Operations Engineer Jobs in Michigan
Operations Engineer jobs in Michigan are consistently in demand, with strong hiring concentrated in advanced manufacturing, automotive systems, automotive suppliers, and industrial automation across metro Detroit, Grand Rapids, and Lansing. Established employers like General Motors, Ford Motor Company, and Stellantis anchor the market, and their supply-chain networks generate steady openings at every level from entry-level process roles through senior plant operations. The most sought-after specialties in Michigan are manufacturing process optimization, supply chain operations, and continuous improvement engineering. Find a role that fits below and apply directly.
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Showing 5 of 19+ Operations Engineer jobs
LIGHT LABS
Powering a healthier food system through data, transparency, and accountability.
Lab Operations Engineer
Light Labs | Ann Arbor, MI (On-site, Lab)
The Opportunity
Are you a software or automation engineer who'd rather be on a lab floor than behind a screen? Someone who looks at a messy operation and sees a system waiting to be built? Then you'd be a great fit as our Lab Operations Engineer. You'll build what we call the Lab Operating System: the most modern, observable, controllable lab operation in the industry. Right now, it's a blank page. You'll own two outcomes, turnaround time and accuracy. That's the role.
Why Light Labs
Most labs sell turnaround time. We had to engineer it. Light Labs returns results in about three days where the industry takes seven to fourteen, and today a lot of that speed still depends on people who know where everything is.
That won't carry us where we're going. We're scaling to $50M by 2027 and $100M by 2028, and lab capacity is the constraint standing in the way, one we can't solve with headcount. We don't need someone to maintain what exists. We need someone to build what comes next.
What You'll Own
You'll walk into a high-volume, high-stakes environment with no playbook yet. Your first month is spent on the floor, mapping every process as a system, every checkpoint and every handoff, and standing up a single source of truth for how work actually moves. Then you find the first bottleneck and go after it. What you build first becomes the foundation for everything that follows:
Build the source of truth. Real-time visibility into where every sample is, who owns it, and whether it's on track, no floor-walking required.
Find the bottleneck, then kill it. Locate where time, capacity, or accuracy is being lost, fix it, measure the result, standardize it, repeat.
Make turnaround time (TAT) predictable. Build the visibility to catch a late sample before it's late, not after.
Build proactive quality management. Real-time trending and pattern detection for drift, QC failures, and out-of-spec results, so errors get caught in the lab instead of by a customer.
Make partner labs measurable. Full visibility from shipped to released, with real SLAs and scorecards.
Bring data to staffing. Replace reactive staffing with real numbers on coverage, cross-training, and utilization.
Systematize method development. LLM-assisted workflows for literature review, protocol drafting, SOP generation, and validation.
Build the playbook, not just the fix. Everything you build deploys on day one at our next lab, built or acquired.
You'll work side by side with our scientists, technicians, and lab leadership, and with engineering and product so the Lab OS plugs into the broader Light Labs platform instead of living on an island.
What You'll Need
A real software or automation engineering background. You build systems, pipelines, and integrations other people can run and extend, not a script only you can maintain.
Real time inside laboratory, scientific, manufacturing, or other complex physical-world operations. Pharma, biotech, analytical testing, laboratory automation, and high-throughput environments are all strong fits, and bioinformatics, computational biology, scientific software, or hands-on instrumentation experience is an even stronger one.
A track record of replacing manual workflows with software or automation, personally, not just adjacent to the work, especially if that's an instrument-heavy process like LC-MS or involves pointing AI at a real scientific problem.
You find the operational problem nobody's defined for you yet, build the fix, and prove it moved the needle, measurably, ideally on throughput, turnaround time, quality, or efficiency. That's what ownership of an outcome actually looks like here.
Real communication skills. You'll be changing how scientists and technicians work. You'll need to explain the why and bring them along, not just go around them.
Ready to be on the lab floor in Ann Arbor, MI. This is on-site, not remote.
Who We Are
Light Labs is building the modern platform for lab testing, starting with consumer goods brands: cheaper, faster testing that also automates regulatory compliance and drives revenue.
Testing is a cost line everywhere else. Here it's a growth line. Brands publish their Light Labs results straight to their own product pages, and those that do have seen conversion lift of around 12%. Hundreds of food and supplement brands already test with us, including AG1, Chomps, David Protein, Seed Health, Momentous, Caraway, and Little Spoon.
Consumers deserve to know what's actually in the products that affect their families' health, and transparency is what creates that informed customer. Beyond a faster, cheaper lab, we're building the infrastructure for brands to push lab data straight to their product pages (what's in it, what's not, claims verified) and automatically comply with regulations like Prop 65, CA AB 899, and Amazon's testing requirements.
