Senior Engineering Manager

Senior Engineering Manager

The Senior Engineering Manager leads the Engineering function for the company's food-grade CPG and nut harvesting/processing facilities, with responsibility for all capital projects, capital project management, managing contractors, and supporting facility packaging and processing equipment and facility utility infrastructure. This dynamic role works cross-functionally across the organization and indirectly supports maintenance reliability programs, maintenance strategy, and ensuring projects support human safety, production efficiency, quality, and regulatory compliance.

This role partners closely with Operations, Quality, Safety, Supply Chain, and other functions to deliver throughput, cost, and continuous improvement objectives in large scale agricultural operations and a high-speed manufacturing environment. This role reports directly to the Chief Operating Officer.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Full responsibility to manage the annual capital plan from plan approvals, to oversight of all projects, to leading larger capital engineering projects.
• Ensures project management is run effectively delivering projects on time, at or below cost, and succeeding in project deliverables while meeting overall organizational expectations.
• Works closely with contractors and OEMs on new technologies, improved equipment performance, and drives overall equipment and manufacturing / processing engineering improvements.
• Leads, coaches, and develops Engineering dept employees and functions as a technical resource for Operations, Manufacturing, Supply Chain and all Agricultural Operations.
• Supports the maintenance strategy around CMMS (MaintainX), equipment reliability and preventive/predictive maintenance programs, spare parts strategy, and overall proactive maintenance strategies to increase OEE and minimize downtime and unplanned outages.
• Design, implement, and optimize processing and packaging lines for husking, drying, cracking, sorting, roasting, seasoning, enrobing, panning, packing, and other associated CPG operations, ensuring OEE and yield targets.
• Manage plant utilities and infrastructure (steam, compressed air, refrigeration, water/wastewater, power) with focus on energy efficiency and Hawaii-specific cost/availability constraints.
• Lead capital planning and execution (scoping, justification, vendor selection, installation, commissioning) for new equipment, expansions, and facility upgrades.
• Tracks and manages cash flow on capital projects working with Accounting and Finance along with other key stakeholders.
• Leads with both a value engineering mindset and leverages lean manufacturing and continuous improvement principles (5S, value stream mapping, SMED, line balancing, waste reduction) to improve line design throughput and reduce cost per pound.
• Ensure engineering and maintenance activities comply with OSHA, FDA/FSMA, USDA (if applicable), environmental regulations, and local/state of Hawaii codes and permitting.
• Partner with Quality and Food Safety to design hygienic equipment, allergen control, sanitation-friendly layouts, and support root cause analysis for customer or regulatory issues.
• Maintain plant layouts, drawings, and documentation; standardize work instructions and change control for process and equipment changes.
• Possess a range of analytical and mechanical skills with a high tolerance for uncertainty in dynamic conditions.
• Develop and manage departmental budget (labor, MRO, capital) and report performance via KPIs (downtime, OEE, MTBF, maintenance cost, energy use).
• Prepare monthly reports for the business, including productivity metrics and budget costs, partnering with finance and accounting.
• Fulfill any additional duties or projects assigned, demonstrating flexibility and an initiative-taking approach to meeting organizational needs.
• Adhere to Company policies and procedures in all duties, reflecting Company values in behavioral conduct both on-site and off.

Education, Experience, Skills, and Abilities

Required:

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Industrial, Manufacturing, or related Engineering field; advanced degree or PE license preferred but not…