Lead Piping Designer

Duration: Contract (6 Months)

Location: Remote (with visits to San Francisco / Houston office)

Primary Skills: Lead Piping Designer with EPC, AutoCAD Plant 3D and Navisworks

The client is a software-first, vertically integrated minerals company on a mission to supply the critical minerals powering modern energy, AI, and defense technologies. We're reimagining the minerals supply chain by combining deep industry expertise with advanced software, automation, and data-driven decision-making.

The client is looking for a Lead Piping Designer to help build the critical minerals supply chain.

As a Lead Piping Designer at the client, you will develop piping and related concepts for assigned plant areas and manage the engineering contractors who carry them through detailed design, making sure deliverables are integrated, constructible, and delivered on schedule and budget.

• Manage outside contractor piping design activities from concept through issued-for-construction (IFC) and construction support, tracking progress, hours, and deliverables.
• Lead 30/60/90% model reviews with contractors, operations, and maintenance, and drive resolution of review comments, clashes, and constructability issues.
• Work with the Mariana Minerals team to define piping design requirements for engineering contractors, including scope of work, design basis, piping specifications, deliverable lists, and CAD and modeling standards.
• Develop piping concepts for assigned plant areas, including plot plans, equipment layouts, pipe rack routing, and 3D concept models in AutoCAD Plant 3D.
• Review contractor deliverables, including isometrics, general arrangement drawings, line lists, and material take-offs (MTOs), for quality and compliance.
• Respond to contractor technical queries, and evaluate design changes.
• Coordinate piping interfaces across process, mechanical, civil, structural, electrical, and instrumentation engineering, and across contractor scope boundaries.
• Help define requirements for contractor and third-party equipment models and P&IDs, and integrate them into the client hosted AutoCAD Plant 3D environment.
• Support procurement with bulk material requirements and review of vendor data.
• Support construction by performing field walkdowns and resolving RFIs and field changes.
• Assist in developing the client piping design standards, standard details, and work processes so they can be reused across projects.
• Actively engage in development of the client internal software tools.

• Associate's degree or technical diploma in drafting and design, bachelor's degree in engineering, or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of piping design experience on industrial, mining, or process plant projects, including 3+ years in a lead role.
• Experience managing or reviewing the work of engineering contractors on an owner's team, or leading piping on EPC projects that interface with owner's teams.
• Experience developing piping concepts and layouts and carrying them through IFC deliverables.
• Strong working knowledge of piping specifications, components, materials, and fabrication practices.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to hold contractors accountable.
• Ability to work effectively with cross-functional teams, manage competing priorities, and support delivery of high-quality engineering packages under schedule constraints.

• Experience with mineral processing, hydrometallurgical, chemical, or refinery projects.
• Expert proficiency in AutoCAD Plant 3D (or Cadworx, Revit, S3D, E3D), with a proven track record of producing accurate and efficient designs.
• Experience with Navisworks or similar model review tools.
• Experience administering Plant 3D projects, specs, and catalogs.
• Experience with laser scan data and brownfield design.
• Experience developing software tools or automating design workflows.