Project Engineer

Job Category:
Engineering

Job Family:
Project Engineering

Job Description:
You might not know our name, but you’ve probably tasted what we make. That cheese on your burger? The yogurt in your fridge? That’s us. Every day, more than 10,000 of us wake up with one goal — to make the day go a little smoother for our customers, our communities and each other.

The Senior Project Engineer leads the development and execution of complex capital projects while providing advanced technical support to plant engineering operations. This role independently manages larger, higher‑risk projects, leads cross‑functional project teams, and contributes to capital planning and investment justification. The Senior Project Engineer also supports development of other engineers through mentoring, knowledge sharing, and use of enterprise project management practices.

Role & Responsibilities:

- Lead the planning and execution of capital projects from concept through commissioning and closeout, ensuring project success criteria related to safety, cost, schedule, quality, and performance are achieved.

- Lead and coordinate cross‑functional project teams that may include internal partners, external engineering resources, equipment suppliers, contractors, and regulatory stakeholders.

- Ensure project designs and execution comply with safety, sanitation, food safety, environmental, and government regulations.

- Provide clear technical direction, priorities, and expectations to project team members and communicate progress, risks, and decisions to stakeholders.

- Develop and review technical specifications, equipment requirements, and scope documents; support vendor and contractor evaluation and selection.

- Provide advanced technical guidance to plant engineering teams to sustain and improve production capacity, reliability, and capability.

- Support development of capital business propositions and executive summaries by translating technical requirements into clear cost, benefit, and risk considerations.

- Identify, evaluate, and support implementation of new or improved technologies and methods that enhance manufacturing capability, capacity, and profitability.

- Assist with cross‑training and capability development of engineering partners, including effective use of enterprise project management tools and standards.

- Represent engineering in technical reviews, leadership discussions, and customer or supplier engagements as required.

Key Ingredients:

- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering (Mechanical or Electrical preferred) or a related technical discipline.

- Typically 6–9 years of experience in engineering, capital project execution, or manufacturing environments.

- Spanish and English fluency required

- Demonstrated success executing capital projects of increasing complexity and scale.

- Strong working knowledge of project management principles and execution disciplines.

- Technical experience with manufacturing systems and automation; experience with electrical controls, PLCs, VFDs, and servo systems preferred.

- Ability to lead and influence cross‑functional teams without direct people‑management authority.

- Strong analytical, organizational, and problem‑solving skills.

- Effective communication skills to convey technical information to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.

- Proficiency with standard engineering and project tools and systems.

- Demonstrated partner qualities including Results Oriented, Disciplined, Continuously Improving, Emotionally Intelligent, and Customer Focused.