Project Engineer, Operations Management

Location: Chattanooga or Knoxville, TN preferred

Travel: Varies by project phase, seasonal, up to ~70 percent during peak periods

Brooksource is supporting a long‑term initiative with our client to add a Senior Program Manager within their Program Engineering organization. This role supports capital maintenance and upgrade projects across our client's conventional generation fleet, including gas, coal, and hydroelectric assets.

This is not a traditional project manager or hands on engineering role. Instead, this position serves as a program level leader who coordinates engineering partners, internal stakeholders, and compliance groups to move projects quickly and safely through planning, design, and execution.

• Serve as the program engineering lead for a portfolio of generation projects across gas, coal, and hydro assets.
• Own oversight of projects from early study and solution development through design, outage execution, and closeout.
• Coordinate closely with internal Project Managers, typically in a one to one partnership, to ensure scope, schedule, and execution stay aligned.
• Lead Phase 1 study efforts by working with external engineering firms to evaluate solutions and develop project charters, including scope, cost, and risk profiles.
• Manage Phase 2 design coordination, including design reviews and kickoff meetings with engineering partners and internal stakeholders.
• Navigate compliance requirements across multiple groups, including environmental, industry standards, and regulatory bodies.
• Support Phase 3 execution by monitoring contractor performance during outages, tracking deliverables, earned value, schedules, and invoices.
• Ensure documentation, drawings, and closeout materials are completed, archived, and approved at project completion.
• Communicate frequently with stakeholders and manage alignment across strong personalities in a fast paced operating environment.

• Prior experience in an engineering, project engineering, program management, or technical leadership role.
• Strong ability to communicate and coordinate across engineers, contractors, compliance teams, and operations stakeholders.
• Comfort operating in fast paced environments where projects move in months, not years.
• Experience managing multiple initiatives or projects simultaneously at varying stages.
• Ability to understand technical discussions and speak the language of engineers, even if you are not producing designs.

• Previous engineering experience, electrical or mechanical preferred, civil also relevant.
• Experience supporting power generation, utilities, industrial manufacturing, or other regulated environments.
• Exposure to compliance driven work such as environmental regulations, industry standards, or reliability requirements.
• Program management experience in federal or Department of Defense environments is a strong plus.
• Comfort working with external engineering firms rather than performing engineering design in house.

• Target workload is approximately 20 projects once fully ramped, with projects spread across multiple phases.
• New hires are ramped intentionally and matched to workload based on experience.
• Long term contract opportunity with potential extensions and conversion paths based on performance and business need.