Lead Process Engineer

Croda is an FTSE
100 global leader in specialty ingredients. Our Purpose, Smart Science to Improve Lives™, and our values of Innovative, Responsible and Together guide how we create high-performance solutions for the Life Sciences and Consumer Care markets.

We are seeking a Lead Process Engineer to join our site engineering team in Alabaster, Alabama. This technical leadership role is accountable for improving manufacturing performance across pilot plant, clinical and commercial drug substance manufacturing operations. The role owns the site process optimization roadmap and leads initiatives to reduce process variation, increase yield, improve gross margin, reduce cycle times, expand capacity and strengthen operational effectiveness.

In this role, you will serve as the senior engineering partner to Manufacturing, Manufacturing Science & Technical Services (MS/TS), Quality, Reliability Engineering and Supply Chain. You will provide governance and prioritization for process improvement initiatives, oversee the site Operational Excellence portfolio, lead minor capital projects, and act as the primary escalation point for complex technical manufacturing issues.

• Bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree in Chemical Engineering.

• 10 years of experience in a regulated environment.
• General knowledge of pharmaceutical product or excipient manufacturing processes.
• Experience developing and implementing business strategies, including organizational structure, change management, budget development, project management and strategic staffing plans.
• Experience applying technical expertise, data analysis and root cause evaluation to resolve complex manufacturing and process issues.
• Knowledge of safety and environmental compliance regulations and practices for working around hazardous chemicals.

• Excellent leadership, mentoring and team development skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to interact effectively with employees, customers and senior management.
• Ability to identify unanticipated outcomes or deviations and rapidly develop appropriate corrective actions.
• Ability to improve policies, practices, procedures, engineering standards and systems.
• Knowledge of PPE, safety protocols and practices related to potential airborne exposure to hazardous chemicals.

• Lead and coordinate the Process Engineering function, establish annual objectives and maintain improvement roadmaps.
• Prioritize engineering resources and improvement projects based on business requirements and expected impact.
• Develop engineering standards, best practices, systems and processes.
• Mentor process engineers and serve as the senior technical escalation point for manufacturing process performance issues.

• Own site-level performance and improvement programs for yield, gross margin, cycle time, throughput, process capability, cost reduction, overall equipment effectiveness and right-first-time performance.
• Identify losses and performance gaps, analyze trends, recommend actions, establish improvement targets and monitor effectiveness.
• Identify opportunities to improve gross margin and overhead allocation through yield improvement, waste reduction, solvent recovery and removal optimization, energy reduction, labor productivity and equipment utilization.
• Quantify financial benefits, build business cases and report savings generated through implemented improvements.
• Provide regular updates to MS/TS, Engineering and Operations leadership.

• Perform value-stream analyses to identify bottlenecks and production constraints.
• Improve equipment utilization, changeover efficiency, batch cycle times, process throughput and scheduling effectiveness.
• Support debottlenecking initiatives and capacity expansion plans.
• Partner with Production to improve schedule adherence and operational execution.

• Own the site’s five-year portfolio of process-related capital projects and…