That full loop, testing through customer-facing data, lets brands differentiate themselves and become the obvious choice in their category.
We run ISO 17025-accredited labs in Ann Arbor, MI and Salt Lake City, UT, with headquarters in Austin, TX. We're backed by 8VC and Valor Equity Partners, with CPG founders and strategics in the round. Everyone here, lab tech to engineer to sales, has a seat at the table in making the food system more transparent.
Our Mission
Everything we consume is getting more toxic and less nutritious, and the problem is invisible. You can't see, taste, or smell it:
Cinnamon apple puree pouches, marketed for children and labeled preservative-free, kosher, and gluten-free, contained lead levels 200 times greater than the FDA's proposed guidelines.
87% of 650 children's food samples tested positive for glyphosate.
Over 1,300 chemicals are banned in cosmetics in the EU, while only 11 are banned in the United States.
The US allows thousands of food additives that are banned in other countries.
A study of 168 baby foods found that 95% contained at least one heavy metal (arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium), with a quarter containing all four.
Seven out of eight samples of kale tested contained disturbing levels of PFAs, with organic kale containing even higher levels of the toxic compounds.
Testing for purity today is slow, expensive, and nearly impossible to interpret without a PhD. No feedback loop means no pressure to change, but if people knew what was actually in their food, they'd shop differently. Nothing changes until someone can measure it, publish it, and be right. That's our mission: real transparency, built with the lab you'd be running.
Founding Team
Nick Mares, 2x founder (Kettle & Fire, a $100M/year brand, and Upside Financing, exited 2022), $60M+ raised, CEO and COO experience, Thiel Fellow.
Vijay Manohar, helped scale Samsara to $1B ARR and IPO (NYSE: IOT). B.S. computer engineering, UT Austin.
What You Get
Top-decile salary, plus equity for every employee
Full health, dental, and vision coverage
Generous PTO and company holidays
Direct access to the founders and a promote-from-within culture at a company that's adding labs, not consolidating them
Values We're Looking For
First Principles. We're looking for team members who can deal with ambiguity, deconstruct problems, and build the optimal solution. Question every requirement, delete any part or process you can, simplify and optimize, accelerate cycle time, automate. That same instinct should make you curious enough to ask why something is done a certain way, and forward-looking enough to notice what won't hold up once we're 5 to 10 times this size.
Standard of Excellence. High standards are contagious. A+ talent attracts A+ talent. There's a glut of mediocrity in the world. We're chasing after the products and people that strive for excellence.
Bias for Action. Take initiative, make decisions quickly, and have a willingness to experiment and learn from failures. Customer expectations aren't static, they rise over time, which means we have to continuously improve every single day.
Low Ego. Coachability: it's not about being right, it's about getting to the right answer. React calmly to criticism or negative feedback, treat feedback as an opportunity for information and improvement. Respectfully challenge decisions when you disagree, even when it's uncomfortable, and once a decision is made, commit wholly and move forward.
Why This Role
Are you the person who walks into a black box and builds order out of it? Roles like this don't come up often, and the people who can actually do it are rare. If that's you, this is your chance to build the Lab Operating System from the ground up. Apply today.
Light Labs is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic.
LIGHT LABS
Powering a healthier food system through data, transparency, and accountability.
Lab Operations Engineer
Light Labs | Ann Arbor, MI (On-site, Lab)
The Opportunity
Are you a software or automation engineer who'd rather be on a lab floor than behind a screen? Someone who looks at a messy operation and sees a system waiting to be built? Then you'd be a great fit as our Lab Operations Engineer. You'll build what we call the Lab Operating System: the most modern, observable, controllable lab operation in the industry. Right now, it's a blank page. You'll own two outcomes, turnaround time and accuracy. That's the role.
Why Light Labs
Most labs sell turnaround time. We had to engineer it. Light Labs returns results in about three days where the industry takes seven to fourteen, and today a lot of that speed still depends on people who know where everything is.
That won't carry us where we're going. We're scaling to $50M by 2027 and $100M by 2028, and lab capacity is the constraint standing in the way, one we can't solve with headcount. We don't need someone to maintain what exists. We need someone to build what comes next.
What You'll Own
You'll walk into a high-volume, high-stakes environment with no playbook yet. Your first month is spent on the floor, mapping every process as a system, every checkpoint and every handoff, and standing up a single source of truth for how work actually moves. Then you find the first bottleneck and go after it. What you build first becomes the foundation for everything that follows:
Build the source of truth. Real-time visibility into where every sample is, who owns it, and whether it's on track, no floor-walking required.
