Plant Engineering Manager, Chemical Scale-Up | Build Engineering Function Behind First-to-Market Material

Most engineering leaders inherit someone else's plant. This one is still being written, and the person in this seat writes it.

Pave Talent is hiring on behalf of our client, a publicly traded global specialty chemicals and electronic materials company operating in more than 50 countries, with an electronics materials heritage that goes back generations. They recently brought in a breakthrough conductive material and run it like a startup division inside the larger company. It is first to market, it conducts electricity and manages heat better than the standard material, and it is headed for AI chips, datacenters, electric vehicles, and fifth-generation wireless (5G).

• The material is in customer trials, so you come in before the volume ramp, not after it
• Leadership has made a major multi-plant investment to scale it: the first plant is coming online, this site is next with higher throughput, and more are planned
• The core electronics business is growing and funding this build at the same time
• The engineering system you build here becomes the model the next plants copy

This is the plant's head of engineering, not one engineer on a large team. You own how the material gets made and improved, and you build the team that does it. Startup scope, with the resources and stability of an established public company behind you.

• You want to commission and scale a site, not maintain a mature one
• You lead from the floor; when equipment fails, you are at the line driving the root-cause analysis yourself
• You are comfortable, even energized, working around flammable solvents and corrosives in a process-safety-first operation
• You would rather write the engineering standards than inherit a binder of them
• You wear many hats and move with urgency while the site comes online

This is not the role for a design engineer who lives in computer-aided design (CAD), a leader who prefers to direct from a desk, or anyone who needs a fully documented plant to step into.

• The site's technical strategy, set alongside site operations leadership and production goals
• Design, commissioning, and optimization of manufacturing processes, equipment, and tooling
• Measurable gains in safety, quality, throughput, and cost
• Root-cause analysis and corrective action on critical and recurring failures
• Capital projects from scoping and budget through installation and validation
• Reliability engineering and maintenance strategy for new equipment from day one
• Hiring, mentoring, and developing the site's engineers, including succession planning
• Technology transfer and standardization with research and development (R&D) and sister plants

The site is early. Some systems do not exist yet, priorities shift as the plant ramps, and for a while you will be both the strategist and the person solving the problem on the floor. If that sounds like the best part of the job, you are who we want to talk to.

• 8 to 12+ years of engineering experience, with real leadership responsibility in a manufacturing plant
• Chemical, specialty chemical, pharmaceutical, or semiconductor process manufacturing; high-volume or batch chemical is the closest fit
• Hands-on ownership of process optimization, equipment, root-cause analysis, and capital projects
• Continuous improvement results using Lean or Six Sigma
• Bachelor's degree in mechanical, chemical, industrial, or a related engineering field
• Plant startup, commissioning, or new-line ramp experience
• Built engineering standards or an engineering team from scratch