Engineering Manager

Engineering Manager

Shape the future of engineering at Heraeus in Santa Fe Springs

At Heraeus, engineering plays a critical role in keeping our precious-metals refining and chemical manufacturing operations safe, reliable and ready for the future. As Engineering Manager, you will lead a team and turn complex operational challenges into practical solutions that improve performance across the site.

This is an opportunity to make a visible impact through capital projects, process improvement, asset reliability and technical leadership. If you enjoy developing people, solving complex problems and seeing your ideas move from concept to reality, we invite you to join us.

The Engineering Manager leads the site engineering function and develops strategies that support safe, compliant, reliable and cost-effective operations. This role oversees capital projects, process engineering, facilities and utilities, automation and controls, process improvement, and engineering support for reliability and maintenance.

The position partners closely with Operations, Maintenance, EHS, Quality, Finance, Procurement, Security, Human Resources and external engineering partners to strengthen site performance and support future business needs.

Key responsibilities

• Lead and develop the engineering team, including staffing, coaching, performance management and succession planning.
• Develop and execute the site engineering strategy in alignment with business and production needs.
• Prioritize and manage the site's engineering and capital-project portfolio.
• Lead capital projects, equipment upgrades, process changes and facility improvements from concept through commissioning.
• Provide technical leadership for precious-metals refining and chemical manufacturing processes.
• Identify opportunities to improve safety, quality, yield, throughput, efficiency, reliability and cost performance.
• Partner with Operations and Maintenance to resolve equipment and process issues and improve asset performance.
• Oversee engineering support for facilities, utilities, infrastructure, automation, controls and instrumentation.
• Prepare project recommendations, business cases, cost estimates, schedules and risk assessments.
• Manage consultants, contractors, suppliers and other external technical resources.
• Ensure projects and process changes meet applicable EHS, quality, regulatory, security and management-of-change requirements.
• Communicate project progress, risks and performance to leadership and apply lessons learned to future work.

• Coordinate engineering scope and technical priorities for planned site shutdowns and major maintenance outages in partnership with Operations and Maintenance.
• Provide engineering oversight for critical site infrastructure and protection systems, including utilities, HVAC, fire protection, alarms and instrumentation, in coordination with the responsible site functions.
• Ensure engineering projects and process changes preserve applicable precious-metals security controls, and promptly escalate suspected security breaches or significant operational deviations.
• Ensure engineering changes to automation, controls and instrumentation follow applicable management-of-change, safety and cybersecurity requirements.
• Ensure the reliable and secure operation of site OT infrastructure, including automation servers, machine communications and data historians; coordinate updates and changes with IT and Operations.
• Maintain appropriate engineering standards and technical documentation, and ensure effective commissioning, operator training and handover to Operations and Maintenance.
• Partner with Maintenance on asset reliability, equipment specifications and lifecycle improvements while maintaining clear accountability for day-to-day maintenance execution.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in chemical, mechanical, electrical, industrial or related engineering discipline.
• Eight or more years of progressive engineering experience in manufacturing, chemical processing, refining, specialty materials, precious metals or a similar industrial environment.
• Experience leading engineers, technical professionals, contractors or cross-functional project teams.
• Experience managing capital projects through design, construction, commissioning and closeout.
• Strong knowledge of process engineering, industrial equipment, facilities, utilities and project execution.
• Experience with process improvement, technical problem solving, risk assessment and management of change.
• Strong communication, leadership, analytical and decision-making skills.
• Ability to influence across functions and explain complex technical matters in clear business terms.

Preferred: Experience in precious-metals refining or chemical manufacturing; automation and controls; process safety; Lean, Six Sigma or reliability engineering; and/or a Professional Engineer license or project-management certification.

Physical requirements

• Ability to work in and access production, process, laboratory, utility, construction and maintenance areas while following required PPE and safety procedures.
• Ability to walk, stand and move through operating areas and project locations for inspections, troubleshooting and construction oversight.
• Ability to work around industrial equipment, chemicals, process hazards, noise and temperature variations.
• Ability to use computers, engineering software and standard office equipment.
• Occasional travel may be required for supplier visits, project activities, training, audits or meetings at other company locations.

Curious? Apply now!