Associate Director of Engineering

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary project lead for a major capital project initiative, accountable for coordinating execution across all assigned workstreams.
• Establish, lead, and maintain the project governance structure, including meeting cadence, decision forums, escalation paths, steering updates, risk reviews, and executive reporting.
• Provide direct leadership to project-based team members and workstream leaders assigned to the capital project.
• Lead coordination across major project workstreams, including Engineering/Construction, Technology, Operations, Finance, Procurement, Safety, Quality, Change Management, and other assigned functional areas.
• Own capital project budget management in partnership with Finance, including capital tracking, cost visibility, forecasting inputs, variance review, and escalation of budget risks.
• Partner with Finance and project sponsors to ensure project financials are accurately tracked, communicated, and aligned to approved capital plans.
• Support vendor selection, proposal review, contract coordination, and vendor performance management during the capital project.
• Lead engineering and project execution activities related to facility consolidation, construction coordination, equipment installation, utilities, commissioning, manufacturing readiness, distribution readiness, and operational start-up.
• Maintain technical plans, facility requirements, equipment needs, and operational impacts aligned with business and manufacturing objectives.
• Monitor construction, engineering, equipment, and operational readiness activities to identify timing conflicts, safety concerns, execution risks, or resource gaps.
• Develop and maintain project reporting tools, dashboards, action trackers, risk logs, meeting notes, and other documentation needed to manage project execution.
• Prepare and deliver clear project updates, executive summaries, risk reviews, decision points, and escalation items for the SVP, Operations & Supply Chain and other senior leaders.
• Track project performance against scope, schedule, budget, milestones, workstream deliverables, and readiness expectations.
• Lead risk identification, mitigation planning, issue resolution, and follow-up across all project phases.
• Following the capital project, lead or support additional capital, engineering, manufacturing, distribution, facility, and operational projects based on business needs.
• Apply lessons learned to strengthen future project governance, execution discipline, stakeholder alignment, and operational readiness.
• Support continuous improvement by identifying opportunities to improve project planning, execution, communication, and cross-functional coordination.

Position Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering required; Mechanical, Chemical, Industrial, Electrical, Civil, Construction Engineering, or related engineering discipline preferred.
• 10+ years of experience in project engineering, capital project execution, engineering project leadership, construction project management, manufacturing engineering, industrial operations, or related project execution roles.
• Demonstrated experience leading large-scale, complex, cross-functional projects with accountability for scope, schedule, budget, risk management, issue resolution, stakeholder alignment, and project delivery.
• Experience leading project teams, project-based direct reports, or cross-functional workstream leaders.
• Experience supporting vendor selection, contract coordination, vendor management, and external partner oversight.
• Strong working knowledge of manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, supply chain operations, utilities, equipment installation, commissioning, facility readiness, and operational start-up processes.
• Strong project leadership and project management skills, including integrated schedule management, milestone tracking, dependency management, risk mitigation, executive reporting, documentation, and stakeholder follow-up.
• Demonstrated ability to lead through influence, manage competing priorities, drive accountability, and make sound recommendations across multiple stakeholder groups.
• Ability to assess project risks, connect technical and business implications, and escalate issues with clear options and recommendations.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to translate complex project information for technical teams, functional leaders, external partners, and senior leadership.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office tools required.
• Experience supporting major capital projects, facility expansions, facility consolidations, manufacturing start-ups, distribution projects, technology-enabled operational projects, or operational transformation initiatives preferred.
• Experience working with external engineering firms, contractors, vendors, consultants, or system integrators preferred.
• Experience with Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, SAP, WMS, or other project management platforms preferred.
• PMP, CAPM, Lean Six Sigma, or related project management certification preferred.
• Internal Only: Experience with Community Coffee, even if unrelated, may fulfill this requirement at the discretion of the hiring manager with approval from Human Resources.