Title:                            Simulation Engineer, Factory Design
Location:                     Remote
Duration:                    Long Term Contract
Travel:                         Possible

Technical Skills
Must Have

Discrete Event Simulation
FlexSim

Nice To Have

12 Industrial Engineers
Automotive Manufacturing

Role Overview:
Client’s Factory Design & Simulation team is seeking a contract Simulation Engineer (DES) to support early manufacturing engineering and throughput architecture for the product ramp in Normal.
This role focuses on building and analyzing discrete event simulation models to guide factory and line design decisions before RFQ and detailed design.
You will work closely with Body, GA, Paint, Battery, Drive Unit, and Material Flow teams to validate capacity, size buffers, and identify bottlenecks impacting product launch and ramp in Normal.

Key Responsibilities:

Build discrete event simulation models (FlexSim preferred) for manufacturing and material flow use cases in Normal (e.g., inter‑shop buffers, ASRS sizing, AGV flows, shop overspeed trade‑offs).
Translate high‑level factory requirements (demand, shift pattern, product mix, FPY, MTBF/MTTR) into simulation‑ready input assumptions and scenarios.
Run scenario and sensitivity studies (Experimenter) to:
- Confirm line and shop net JPH vs. targets.
- Quantify overspeed, OPR/TEE, and buffer requirements.
- Evaluate jobs‑per‑shift (JPS) regularity and risk envelopes.
Summarize results in clear, decision‑focused reports and slide content for ME and program leadership (e.g., options with trade‑offs on throughput, risk, and space).
Collaborate with layout, material flow, and industrial engineering to align DES assumptions with real PORs and constraints.
Follow client’s DES standards and libraries for model structure, naming, documentation, and handoff.

Required Qualifications:

3+ years’ experience in automotive manufacturing engineering (e.g., body, paint, GA, battery, drive unit, or material flow) with direct ownership of discrete event simulation projects.
Expert‑level proficiency with Autodesk FlexSim
Demonstrated experience modeling:
- Multi‑line assembly systems with buffers and rework.
- Stochastic behavior (failures, repairs, variability in process times).
- Throughput / capacity and bottleneck analysis.
Solid understanding of manufacturing KPIs (JPH, JPS, OEE/TEE, MTBF/MTTR, WIP, buffer sizing).
Ability to clean and structure input data, define scenarios, and explain model limitations and assumptions.
Strong communication skills: can condense complex simulation logic into concise recommendations for non‑simulation stakeholders.

Preferred qualifications

Familiarity with FlexScript / C++ / Python for custom logic and tooling in DES.
Prior work on greenfield factory design or major capacity upgrades (launch and ramp).