Program Manager, Engineering

Company Overview Why Choose Us?

Novolex is a leading manufacturer of food, beverage, and specialty packaging that supports multiple industries including food service, restaurant delivery and carryout, food processing, grocery and retail, and industrial sectors. Novolex manufacturing and sourcing expertise spans a diverse range of substrates including resin, paper, molded fiber, aluminum and more. We provide customers a broad array of stock and customized solutions with 120 product categories, 250 brands and over 39,000 SKUs.

The Novolex sustainability vision is built upon three pillars: our products, our operations and our people. Each is critically important to our growth and future as a business. These pillars form the foundation of our company-wide commitment to sustainability, helping us achieve our ambitious goals through our wide-ranging initiatives.

Job Summary

The Engineering Program Manager is responsible for leading the safe, compliant, and cost-effective optimization of manufacturing facilities across multiple sites and work streams.

This role directs cross-functional teams to execute all aspects of facility optimization, including vendor procurement, asset recovery, environmental compliance, IT system decommissioning, and legal and real estate coordination required for final site turnover.

The ideal candidate excels at managing complex, time-sensitive programs with significant financial, environmental, and operational implications, driving governance, risk mitigation, documentation control, and audit-ready execution throughout the decommissioning lifecycle.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end optimization programs across one or more facilities, overseeing all phases from initial planning through project closure.
• Develop and issue comprehensive Request for Quote (RFQ) packages for optimization services; evaluate bids, select vendors, negotiate commercial terms, and manage contractor performance to ensure adherence to scope, budget, schedule, and compliance requirements.
• Collaborate with Operations, Engineering, Maintenance, IT, Real Estate and legal teams to coordinate and track completion of optimization-related tasks.
• Ensure full Environmental, Health & Safety (EH&S) compliance, by partnering with EH&S to identify, handle, transport, and dispose of all hazardous materials, waste streams, and regulated equipment in accordance with all applicable regulations.
• Manage asset acquisition, disposition and value-recovery initiatives, including financial documentation.
• Develop and maintain program-level plans, budgets, forecasts, risk registers, and executive-ready status reporting across all decommissioning work streams.
• Identify, escape, and mitigate program risks related to safety, compliance, environmental exposure, contractual obligations, schedule, and cost.
• Ensure all optimization activities meet regulatory, corporate, and contractual requirements, supported by audit-ready documentation and controlled change management.

Required Skills & Competencies

• Strong background in manufacturing engineering with hands-on experience in production facilities, including deep knowledge of manufacturing processes, production equipment and plant operations.
• Proven experience leading complex, multi-site optimization programs within industrial or manufacturing environments.
• Strong knowledge of procurement and commercial processes, including RFQ development, vendor selection, contract negotiation, and performance management.
• Solid understanding of EH&S regulations, hazardous materials handling and waste stream management, environmental compliance requirements, and safe optimization practices.
• Excellent cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder management skills across Operations, EH&S, IT, Real Estate, Finance, Legal, Engineering, and external vendors.
• Strong program management skills with the ability to lead multiple concurrent work streams, manage dependencies, and drive governance and decision making.
• Experience with asset acquisition, disposition and value-recovery initiatives, including financial documentation.
• Outstanding organizational, communication, negotiation, and issue-escalation abilities, with a demonstrated ability to influence cross functional teams and external partners.
• Proficiency with program and project management tools (MS Project, Smartsheet, etc.), documentation systems, and Microsoft Office Suite.
• Ability to interpret leases, contracts, and regulatory requirements.
• Strong risk…