Job Abstract

Job Title: Senior Project Engineer 

Job Location: Hershey, PA Preferred / Open to Remote in Central or Eastern Time Zone 

Travel: 70% 


Summary: 

Reporting to the Senior Manager in the Capital Programs group and working out of the Technical Center in Hershey, PA, the Senior Project Engineer position should require minimal direction while leading the development, execution, and implementation of medium complexity projects requiring functional & industry expertise, functional knowledge, & advocacy. They must have strong capability to demonstrate and apply technical knowledge and expertise along with the ability to develop and share technical expertise within functional area and cross functionally within the organization. A successful candidate is expected to have strong problem-solving skills & possess the ability to think critically and strong capability to communicate technical subject matter written and verbally cross functionally and with manager. Successful candidate must have strong capability to communicate complex or technical subject matter written and verbally to audiences at all levels of the organization with strong capability to influence stakeholders and leverage personal networks to provide engineering solutions.

Specific Role Focus Area:

• Understanding of the interrelationships of equipment and sub-systems combined to form production systems.
• Proficiency of food industry practices and Hershey manufacturing processes, construction practices, and standards to provide economical technical solutions
• Participating in project design and methodology · Problem solving through application of knowledge and creative thinking
• Technical problem resolution and implementation on existing manufacturing systems and new equipment installs
• Provide technical assistance to the engineering group, maintenance organization, and manufacturing to maintain high performance project execution and manufacturing operations.

This role will interact and partner with:

• Technical and professional employees within Global Engineering
• Manufacturing, Operations and Plant Quality Assurance
• Quality and Regulatory Compliance
• Procurement
• Engineering
• External Vendors 

Major Duties/Responsibilities:

Project Installation Support

• Assist Project Manager and Project Engineers with execution of capital projects
• Coordinate contractor activities for all phases of equipment installation as it pertains to safety, GMP, and engineering design
• Coordinate activities between contractors and plant operations to ensure compliance with plant safety & GMP requirements
• Assist Project Teams with equipment checkout and startups
• Implement smaller sub-projects per Project Manager’s direction to supplement project engineers

Continuous Improvement & Lean Principles 

• Participate on improvement teams to develop problem solving tools & techniques
• Provide technical assistance to continuous improvement teams
• Assist teams with root cause analysis exercises

Capital Projects

• Basic understanding of Capital Project Execution
• Execute projects of smaller scope and complexity
• Build relationships across the engineering organization to facilitate project execution

Minimum knowledge, skills and abilities required to successfully perform major duties/responsibilities:

• Knowledge of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) & Food Safety
• Required to travel and work weekends as a required.
• Demonstrated and recognized breadth of expertise in one type of manufacturing equipment and related operations (Processing equipment, Packaging, Systems Controls, Mechanical/Electrical)
• Coordinates and works with supplier companies, external technical resources, and internal customers (Engineering, Plant Staff, Co-Manufacturing, Operations Planning, Finance, Warehouse Administration)
• Understands capital project management best practices such as purchase requisitioning, monitoring of contract time, internal order numbers, purchase orders, and project timelines.
• Provides appropriate planning, coordination, and leadership in the implementation of complex overhauls, upgrades and other problem solving tasks.
• Provides support for technical problem resolution and implementation on existing manufacturing systems and new equipment installations
• Embraces opportunities to learn new skills by actively participating in the development of self and others through mentoring and skills diversification programs.
• Proactively identifies novel/unique opportunities for utilization of new and improved technologies replacing obsolete or less productive equipment and systems. Leverages existing technologies within the corporation whenever appropriate.
• Demonstrated proficiency of food industry practices and Hershey manufacturing processes, construction practices, standards, and codes to ultimately provide sound and economical technical solutions.

Minimum Education and Experience Requirements:

BS in Engineering or Engineering Technology (Elec/Mech/Mechatronics) with 3 Years’ Experience or 6-8 years Equivalent work Experience.