Senior Manufacturing Excellence Engineer - Footwear

About the Company

Our client is a leading international sports and footwear company with a strong sourcing and manufacturing presence in Asia. The company partners with major footwear manufacturers to drive manufacturing excellence, product quality, productivity, innovation, and sustainable production practices.

Job Responsibilities

• Drive Manufacturing Excellence initiatives across assigned footwear factories, with a strong focus on Quality, Cost, Lead Time, and Productivity.
• Lead and continuously improve LEAN manufacturing implementation, including coaching and supporting factory teams to strengthen their LEAN and industrial mindset.
• Standardize, document, optimize, and deploy current and future footwear manufacturing and industrial processes.
• Lead manufacturing engineering (ME), factory transfer, multi-sourcing, and SOP deployment projects, ensuring smooth implementation across partner factories.
• Analyze footwear manufacturing processes and identify opportunities for process optimization, automation, standardization, and productivity improvement.
• Drive continuous improvement projects while maintaining product quality and manufacturing feasibility.
• Work hands-on with factories, suppliers, Industrialization, Quality, Material, Production, and Supply Chain teams to troubleshoot technical and manufacturing issues.
• Support implementation of new technologies, machinery, automation, and sustainable manufacturing practices.
• Monitor and audit factory LEAN and industrialization performance and drive corrective/improvement actions.

Job Requirements

• At least 10 years of experience in the footwear/shoe industry in a technical capacity, with strong hands-on knowledge of footwear manufacturing processes such as pattern engineering, mold making, grading, materials processing, components, lasts, and production processes.
• At least 6 years of hands-on LEAN implementation experience within the footwear industry – mandatory.
• In-depth understanding of shoe manufacturing processes and production flow.
• Strong experience in Manufacturing Engineering (ME), industrialization, factory transfer and/or multi-sourcing projects, with hands-on experience working directly in footwear factories.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, logical-thinking, and continuous-improvement capabilities.
• Strong collaboration and influencing skills, with the ability to work effectively across factory management, production, quality, industrialization, suppliers, and regional/global teams.
• Good English communication skills; fluent English in listening, speaking, and writing is preferred.
• Proactive, open-minded, emotionally stable, with a strong learning and growth mindset.
• Professional and presentable manner.
• Degree or post-secondary qualification is preferred.