Director Of Engineering

Overview

Primary

Location:

Bolingbrook, Illinois, United States of America

Solina is a growing company focused on customised savoury solutions for clients in the food industry, food service, butchery and nutrition markets. Our sustainability-centric business aims to produce food that is delicious, nourishing, affordable, sustainable and convenient. Solina operates about 50 production sites and R&D laboratories across more than 19 countries, primarily in Europe and North America. We design culinary solutions to help food matter for people and the planet.

Solina USA, a Solina Group company, has four strategically located production facilities across the United States to serve Quick Service Restaurants, fast casual, casual dining, and food manufacturers.

Summary of Position:
The Director of Engineering is responsible for leading the engineering, capital project execution, and multi-site maintenance strategy across all Solina USA facilities. This role develops and delivers the annual and multi-year capital expenditure (CAPEX) plan and ensures projects are executed safely, on schedule, and within approved budgets while supporting business growth, food safety, and operational excellence. The role provides functional leadership to site Maintenance Leaders, ensures preventative maintenance plans are executed consistently, and drives reliability performance through standardized KPIs, best practices, and strong technical support.

The Director of Engineering also serves as a technical liaison to Operations, Quality/Food Safety, Sanitation, and EHS teams, and is a key resource for electrical, controls, and automation initiatives supporting Solina’s future automation roadmap in the United States.

Essential Functions

This document in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the employee occupying the position.

• CAPEX Planning, Governance, and Execution (Consolidated)
• Develops and owns the annual and multi-year CAPEX plan for all Solina USA facilities, including project identification, prioritization, business case development, ROI/risk justification, and alignment with safety, food safety, quality, capacity, and cost initiatives.
• Leads CAPEX governance and execution discipline across all projects, including scope definition, design review, budget development, procurement strategy, schedule management, change control, commissioning/start-up, turnover to site teams, and project closeout documentation.
• Ensures CAPEX budget adherence through forecasting, variance management, and timely escalation of risks, scope changes, and cost drivers to executive leadership.

• Project & Team Leadership
• Directly manages (1) Project Manager and provides coaching, prioritization, and accountability for project planning, execution, contractor management, and documentation standards across all sites.

• Maintenance & Reliability Leadership
• Provides functional leadership to Maintenance Leadership at each US site; ensures key maintenance KPIs are defined, measured, reviewed, and achieved (e.g., equipment uptime, PM completion, maintenance response time, reliability improvements, and contractor performance).
• Standardizes and continuously improves preventative and predictive maintenance programs across sites, including CMMS utilization, work order quality, equipment history, PM optimization, and reliability-centered maintenance practices.
• Establishes and maintains a multi-site spare parts strategy, including critical spares identification, min/max stocking levels, vendor/service agreements, inventory accuracy controls, and reduction of excessive stock-level variance while protecting uptime.

• Technical Leadership & Automation
• Acts as a technical liaison and escalation resource for Operations and Maintenance teams, supporting complex troubleshooting, root cause analysis, corrective and preventative actions, and technical decision-making.
• Leads and supports Solina’s future automation plan implementations in the US by providing electrical and controls expertise, partnering with integrators/contractors, and ensuring robust standards for PLC/SCADA systems, instrumentation, VFDs, and documentation.
• Supports Wonderware/SCADA and PLC change management best practices (where applicable), including backups, controlled access, version control, alarm/setpoint governance, and proper turnover of as-built documentation.

• Food Safety, Compliance, and Cross-Functional Partnership
• Ensures strong sanitary design and hygienic engineering principles are embedded in all projects and equipment modifications, including cleanability, materials of construction, drainage, access for inspection, and prevention of harborage or foreign material risks.
• Champions a strong environmental, sustainability, food safety, and worker safety mindset in all engineering and maintenance activities, ensuring compliance with OSHA, FDA/FSMA expectations, local regulatory requirements, and internal Solina standards.
• Facilitates and leads cross-functional meetings with…