Senior Project Engineer

Job Description

Job Description

Benefits:

• Health insurance
• Opportunity for advancement
• Paid time off
• Profit sharing
• Training & development
• 401(k)
• 401(k) matching
• Competitive salary
• Dental insurance

Responsibilities:

• Lead project teams in alignment with Coghlin Companies' core values and mission.
• Serve as the primary technical interface to the customer, building and maintaining strong relationships with key technical stakeholders.
• Author and oversee key technical deliverables, including Functional Requirements Documents (FRDs), specifications, and design documentation.
• Ensure customer, regulatory, and system requirements are clearly defined, maintained, and traceable throughout design and verification activities.
• Identify, assess, and proactively manage technical risks throughout the project lifecycle, developing mitigation plans and escalating significant issues to project and engineering leadership as required.
• Evaluate the technical feasibility of conceptual and detailed designs, ensuring compliance with Columbia Tech’s design review process and engineering standards.
• Drive DFX initiatives, balancing product performance, cost, quality, manufacturability, and production efficiency while ensuring alignment with program objectives and customer requirements.
• Review, challenge, and approve technical solutions developed by the team; escalate concerns to engineering leadership or the CTO as appropriate.
• Contribute to project planning by developing technical work breakdown structures (WBS), schedules, resource requirements, and effort estimates.
• Ensure project execution remains aligned with contractual obligations, Statements of Work (SOWs), and approved project plans.
• Identify scope changes and out-of-scope activities, develop impact assessments for both schedule and effort, and coordinate with the Program Manager to support customer negotiations.
• Provide technical leadership to multidisciplinary project teams and maintain accountability for all technical deliverables.
• Foster cross-functional collaboration across engineering, manufacturing, quality, supply chain, and program management functions to achieve project objectives and customer commitments.
• Ensure team compliance with all Columbia Tech-approved processes and requirements, document control processes, and accurate project time reporting. 
• Maintain project status and technical records using Columbia Tech-approved tools and methodologies, while fostering effective team communication and collaboration.
• Own the completeness and accuracy of the Project History File (PHF) per Columbia Tech’s ISO process, including plans, specifications, meeting notes, action items, engineering BOMs, analyses, prototype results, test data, and related documentation.
• Coordinate with Program Managers to identify and allocate resources required to meet project objectives.
• Support Program Managers in project closeout reviews, identify lessons learned, and recommend process improvements to enhance future project performance.

Qualifications:

BS in Engineering or a related technical discipline required

• 10+ years of product development experience with demonstrated success leading complex projects from concept through commercialization.
• Strong systems engineering background required.
• Strong skills in project management by influence rather than authority is crucial to this role.
• Experience providing technical leadership across multidisciplinary teams, including mechanical, electrical, manufacturing, software, and systems engineering disciplines.
• Strong understanding of product development processes, design controls, requirements management, risk management, verification, and change control required.
• Experience with ERP and PDM systems required; Kinetic (formerly Epicor) and SolidWorks PDM experience a plus.
• Experience managing projects in a time-and-materials environment and executing work to approved Statements of Work (SOWs) preferred.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, including Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.
• Familiarity with Agile product development methodologies and supporting project management tools preferred.
• Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills, including direct customer engagement and executive-level communications.

Salary Range: $120,000- $150,000 (Salary commensurate with experience)

Columbia Tech is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Columbia Tech does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, non-disqualifying physical or mental disability, national origin, veteran status or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need.