Material Flow Automation Engineer

Why Emotiv At Emotiv, we don’t just move materials. We accelerate possibility. We are reimagining mobility with advanced warehousing and sequencing solutions trusted by leading automotive OEMs. We are a team of doers, thinkers, and builders who believe operational excellence is achieved through empowered people and a constant drive to improve. If you’re looking for a company where you can be seen, grow, and help shape the future of supply chain innovation, we’d love to meet you. The Role We are seeking a strategic, hands-on, and innovative Material Flow Automation Engineer to lead the design, standardization, implementation, and optimization of automated material handling and material flow systems across our manufacturing and warehousing operations, including Manufacturing Support Services (MSS) and Value-Added Assembly (VAA) spaces. This role will transform traditional material handling into safe, scalable, data-driven systems using AMRs, autonomous forklift trucks (AFTs), conveyors, lift-assist equipment, smart storage, fleet management tools, simulation software, digital twin models, and integrated controls. The ideal candidate is a hands-on, analytical problem solver with experience in high-volume manufacturing, material handling automation, logistics, and continuous improvement. They are passionate about leveraging technology to enhance operational performance, streamline material movement, and support scalable growth This is a hybrid position based in Kansas City, Louisville, or Detroit. The role reports to the Director of AME & Automation and is part of the Engineering team. What You’ll Do Develop automation strategies for receiving, storage, kitting, sequencing, line-side delivery, finished goods, dunnage, and empty-container return. Analyze material flow, inventory movement, forklift activity, routes, and replenishment processes to improve safety, quality, productivity, and throughput. Develop and maintain material layouts, storage concepts, line-side presentation standards, traffic paths, and end-to-end material flow designs for MSS and VAA operations, balancing safety, space utilization, labor, inventory, throughput, and launch requirements. Partner with plant leadership and cross-functional teams to define current-state constraints, validate root causes, and implement practical solutions for material flow, congestion, line-side delivery, storage, quality, productivity, and capacity challenges. Specify and integrate AMRs, AGVs, conveyors, automated storage, lift equipment, scanners, sensors, controls, and fleet-management systems. Lead the selection, supplier assessment, proof-of-concept testing, factory and site acceptance testing, validation, and deployment of AMRs, AFTs, tuggers, autonomous forklifts, and other MHE solutions. Define equipment and system acceptance criteria covering payload and load stability, acceleration/deceleration, turning radius and aisle requirements, docking accuracy, stopping distance, dynamic obstacle avoidance, charging, availability, fleet sizing, traffic management, and production-rate capability. Lead automation projects from concept and sourcing through installation, commissioning, validation, training, handoff, and ramp-up. Design material-delivery standards covering storage, line-side presentation, traffic flow, docking, charging, payload transfer, and facility interfaces. Use layouts, time studies, labor analysis, simulation, and digital twins to validate concepts, size equipment, and reduce implementation risk. Develop, validate, and maintain digital twin and discrete-event simulation models to evaluate capacity, throughput, route congestion, storage utilization, labor, equipment utilization, fleet mix, delivery cycles, bottlenecks, and future-state scenarios before physical implementation. Translate operational data and simulation outputs into scenario comparisons, sensitivity analyses, capital requests, total-cost-of-ownership evaluations, ROI/payback c…

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