Manufacturing Technology Specialist - Material Handling & Warehouse Automation*

About this role

Job Description:

Job Title Manufacturing Technology Specialist - Material Handling & Warehouse Automation

Collaborate with Innovative 3Mers Around the World Choosing where to start and grow your career has a major impact on your professional and personal life, so it’s equally important you know that the company that you choose to work at, and its leaders, will support and guide you. With a wide variety of people, global locations, technologies and products, 3M is a place where you can collaborate with other curious, creative 3Mers.

This position provides an opportunity to transition from other private, public, government or military experience to a 3M career.

The Impact You’ll Make in this Role

The Manufacturing Technology Specialist – Material Handling & Warehouse Automation is responsible for identifying opportunities, developing solutions, and implementing material handling and warehouse automation across 3M manufacturing sites and distribution centers. This role focuses on opportunity development, solution design, project execution, supplier integration, and site deployment to improve material flow, productivity, safety, and operational reliability.

Working within the Engineering organization, this role partners with site operations, engineering, maintenance, quality, supply chain, IT/OT, external suppliers, and other cross-functional teams to translate business needs and operational challenges into practical, scalable, and sustainable automation solutions.

The position supports the full project lifecycle, from opportunity identification and current-state assessment through solution development, business case evaluation, supplier selection, project planning, installation, commissioning, startup, validation, and sustainment. A key expectation is to work hands-on with sites and suppliers, solve technical and implementation challenges, remove barriers, and drive projects to successful completion.

This role also provides technical guidance to cross functional teams and contributes to standards, best practices, and repeatable solutions that enable scalable deployment across 3M.

You will have the opportunity to tap into your curiosity and collaborate with some of the most innovative people around the world. Here, you will make an impact by:

• Identifying and developing material handling and warehouse automation opportunities across manufacturing sites and distribution centers by assessing operational needs, pain points, material flow, and business priorities. • Assessing, simplifying, and optimizing material flow to improve throughput, reduce bottlenecks, eliminate non-value-added activities, and establish the right foundation for automation. • Developing process maps, material and labor flow analyses, simulations, capacity models, and business cases to evaluate opportunities, prioritize investments, and support project decisions. • Developing practical and scalable automation solutions using technologies such as AGVs, AMRs, AS/RS, conveyor and sortation systems, automated storage and retrieval, robotic material handling, palletizing/depalletizing, and other warehouse automation technologies. • Partnering with site teams and cross-functional stakeholders to define requirements, technical specifications, project scope, and implementation plans. • Working with automation suppliers and technology partners to evaluate technologies, develop solutions, select equipment, and support successful deployment. • Leading automation projects from concept through startup, including project planning, equipment integration, installation, testing, commissioning, and performance validation. • Partnering with IT/OT teams to support controls, equipment connectivity, data requirements, system interfaces, and integration with applicable WMS, WES, MES, ERP, and other manufacturing and enterprise systems. • Troubleshooting technical and implementation challenges, working hands-on with sites and suppliers to identify root causes, remove barriers, and drive projects to successful completion. • Establishing standards, technical documentation, training, and best practices to enable sustainable operations and repeatable deployment across sites. • Monitoring and validating project performance through operational and financial metrics to confirm results and identify further improvement opportunities. • Ensuring compliance with applicable safety, quality, cybersecurity, engineering, and operational requirements throughout project execution.

Measures of Success and Impact Success in this role is reflected in the ability to deliver sustainable, measurable business and operational results, including: • Labor productivity – reducing manual handling and improving workforce utilization. • Material flow & throughput – eliminating bottlenecks and improving flow efficiency. • System reliability – achieving expected uptime and performance. • Space & storage utilization – optimizing footprint and storage capacity. • Delivery performance – improving timely and reliable material movement. • Scalability – enabling standardized, repeatable multi-site deployment. • Business value – achieving and sustaining operational and financial returns.

Your Skills and Expertise  To set you up for success in this role from day one, 3M requires (at a minimum) the following qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Industrial, Manufacturing, Mechanical, Automation Engineering (completed and verified prior to start) • Five (5) years of experience in material handling, warehouse automation, intralogistics, industrial/manufacturing engineering in a private, public, government or military environment • Five (5) years of experience analyzing and improving material flow, capacity, labor utilization, throughput, and warehouse performance using industrial engineering and Lean methods. • Five (5) years of experience working with suppliers, system integrators, site teams, and cross-functional partners to translate operational needs into execu

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