Find the bottleneck, then kill it. Locate where time, capacity, or accuracy is being lost, fix it, measure the result, standardize it, repeat.
Make turnaround time (TAT) predictable. Build the visibility to catch a late sample before it's late, not after.
Build proactive quality management. Real-time trending and pattern detection for drift, QC failures, and out-of-spec results, so errors get caught in the lab instead of by a customer.
Make partner labs measurable. Full visibility from shipped to released, with real SLAs and scorecards.
Bring data to staffing. Replace reactive staffing with real numbers on coverage, cross-training, and utilization.
Systematize method development. LLM-assisted workflows for literature review, protocol drafting, SOP generation, and validation.
Build the playbook, not just the fix. Everything you build deploys on day one at our next lab, built or acquired.
You'll work side by side with our scientists, technicians, and lab leadership, and with engineering and product so the Lab OS plugs into the broader Light Labs platform instead of living on an island.
What You'll Need
A real software or automation engineering background. You build systems, pipelines, and integrations other people can run and extend, not a script only you can maintain.
Real time inside laboratory, scientific, manufacturing, or other complex physical-world operations. Pharma, biotech, analytical testing, laboratory automation, and high-throughput environments are all strong fits, and bioinformatics, computational biology, scientific software, or hands-on instrumentation experience is an even stronger one.
A track record of replacing manual workflows with software or automation, personally, not just adjacent to the work, especially if that's an instrument-heavy process like LC-MS or involves pointing AI at a real scientific problem.
You find the operational problem nobody's defined for you yet, build the fix, and prove it moved the needle, measurably, ideally on throughput, turnaround time, quality, or efficiency. That's what ownership of an outcome actually looks like here.
Real communication skills. You'll be changing how scientists and technicians work. You'll need to explain the why and bring them along, not just go around them.
Ready to be on the lab floor in Ann Arbor, MI. This is on-site, not remote.
Who We Are
Light Labs is building the modern platform for lab testing, starting with consumer goods brands: cheaper, faster testing that also automates regulatory compliance and drives revenue.
Testing is a cost line everywhere else. Here it's a growth line. Brands publish their Light Labs results straight to their own product pages, and those that do have seen conversion lift of around 12%. Hundreds of food and supplement brands already test with us, including AG1, Chomps, David Protein, Seed Health, Momentous, Caraway, and Little Spoon.
Consumers deserve to know what's actually in the products that affect their families' health, and transparency is what creates that informed customer. Beyond a faster, cheaper lab, we're building the infrastructure for brands to push lab data straight to their product pages (what's in it, what's not, claims verified) and automatically comply with regulations like Prop 65, CA AB 899, and Amazon's testing requirements.
That full loop, testing through customer-facing data, lets brands differentiate themselves and become the obvious choice in their category.
We run ISO 17025-accredited labs in Ann Arbor, MI and Salt Lake City, UT, with headquarters in Austin, TX. We're backed by 8VC and Valor Equity Partners, with CPG founders and strategics in the round. Everyone here, lab tech to engineer to sales, has a seat at the table in making the food system more transparent.
Our Mission
Everything we consume is getting more toxic and less nutritious, and the problem is invisible. You can't see, taste, or smell it:
Cinnamon apple puree pouches, marketed for children and labeled preservative-free, kosher, and gluten-free, contained lead levels 200 times greater than the FDA's proposed guidelines.
87% of 650 children's food samples tested positive for glyphosate.
Over 1,300 chemicals are banned in cosmetics in the EU, while only 11 are banned in the United States.
The US allows thousands of food additives that are banned in other countries.
A study of 168 baby foods found that 95% contained at least one heavy metal (arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium), with a quarter containing all four.
Seven out of eight samples of kale tested contained disturbing levels of PFAs, with organic kale containing even higher levels of the toxic compounds.
Testing for purity today is slow, expensive, and nearly impossible to interpret without a PhD. No feedback loop means no pressure to change, but if people knew what was actually in their food, they'd shop differently. Nothing changes until someone can measure it, publish it, and be right. That's our mission: real transparency, built with the lab you'd be running.
Founding Team
Nick Mares, 2x founder (Kettle & Fire, a $100M/year brand, and Upside Financing, exited 2022), $60M+ raised, CEO and COO experience, Thiel Fellow.
Vijay Manohar, helped scale Samsara to $1B ARR and IPO (NYSE: IOT). B.S. computer engineering, UT Austin.
