Process Engineering Team Leader

About the role

The Olefins & Polymers USA division of INEOS is one of the largest producers of olefins and polyolefins in North America, operating the Chocolate Bayou site in Southeastern Texas (about 40 miles south of Houston). The site includes two olefins units producing ~4 billion lb/year of ethylene, two polypropylene units producing ~1 billion lb/year of polypropylene, and Light Ends storage & transfer facilities at Stratton Ridge. The Process Engineering Technical Team Leader provides site‑wide leadership for consistent and standardized process engineering support across Olefins, Polymers, and Utilities at Chocolate Bayou. The role establishes common engineering practices, assures technical rigor and process safety governance, develops process engineers, and coordinates priorities and resources to meet site needs, serving as the primary interface between Production, Process Engineering, Technical Team, Site Leadership, Operations, Maintenance, SHE, Reliability, and Project teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Process Engineering function as a site‑wide technical discipline, providing clear priorities, consistent expectations, and effective allocation of process engineering resources.
• Establish and sustain standardized methods, tools, calculations, documentation, and review practices for process engineering work across all operating units.
• Maintain strong interfaces with unit teams while preserving discipline governance, independent technical judgment, and consistent site standards.
• Build process engineering capability and succession depth through structured development, mentoring, work assignment, and technical progression.
• Translate site priorities into an integrated Process Engineering work plan across Olefins, Polymers, and Utilities; assign and rebalance work based on risk, business impact, urgency, workload, and development needs.
• Maintain standardized work practices, templates, calculations, documentation requirements, and quality checks; ensure appropriate technical review of evaluations and analyses, with clear documentation of assumptions, data sources, risks, recommendations, and approvals.
• Lead technical challenge for complex troubleshooting across process equipment and controls; ensure structured problem solving is used and corrective actions are technically sound, sustainable, and verified.
• Provide discipline leadership for Safe Operating Limits, operating envelopes, and associated technical bases; support PHAs, HAZOPs, LOPAs, MOCs, investigations, audits, and risk reviews.
• Provide timely calculations, technical bases, data evaluation, and root‑cause support for environmental events and permit compliance; guide evaluation of process design, operating strategy, emissions reduction opportunities, and environmental improvement feasibility.
• Promote technically justified improvements that strengthen process safety, reliability, environmental performance, and operating stability; assure sound engineering basis, risk review input, acceptance criteria, and documentation for plant trials and technical evaluations.
• Maintain development plans that build technical skills, process safety knowledge, unit experience, business understanding, and leadership behaviors; provide coaching, feedback, mentoring, peer review, and targeted training to strengthen engineering judgment and execution.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering with 10+ years of relevant experience
• Demonstrated experience applying process engineering principles in chemical manufacturing or a comparable continuous‑process environment
• Demonstrated knowledge of process safety management, environmental compliance, engineering calculations, process troubleshooting, and technical documentation
• Ability to lead, coach, prioritize, and coordinate engineers supporting multiple operating units and competing site needs
• Strong technical judgment, written and verbal communication, stakeholder management, and decision‑making skills
• Ability to review complex engineering work, challenge assumptions constructively, and communicate risk and recommendations to technical and non‑technical audiences

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in petrochemical, refining, polymers, olefins, utilities, or similar continuous manufacturing operations
• Prior experience leading engineers, technical teams, major cross‑functional studies, or discipline governance activities
• Experience with process simulation, process historians, data analysis tools, relief or flare evaluations, and structured problem‑solving methods

Skills

• Strong technical judgment
• Written and verbal communication
• Stakeholder management
• Decision‑making
• Ability to review complex engineering work and challenge assumptions
• Ability to communicate risk and recommendations to technical and non‑technical audiences
• Experience with process simulation, process historians, data analysis tools, relief or flare evaluations, and structured problem‑solving methods

Pay

$160,000 - $200,000