Furnace Design Engineer

Job Description

Furnace and refractory design and operations engineer for glass melting furnaces for container glass manufacturing facilities in a global environment. Provide furnace audits and campaign life assessments with required reporting defining necessary actions, maintenance requirements, and risk identification for assigned furnaces. Provide technical support and project management for projects including scoping, estimation, design, construction and commissioning. Provide operating and maintenance support for the applicable systems to the facilities.

Responsible for complex and significant projects using considerable engineering expertise in furnace and refractory design and hot repair techniques to complete projects with minimal technical oversight.

SCOPE AND IMPACT

• Responsible for the evaluation of furnace condition according to O-I Global Manufacturing fundamentals and O-I Global furnace team standards.
• Responsible for scoping, supervision and follow-up of design and repair project development through execution.
• Responsible for realizing the appropriate maintenance actions for assigned furnaces to ensure asset stability & reliability on time, and on budget.
• Required to support ongoing development and proper use of furnace and refractory standards.
• Expected to provide input into decisions with potentially significant financial impacts to the business.

Responsibilities:

• Perform and report on furnace audits and campaign life assessments for assigned furnaces. Follow-up with necessary hot repair documentation, solutions to issues, and supervision of repairs.
• Exceptional maintenance budget definition and execution for assigned furnaces.
• Scoping, estimating, design, selection, inspection, and construction supervision of furnace refractories with minimal oversight. Supervision of internal and external engineering staff for the aforementioned areas.
• Develop detailed and clear scopes of work for engineering projects eliminating all ambiguity.
• Guide engineers during the production of drawings.
• Review drawings and Bills of Materials for accuracy and completeness.
• Mentor engineers and designers in design and audit practices and techniques.
• Collaborate with Mechanical, Structural, Electrical and Process Control engineering as required.
• Provide feedback to Global Furnace Team and other disciplines for improvement of design, construction practices, material standards, etc.
• Perform remote and field plant technical assistance activities, identifying improvement opportunities and implementing action plans.
• Support on-site activities as required, participating in project meetings, reporting on project status and issues, elaborating action plans and maintaining communication with contractors as required to effectively execute project tasks.
• Plan, schedule and track project activities including cost control.
• Elaborate technical reports, asset audits/assessments and trip reports as required, including documentation management according to company policy.
• Assure compliance with all Health & Safety and environmental requirements, aligned with plant & country group EH&S.
• Provide direction as required to aid in decision making related to the scope, schedule, cost and risk assessment for projects as part of business case development and validation.
• Strong communication skills required. Will be expected to present to furnace team, project teams and plant teams.

• Bachelor’s Degree in Ceramic Engineering preferred. Chemical or Mechanical Engineering or equivalent knowledge will be considered.
• 5+ years of experience in glass furnace and refractory design, construction, audits and hot repairs.
• Working knowledge of refractory expansion & interface with binding steel.
• Working knowledge of refractory selections and suppliers in design and hot repair.
• Working knowledge of industrial manufacturing systems, buildings, infrastructure, and process related systems, understanding the interaction of these systems with refractory and binding steel.
• Strong knowledge and awareness of safety and PPE requirements before, during and after projects.
• Ability to work within multinational environments.
• MS Office knowledge.
• AutoCAD knowledge.
• SAP…