Project Engineer, Systems Engineer

Project Engineer

Location:

Research Triangle Park, NC

Reports to:

Project Manager, with functional direction from the Engineering leader (Tim) Team:
Small, tightly integrated facility team where operations, plant engineering, project engineering, and automation work as one unit Why this role exists right now:
The project workload has outgrown the Project Managers' capacity, and RTP is where there is room to bring on and train someone earlier in their career. Tim needs a Project Engineer to own the "what" of execution so the PMs can keep their arms around the whole effort and the team can run more capital projects than it can today.

Why This Role Matters "The goal is the same: the projects on time, on budget, and to do more of them than I'm capable of doing right now." Linde is a leading global industrial gases and engineering company with 2025 sales of $34 billion, and the electronics division sits at the center of the story that matters right now. This is the group that supplies ultra-high-purity gases to the semiconductor industry, the chip fab buildout across the United States, and the memory and compute growth driving AI.

Tim put it plainly: the division is connected to the biggest names in chips and "there's going to be no shortage of work anytime soon." RTP is the smaller, more integrated of the two sites, and that is its advantage. Operations, plant engineering, project engineering, and automation run as one team on nearly everything, so a Project Engineer here learns the whole operation fast rather than staying boxed into one discipline.

The Project Managers have more capital work than they can personally execute, and this seat is the added capacity that lets the team run more of it. This is not a maintenance hire. It is a build, at a moment when the business is growing into the next phase of what the electronics division becomes. Tim came into his own seat in January after 22 years at Linde precisely because of that upside.

As he said, he is "the poster child for why you do that," and the division is "really at the precipice of something great." The Mission Help the Project Managers move more capital projects across the finish line, on time and on budget, by owning the execution work a PM cannot personally carry across multiple concurrent projects. At RTP you do it inside an integrated team, so you will learn across operations, plant engineering, and automation as you go.

Tim described the structure this way: the Project Manager dictates who does what, and the Project Engineer does the "what." Early in a project's life you help scope the work, build the budget, and lay out a preliminary schedule so a capital need can be turned into a funded, authorized project. Once funding is awarded, you execute alongside the PM: bill of materials, specifying the equipment and instruments and valves, coordinating with procurement to buy them, and managing the contractors on site through construction.

You track the finances so nothing gets away from the team. When it works, the PM keeps their arms around the whole effort and RTP completes more projects than it can today. Performance Objectives Scope projects and develop budgets and preliminary schedules that convert capital needs into funded, authorized projects, working in partnership with the Project Manager and process engineers.

Specify and procure the physical scope of each project: author the bill of materials, specify equipment, instruments, and valves, and coordinate with procurement to purchase them without gaps or delays. Manage onsite contractors through the construction phase, from mobilization to turnover, so work is executed to scope and to the site's safety standard. Track project finances and expenditures across multiple concurrent projects so the Project Manager always has a current, accurate picture of the whole effort.

Deliver each assigned project on time and on budget, measured against the schedule and budget you helped build. Increase the site's project throughput so RTP completes more capital projects than the current Project Managers can deliver alone. This is the reason the seat exists. Fit Traits These are the human patterns Tim reads as strength. Each is anchored to what he actually said.

At RTP, the integrated team gives an earlier-career hire room to grow into these. Figures It Out Without a Manual. This is the trait Tim named as the one that is missing in some people. Signal: "I need people who want to figure out what to do on their own, and I can help you prioritize and guide you in the right direction."

He will guide and prioritize. He will not hand you a plan every morning. At RTP there is a team around you to learn from while you build that muscle. Curious, and Not Afraid to Get It Wrong. Signal: "I need someone who is curious and willing to learn and willing to just ask questions and figure things out and make mistakes and learn from them."

This is the trait that matters most for the earlier-career hire RTP can take. Technical…