Senior Tooling Engineer - Diecast
Position Summary
This position supports tooling readiness through technical procurement, tooling spare component management, and coordination of internal and external tooling repair activities. The role works closely with engineering, toolroom, and production teams to maintain tooling availability, minimize downtime, and support continuous improvement initiatives.
Responsibilities include spare component planning, toolroom workflow coordination, outsourced tooling repair management, and maintenance documentation in the CMMS.
Key Responsibilities
Tooling Engineering & Continuous Improvement
- Provide technical support for tooling design modifications, repairs, and component improvements.
- Support implementation of Continuous Improvement (CI) initiatives to improve tooling performance, reliability, and maintainability.
- Assist with tooling conversions and tooling standardization initiatives.
- Support troubleshooting of tooling issues impacting production quality, uptime, or cycle efficiency.
- Collaborate with manufacturing engineering and toolroom personnel to improve tooling life and serviceability.
Tooling Availability & Production Support
- Ensure tooling readiness to support production schedules.
- Manage emergency tooling repair work orders to minimize production downtime.
- Coordinate internal toolroom repairs and external vendor repairs for all required tooling.
- Monitor tooling repair status and communicate progress to required areas of the organization.
Spare Components & Inventory Management
- Maintain tooling spare component inventory.
- Establish and manage critical spare component lists for high-risk tooling systems.
- Develop spare component replenishment plans to support production continuity.
- Coordinate internal manufacturing or external sourcing of tooling and spare components.
Technical Procurement
- Procure tooling-related materials and services, including:
- Tool steel
- Heat treating services
- Precision machining
- Specialty tooling services
- Work with approved suppliers to ensure compliance with specifications, delivery timelines, and quality standards.
- Support cost control and purchasing documentation where required.
Toolroom Production Coordination
- Collaborate with Toolroom Manager, Supervisors, and Team Leads to establish daily, weekly, and monthly spare component production targets.
- Monitor work order progression through the toolroom and external vendors to ensure alignment with production priorities.
- Identify workflow inefficiencies and support continuous improvement initiatives to improve repair lead time and tooling availability.
Outsourced Tooling Repair Management
- Coordinate external suppliers for tolling repairs, preventive maintenance, and continuous improvement projects.
- Maintain outsource tracking, including:
- Work order status
- Vendor labor hours
- Repair timelines and completion status.
- Vendor quality and budgetary requirements are met.
- Incoming inspections as required
Maintenance Systems & Work Order Management
- Manage tooling work orders inCMMS and other supporting software.
- Track tooling repair history, spare component usage, and maintenance activities.
- Maintain documentation and reporting related to tooling, maintenance and outsourcing.
Vendor & Supplier Development
- Maintain relationships with external tooling vendors and repair facilities.
- Support supplier performance evaluation and improvement initiatives.
- Identify opportunities to improve lead times, cost efficiency, and service quality.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
- Tooling uptime and production support response time
- Tool repair turnaround time
- Spare component availability
- Reduction in emergency tooling failures
- Tooling maintenance cost control to budget
- Vendor scorecard
- Lead and support CI initiatives focused on tooling reliability, downtime reduction, and toolroom process efficiency.
- Identify opportunities for tooling standardization, spare component optimization, and repair process improvements.
Required Skills
- Strong understanding of die casting and stamping tool tooling.
- Knowledge of tool materials, tooling applications, heat treatment, and machining processes
- Experience with tooling repair, preventive maintenance, and spare component management
- Ability to interpret tooling prints, CAD drawings, and technical specifications
- Familiarity with CMMS systems (Megamation or similar maintenance software)
- Knowledge of inventory management and procurement processes
- Strong coordination and communication skills between engineering, production, and vendors
- Problem-solving and troubleshooting capability for tooling-related production issues
- Understanding of continuous improvement methods (Lean Manufacturing, CI initiatives)
Key Responsibilities:
- Responsible for product design, engineering and development of assigned programs.
- Leads multi-disciplined design reviews on programs assigned.
- Maintains BOM on assigned products.
- Coordinates prototype builds on assigned programs, including development of prototype build control plan.
- Works closely with manufacturing engineers and purchasing on component procurement.
- Represents company in weekly Program Development Team meetings with customer.
- Utilizes the company Program Development Process (PDP) for program implementation.
- Periodic travel required (~10%).
An individual in this position must be able to successfully perform the essential duties and responsibilities listed above. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this position.
The above list reflects the general details necessary to describe the principle and essential functions of the position and shall not be construed as the only duties that may be assigned for the position.
Education & Qualifications:
- BSME is required (Mechanical Engineering).
- 10+ years of experience in product development required.
- Mechatronics, Mechanisms and/or Electro-mechanical system design experience is required.
- Must be able to conceptualize, plan and develop small electro-mechanical devices and mechanisms.
- Must be able to perform strength of material and static force calculations.
- Must have experience with MS Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project).
- Must have experience in performing tolerance stacks.
- Must have experience dimensioning and applying tolerances to components and assemblies.
- Must have a working knowledge of GD&T principles.
- Must have experience with design for manufacturability/assembly (mechanisms, metal stampings, plastic injection molded parts, die cast parts, gears etc).
- Must have experience in working with CAE analysis team (FEA, ADAMS, Moldflow etc).
Competencies:
- Good oral and written English language skills.
- Korean language is preferred.
- Spanish language is desirable.
- Strong technical writing skills are required.
Benefits:
- Competitive compensation, regular salary reviews, short-term incentive opportunities.
- Health coverage including medical, dental, and vision with eligibility starting day one.
- PTO, holidays, sick time, and bereavement for eligible employees.
- 401(k) with company match up to 5% and immediate vesting.
- Company-paid life insurance coverage.
- Wellness programs.
Equal Opportunity Employer: We are proud to foster an inclusive and diverse workplace culture. We are an equal opportunity employer and are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, genetics, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. We value diversity and believe that a diverse and inclusive workforce is essential to drive innovation, foster creativity, and achieve success. We welcome and encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds and are dedicated to ensuring a fair and equitable recruitment and employment process for everyone.
Pay: $100,000.00 - $140,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Vision insurance
Ability to Commute:
- Milwaukee, WI 53209 (Preferred)
Work Location: In person
