Apply for the Senior Manager, IO Industrial Engineering – Lakeland job opening.Senior Manager, IO Industrial Engineering – Lakeland

Location: Lakeland, FL
Job ID: 39205BR
Job Category: Engineering, Management
Working Hours: Minimum 45 hours per week
Pay Frequency: Monthly
Pay Range: $11,275 - $16,915
Date Posted: Oct 14, 2026

$146 - 219k

Onsite

Full Time - Regular

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Description

Shape the future of operational excellence at Publix. As the Senior Manager of Industrial Engineering for Industrial Operations, you’ll lead the industrial engineering managers and teams whose work influences some of Publix’s most significant investments: our workforce, facilities, and equipment. Your leadership will help drive process improvement and operational excellence across Distribution, Manufacturing, Transportation, Central Pharmacy, and other supported areas of the business.

Shape the Strategy.
In this highly influential role, you’ll partner with operational leaders, directors, and vice presidents to establish priorities, align resources, develop leadership capability, and ensure consistent execution of industrial engineering strategies that support Publix’s business priorities. You’ll provide enterprise-level direction that helps leaders make informed decisions around associate performance, staffing and scheduling, labor productivity, operational capacity, and investments in facilities and equipment.

What Impact Will You Make?
This is an opportunity to lead beyond a single operation. Your team’s work will help shape how Publix optimizes resources, improves processes, drives efficiencies and cost savings, and builds the operational capabilities needed to support our long-term growth and performance. If you’re a strategic leader who enjoys developing high-performing teams, influencing senior leaders, and turning complex operational challenges into measurable business improvements, we invite you to bring your expertise to Publix.

Responsibilities include:

• Identify and prioritize high-impact IE (Industrial Engineering) work, including strategic process improvements, operations optimization, and special projects of significant business value, risk, or confidentiality
• Provide oversight, guidance, and/or direct leadership on the most complex and high-impact industrial engineering work
• Guide Publix leaders in making strategic, long-term decisions regarding operations, resources, investments, and organizational priorities in alignment with Publix business strategies
• Direct the development, maintenance, configuration and validation of engineered labor and production standards that support scheduling, pay, performance evaluation, product costing, and production planning
• Build and sustain a high-performing IE team by mentoring and developing managers and engineers, strengthening leadership capability, collaboration, and innovation
• Foster an achievement-focused culture that drives engagement, organizational effectiveness, and the attraction and retention of top talent
• Ensure high-quality, high-value IE analyses and recommendations that strengthen business decisions and confidence in IE decision support

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Required Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science degree in industrial engineering OR a closely related analytical discipline OR equivalent experience
• Six years of industrial engineering experience in a large-scale retail, distribution, manufacturing, or pharmacy environment, with responsibility for work such as:
  • Developing and implementing engineered labor standards or comparable productivity measures,
  • Driving process improvements,
  • Designing facility layouts for operational efficiency, and
  • Identifying innovative tools, equipment, or automated solutions with a proven ability to collaborate with suppliers to assess feasibility and support successful implementation
• Five years of experience applying engineering leadership skills and business acumen, including a strong understanding of core business principles and the ability to translate these into actionable plans
• Five years of experience building relationships, understanding stakeholder needs, and influencing decisions across all levels of the organization, including senior and executive leadership
• Five years of project management experience working with cross-functional teams
• Five years’ experience in a role with responsibility for mentoring and/or reviewing the work of other engineers, analysts, or specialists
• Intermediate knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access
• Must have valid driver’s license to operate a company owned vehicle
• Knowledge of departmental planning and management processes, including the operating budget, three-year planning, workforce and succession planning, and progressive promotions
• Knowledge of effective application of industrial engineering techniques, such as Operations Research & Quantitative Analyses, Work Design & Measurement, Human Factors & Facility Design, Systems Engineering & Process Improvement, and Management Science & Performance Analytics
• Knowledge of external industry practices, benchmarks, suppliers, equipment, systems, and emerging technologies
• Knowledge of modeling, decision support applications and Engineering analysis applications (e.g. system simulation applications, facility layout and design applications, Minitab, Python, and WorkStudy+)

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Preferred Qualifications

• MBA or Master of Science degree in industrial engineering, engineering management, or a closely related engineering discipline
• Maynard Operation Sequence Technique (MOST) certification
• Lean/Six-Sigma ‘green belt’ or higher certification
• At least eight years of industrial engineering experience
• At least seven years of Publix industrial engineering experience
• At least seven years of experience designing and optimizing large-scale automated systems
• At least seven years of project management experience working with cross-functional teams
• At least seven years supervisory experience with a proven record of accomplishment in hiring, leading, and developing a high-performing team
• Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access
• Experience using enterprise operations applications for supported business areas (such as SAP, Oasis, CM Smart, Dallas Warehouse Management System, Manhattan Transportation Management System, Driver Performance system)
• Experience using applications developed by the Industrial Engineering team (such as Selector Accuracy Sampling, Labor Planning Tool, retail/manufacturing/distribution capacity models, and engineered standards maintenance tools)

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Benefits

• Employee stock ownership plan that contributes Publix stock to associates each year at no cost

• An opportunity to purchase additional shares of our privately-held stock

• 401(k) retirement savings plan

• Group health, dental and vision plans

• Paid Time Off

• Paid Parental Leave

• Short- and long-term disability insurance

• Tuition reimbursement

• Free hot lunches (buffet-style) at facilities with a cafeteria

• Visit our website to see all of our benefits: Benefits – Jobs (publix.com)

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Year End Bonus

As a year-end bonus to associates, Publix issues one month’s extra pay (pro-rated in the first year) each year if associate remains employed through issue date of the bonus check that year. This is calculated as a 13th month of pay in the Potential Annual Pay with Bonus line above.

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Additional Information

Your application may have additional steps that you will need to complete in order to remain eligible for consideration. Please be sure to monitor your email, including your spam folder, on a daily basis for critical, time-sensitive emails that could require action within 24-48 hours.

Please do not use your Publix email address when applying. Once your application has been successfully submitted you will receive a confirmation email.

For this position, Publix does not and will not file a petition or application with the USCIS or Department of State on behalf of any noncitizen for any immigration-related benefit to work and/or to continue to work in the United States, e.g., an H-1B or TN petition or permanent residence.

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