional stakeholders as needed to ensure that overnight decisions align with broader manufacturing and engineering objectives.
• Foster a culture of safety, accountability, and continuous learning within the night shift team.

Essential Skills

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 4–7+ years of hands-on experience in manufacturing, production, or fast-paced industrial operations.
• Prior night shift or off-hours leadership experience, with proven ability to manage operations with limited escalation support.
• Demonstrated capability to manage, prioritize tasks for, and develop a technical team in high-pressure situations.
• Strong familiarity with manufacturing metrics such as OEE and downtime tracking, with a practical approach to root-cause analysis.
• Solid understanding of mechanical systems and automated equipment, enabling independent evaluation of technical solutions and guidance of floor-level fixes.
• High degree of autonomy and sound judgment, with comfort making real-time decisions in ambiguous situations and knowing when to escalate versus resolve independently.
• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to influence cross-functional peers and present clear improvement ideas to design and systems engineers.
• Proactive, results-oriented mindset with the ability to thrive amid ambiguity and adapt quickly in a scaling technology environment.
• Strong mechanical, assembly, process, and equipment knowledge relevant to automated manufacturing.

Additional Skills & Qualifications

• Experience leading technicians or operators on a production floor, particularly in automated or high-complexity environments.
• Experience in continuous improvement initiatives focused on waste reduction, ergonomics, and machine reliability.
• Exposure to human factors engineering or usability considerations in manufacturing operations.
• Ability to translate shop floor observations into actionable feedback for engineering and design teams.
• Comfort working across different functional groups, including manufacturing, quality, and engineering, to align on process improvements.

Work Environment

This is a night shift position in a high-complexity, automated manufacturing environment. The role requires flexibility in working hours, with schedules designed to overlap with core night operations. The engineer works on the production floor alongside technicians and automated equipment, focusing on maintaining line performance and equipment reliability. The environment is fast-paced and data-driven, with an emphasis on safety, continuous improvement, and cross-functional collaboration between night and day shift teams.

This is a Contract position based out of Weirton, WV.

The pay range for this position is $48.00 - $75.00/hr.

Individual compensation offered for this position within this range will depend on many factors, including qualifications, skills, relevant experience, job knowledge, geographic location, internal equity, and other pertinent job-related factors.

Eligibility requirements apply to some benefits and may depend on your job classification and length of employment. Benefits are subject to change and may be subject to specific elections, plan, or program terms. If eligible, the benefits available for this temporary role may include the following: • Medical, dental & vision • Critical Illness, Accident, and Hospital • 401(k) Retirement Plan – Pre-tax and Roth post-tax contributions available • Life Insurance (Voluntary Life & AD&D for the employee and dependents) • Short and long-term disability • Health Spending Account (HSA) • Transportation benefits • Employee Assistance Program • Time Off/Leave (PTO, Vacation or Sick Leave)

This is a fully onsite position in Weirton,WV.

This position is anticipated to close on Oct 8, 2026.

About Actalent

Actalent is a global leader in engineering and sciences services and talent solutions. We help visionary companies advance their engineering and science initiatives through access to specialized experts who drive scale, innovation and speed to market. With a network of almost 20,000 consultants and 5,000 clients across the U.S., Canada, Asia and Europe, Actalent serves many of the Fortune 500. We are proud to be an Engineering News-Record (ENR) Top 500 Design Firm for our engineering design services and a ClearlyRated Best of Staffing® winner for both client and talent service.

The company is an equal opportunity employer and will consider all applications withoutregard to race, sex, age, color, religion, national origin, veteran status, disability,sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information or any characteristic protectedby law.

If you would like to request a reasonable accommodation, such as the modification oradjustment of the job application process or interviewing process due to a disability,please email View email address on ziprecruiter.com for other accommodation options.

San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, for all positions located in thecity and county of San Francisco, we will consider for employment qualified applicantswith arrest and conviction records.

Massachusetts Lie Detector: It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as acondition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this lawshall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI): We may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support parts of our hiring process,including sourcing, screening, and evaluating candidates. AI helps assess applicationsand qualifications, but final decisions are made by our hiring team. By applying, youacknowledge and agree that your application may be reviewed using AI tools.