Manufacturing Engineer I

Manufacturing Engineer I

Job Category: Engineering Requisition Number: MANUF006932

Posted: June 19, 2026

Full-Time

On-site

BTD Illinois Washington, IL 61571, USA

Description

BTD is a fast-growing metalworking company. We provide custom metalwork services for some of the world's top brands. Our 1100+ employees work from four facilities throughout the Midwest and Southeast. We invest in our people, our equipment, and our facilities to offer our clients the best value possible. We are also a wholly owned subsidiary of Otter Tail Corporation, a publicly traded company on NASDAQ.

Safety is #1 at BTD: Our expectation is that every employee: 1) Strictly follows safety policies, rules and safe work methods. 2) Promptly corrects or reports safety hazards or unsafe conditions. Promptly reports injuries for prompt diagnosis and treatment. 3) Makes regular suggestions for safety process improvements to support continuous improvement in safety.

Essential Functions:

• Supports the Site Continuous Improvement Leader in achieving site objectives for safety, quality, delivery, productivity, and continuous improvement.
• Participates in design review process to ensure manufacturability of new products; reviews prints, customer specifications, and solid model if provided.
• Executes First Run Capability assessments of new products and develops Standard Work Instructions to implement and improve the manufacturing plan provided by the process engineer.
• Leads or participates in root cause identification and corrective actions to resolve unsafe conditions or noncompliant material, process, or product.
• Facilitates lean / kaizen events as assigned
• Champions workspace organization (5S) within a production department. Serves as subject matter expert and mentor to leaders and operators.
• Recommends and implements ideas to reduce variation, improve efficiency, and reduce costs by improving tooling, processing, and equipment use consistent with lean manufacturing practices; communicates these improvements to process engineering.
• Tracks and reports on metrics to show the results of lean activities and improvement events/efforts.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

B.S. degree in business, scientific or technical field preferred; Associate degree combined with 3 years ME technician experience, or 4 years ME technician experience. Demonstrated knowledge of lean manufacturing concepts and principles. Must possess a valid Driver's License.

Experience and Skills Required:

• Demonstrated ability to see across functional boundaries, to see the whole business picture or enterprise. Ability to work collaboratively within a matrix organization.
• Strong problem-solving, root cause analysis, and cause prevention (error proofing) skills.
• Thorough, demonstrated knowledge of lean concepts and principles.
• Ability to work independently and show strong initiative and ownership of ideas and projects.
• Exceptional communication skills; written, oral, listening, computer, phone, and drawings.
• Strong ability to manage teams and projects.
• Understanding of ISO and other business process systems.
• Strong working knowledge of the equipment, materials, methods, and practices used in production operations.
• Ability to read, interpret and understand the use of production blueprints and specifications.
• Ability to convert manufacturing processing plans into action; provide implementation of planned processing.
• Can provide, communicate and implement ideas that improve safety, quality, delivery and cost in part processing.
• Adhere to BTD's employee safety manual.
• Ability to establish, encourage and maintain effective working relationships with others.

The qualifications listed above are guidelines. Other combinations of education and experience could provide the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform this job.

Physical Demands:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of the job, the employee is occasionally required to stand; walk; sit; use of hands and fingers to, handle or feel objects, tools or controls; reach with hands and arms; climb stairs; balance; stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl; talk or hear; taste or smell. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by the job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and the ability to adjust focus.

Work Environment:

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of the job, the employee may be exposed to weather conditions. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

Compensation Salary Range: OTC9: $63,221 - $94,832 per year. The range for this position is being displayed in compliance with all state and local regulations. Salaries are set based on a number of factors to include an individual's job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and education. This means that no two candidates are alike. Please keep in mind that the range mentioned above is the full base salary range for the role. Hiring at the maximum of the range would not be typical in order to allow for future & continued salary growth. The range provided above does not include additional compensation such as bonus, health benefits, vacation, 401(K) match, etc.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws. For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor.