Director, Capital Projects

Director, Capital Projects

Plantible Foods Vista, California, United States

Kindly be advised that we are handling the recruitment for this position internally and are not partnering with external recruiters.

We are a Biology Company

Plantible, backed by Astanor Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, Piva Capital, Kellogg’s, and Vectr Ventures, is a vertically integrated biology company that is unlocking the power in plants in service of people & planet. Our mission is to create solutions that empower customers to make sustainable and regenerative choices without compromising on quality. We are beginning with the food industry. Please visit our website to learn more about our mission and continued success:

Plantible is scaling from building our first commercial facility to developing and executing the next generation of Plantible facilities. We are looking for a Director of Capital Projects to own the execution of those builds.

This is not a design-only or advisory role. You will be accountable for turning a defined facility need into an operating plant and will bring together Plantible's engineering, operations, development, finance, and technical teams with external engineers, contractors, vendors, and construction partners. You will own the project from FEL through design, procurement, construction, commissioning, and handoff to Operations.

• Own scope, schedule, budget, risk, and execution strategy for major Plantible capital projects.
• The Upstream scope includes large-scale greenhouse and cultivation infrastructure. The Director of Capital Projects will provide overall leadership for execution strategy, contractor performance, installation productivity, and standardization across repeated modules.
• The Downstream covers food-processing environments across biomass handling, maceration, extraction, centrifugation, solid-liquid separation, filtration, purification, drying, and CIP
• Build and maintain the integrated project plan from FEL through commissioning and startup.
• Know the critical path, what is slipping, why it is slipping, and what needs to happen to recover it.
• Establish clear project governance, decision rights, stage gates, and accountability across internal and external teams.
• Surface problems early. Bring leadership decisions and tradeoffs, not surprises.

• Partner with Plantible's engineering and technical leaders to translate process and operational requirements into buildable facility designs.
• Manage the interfaces between process, agricultural, mechanical, civil, structural, electrical, controls, utilities, and site infrastructure.
• Lead external engineering, EPC/EPCM, construction, and specialty partners.
• Challenge scope, design assumptions, and unnecessary complexity before they become expensive construction decisions.
• Make sure lessons from our previous designs become standards for the next facility rather than problems we solve twice.

• Own the project cost forecast, commitments, contingency, schedule, and change-control process.
• Partner with Finance to translate the project forecast and schedule into accurate cash-flow planning.
• Understand what has been spent, what has been committed, what remains at risk, and where the project is expected to finish.
• Evaluate changes based on cost, schedule, technical, and operational impact before approving execution.
• Establish reporting that tells leadership what they actually need to know to make decisions.

• Develop procurement and contracting strategies for major equipment and construction packages.
• Identify long-lead equipment before it becomes the critical path.
• Hold engineering firms, contractors, and vendors…