What You Get
Top-decile salary, plus equity for every employee
Full health, dental, and vision coverage
Generous PTO and company holidays
Direct access to the founders and a promote-from-within culture at a company that's adding labs, not consolidating them
Values We're Looking For
First Principles. We're looking for team members who can deal with ambiguity, deconstruct problems, and build the optimal solution. Question every requirement, delete any part or process you can, simplify and optimize, accelerate cycle time, automate. That same instinct should make you curious enough to ask why something is done a certain way, and forward-looking enough to notice what won't hold up once we're 5 to 10 times this size.
Standard of Excellence. High standards are contagious. A+ talent attracts A+ talent. There's a glut of mediocrity in the world. We're chasing after the products and people that strive for excellence.
Bias for Action. Take initiative, make decisions quickly, and have a willingness to experiment and learn from failures. Customer expectations aren't static, they rise over time, which means we have to continuously improve every single day.
Low Ego. Coachability: it's not about being right, it's about getting to the right answer. React calmly to criticism or negative feedback, treat feedback as an opportunity for information and improvement. Respectfully challenge decisions when you disagree, even when it's uncomfortable, and once a decision is made, commit wholly and move forward.
Why This Role
Are you the person who walks into a black box and builds order out of it? Roles like this don't come up often, and the people who can actually do it are rare. If that's you, this is your chance to build the Lab Operating System from the ground up. Apply today.
Light Labs is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic.
See All 19 Operations Engineer Jobs in Michigan
Find roles in Michigan that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
Find Operations Engineer JobsOperations Engineer Jobs by City in Michigan
Where Michigan roles are concentrated, by current openings.
Operations Engineer Job Market in Michigan
A snapshot from current Michigan openings, updated as new roles post.
Who's Hiring
Top Industries Hiring
- Energy
What Michigan Employers Look For
The qualifications that appear most often in operations engineer jobs across Michigan.
- Bachelor's degree in industrial, mechanical, or manufacturing engineering from an accredited program
- Demonstrated experience with lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, or continuous improvement methodologies
- Proficiency with ERP systems such as SAP or Oracle for production and inventory management
- Familiarity with automotive quality standards including IATF 16949 and APQP processes
- Ability to read and interpret engineering drawings, process flow diagrams, and technical specifications
- Strong cross-functional communication skills for coordinating between production, maintenance, and supply chain teams
Operations Engineer Jobs in Michigan: Frequently Asked Questions
How do you become a operations engineer in Michigan?
Most operations engineers in Michigan enter the field with a bachelor's degree in industrial, mechanical, or manufacturing engineering from an accredited program. Michigan does not require a state-issued license to work as an operations engineer, though earning a Professional Engineer license through the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs strengthens senior-level candidacy. Many Michigan employers, particularly in the automotive sector, also value Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt certification as a practical credential.
Which companies hire operations engineers in Michigan?
Employers hiring operations engineers in Michigan right now include Stryker, General Motors (GM), and AIRLIFE, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of September 2026. Michigan's deep automotive manufacturing base means many of the most active postings come from vehicle assembly plants, tier-one suppliers, and logistics operations concentrated in the greater Detroit corridor.
Which Michigan cities have the most operations engineer jobs?
Grand Rapids, Warren, and Portage have the most operations engineer openings in Michigan. Metro Detroit dominates because of its concentration of automotive OEMs, major suppliers, and distribution hubs, while Grand Rapids draws demand from its large furniture manufacturing and medical device sectors, and Lansing benefits from its proximity to General Motors assembly operations and state government infrastructure projects.
Are there remote operations engineer jobs in Michigan?
Yes, but they're rare. Operations engineering is heavily tied to physical production floors, equipment, and on-site coordination, so most roles require an in-person presence. About 50% of operations engineer openings tied to Michigan are remote or hybrid as of September 2026, and those positions tend to cover process analysis, data reporting, or supply chain coordination rather than direct plant floor oversight.
How can I get hired as a operations engineer in Michigan with little or no experience?
The most realistic entry path is a co-op or internship through Michigan's large automotive employers, many of which run structured programs for students from Michigan State University, University of Michigan, or Michigan Technological University. Look for titles like manufacturing engineer associate, process improvement analyst, or production coordinator as lateral entry points. Earning a Six Sigma Green Belt certification or completing a lean manufacturing course before applying gives a candidate a concrete edge in Michigan's manufacturing-driven market.
Where can I find and apply to operations engineer jobs in Michigan?
You can find and apply to operations engineer jobs in Michigan on Migrate Mate, which lists current Michigan openings updated regularly. Find roles that fit your experience and location, then apply directly to the employer. No sign-up is required to search available positions.
See All 19 Operations Engineer Jobs in Michigan
Find roles in Michigan that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
Find Operations Engineer Jobs