Staff Engineer – Product Engineering

At Niagara, we’re looking for Team Members who want to be part of achieving our mission to provide our customers the highest quality most affordable bottled water. Consider applying if you want to work in an entrepreneurial and dynamic environment with a chance to make an impact, develop lasting relationships with great people, and build a satisfying career.

About the role

As a member of the Product Engineering team, you’ll play a pivotal role in introducing groundbreaking products for both leading brands and private label partners. Your work will directly shape Niagara’s success and growth, driving the launch of new beverages that delight customers and set industry trends. This is your opportunity to lead high-impact projects, collaborate with talented teams, and make a visible difference in a fast-paced, dynamic environment where your ideas and expertise fuel the future of beverage manufacturing.

The Staff Product Engineer is a recognized technical and program leader who independently manages complex, multi-site new product development (NPD) programs from concept through commercialization. With a proven record of successful launches, this role blends advanced project leadership, systems-level technical expertise, and commercial acumen to inform strategy and accelerate outcomes. The Staff Product Engineer anticipates cross-functional impacts, influences decisions across technical and business disciplines, and steps into ambiguity to drive results. They model ownership and integrity, streamline processes responsibly, and mentor the team to raise the bar.

Responsibilities

• Program Ownership & Delivery: Independently lead multiple high-impact programs, owning scope, capital plans, timelines, and cross-functional alignment; set execution standards and hold teams accountable.
• Strategic Technical Influence: Use deep experience across Product, Process, and Packaging to shape program strategy and change outcomes; frame trade-offs for senior leaders with clear technical and commercial implications.
• Commercial Insight & Advising: Partner with Finance, Commercial, and Procurement to evaluate proposals (COGS, capex, yields, run rates, MOQs/lead times). Quickly advise what’s feasible, what isn’t, and the business impact.
• Systems-Level Integration: Understand how product characteristics, processing technologies (e.g., beverage processing, thermal/non-thermal, CIP/SIP), and packaging lines (filling, capping, labeling, secondary/tertiary) interact; design plans that optimize end-to-end flow, quality, and cost.
• Manufacturing Partnership & Commercialization: Lead rigorous technical reviews and readiness assessments across the full manufacturing process; perform site assessments to identify gaps (capacity, capability, utilities, tooling, quality systems) and co-create mitigation plans.
• Quality & Science Advocacy: Translate development science and quality guidelines into practical manufacturing controls (CTQs, process windows, sampling/inspection, SPC), explaining “why it matters” to drive adoption and compliance.
• Risk & Decision-Making: Drive structured risk management (FMEA-style thinking, decision logs), escalate early with options and recommendations, and make tough calls for the good of the business.
• Tooling & Process Modernization: Build and standardize tools, templates, and dashboards that improve forecasting, capacity planning, and issue resolution; share broadly and train teams.
• Supplier Strategy & Acceleration: Cultivate supplier partnerships, qualify alternates, and creatively compress lead times while transparently communicating risk, contingencies, and change control.
• NPD Process Improvement: Refine Stage-Gate/Governance, propose policy and KPI updates, and streamline workflows without compromising ethics, safety, or quality.
• Mentorship & Role Modeling: Coach Senior/Level II/Level I engineers in program leadership, technical depth, commercialization excellence, and professional ownership; model respectful influence and integrity.
• Stakeholder Communication: Provide succinct, insight-rich updates to senior leaders; convert technical complexity into clear choices with quantified impact.

Travel: 15%

Requirements

• 6+ years of experience in a similar manufacturing environment.
• 6+ years of experience managing people/projects (may include a combination of work experience and education).

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, Product Design, Manufacturing, or other related field (required).
• Master's Degree in Engineering, Product Design, Manufacturing, or other related field (preferred).
• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification (preferred).
• 10+ years of experience in a similar manufacturing environment (preferred).
• 10+ years of experience managing people/projects (preferred).
• Demonstrated mastery in end-to-end commercialization, including site readiness, scale-up, and post-launch stabilization.
• Expert-level project/program management; able to lead through influence across functions and external partners.
• Proficiency with PM and data tools (e.g., MS Project/Planner, Excel/Power BI, PLM/ERP); experience creating custom tools/dashboards.
• Strong communication, negotiation, and stakeholder management skills; executive-ready presence.

Skills

• Program Leadership & Delivery at Scale: Consistently delivers complex programs on-time, on-budget, and to spec across multiple sites or partners.
• Systems Thinking & Integration: Connects product design, processing technology, packaging, quality, and supply chain into a coherent, optimized plan.
• Decision Quality & Critical Thinking: Makes fast, sound decisions with imperfect data; documents rationale and adjusts as new data emerges.
• Strategic Influence: Shapes technical and commercial strategies through credibility and respectful influence, not just authority.
• Technical Depth: Strong in beverage processing, P&IDs, packaging line design/operations, and their interactions with product characteristics and quality systems.
• Business Acumen: Translates technical choices into P&L impact (COGS, capex, throughput, yield, OEE, labor, scrap).
• Change Leadership: Improves processes, eliminates waste, and streamlines work ethically and responsibly.
• Mentorship & Ownership: Sets the standard for professionalism, integrity, and career ownership; invests in developing others.

Core Competencies

• Lead Like an Owner: Building strong customer relationships and delivering customer-centric solutions. Seeing ahead to future possibilities and translating them to breakthrough strategies. Holding self and others accountable to meet commitments. Building a strong identity team that applies their diverse skills and perspectives to achieve common goals.
• InnovACT: Actively learning through experimentation when tackling new problems, using both success and failures as learning fodder. Knowing the most effective and efficient process to get things done, with a focus on continuous improvement.
• Find a Way: Building partnerships and working collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives. Taking on new opportunities and tough challenges with a sense of urgency, high energy, and enthusiasm. Making sense of complex, high quality, and sometimes contradictory information to effectively solve problems. Operating effectively, even when things are not certain or the way forward is not clear.
• Empowered to be Great: Developing and delivering multi-mode communications that convey a clear understanding of the unique needs of different audiences. Actively seeking new ways to grow and be challenged using both formal and informal development channels. Developing people to meet both their career goals and the organization’s goals.

Pay

Pay Rate Type: Salary

$123,641.54 - $176,189.21 / Yearly

Bonus Target: 10% Annual

Benefits

Our Total Rewards package is thoughtfully designed to support both you and your family:

• Paid Time Off for holidays, sick time, and vacation time.
• Paid parental and caregiver leaves.
• Medical, including virtual care options.
• Dental.
• Vision.
• 401(k) with company match.
• Health Savings Account with company match.
• Flexible Spending Accounts.
• Expanded mental wellbeing benefits including free counseling sessions for all team members and household family members.
• Family Building Benefits including enhanced fertility benefits for IVF and fertility preservation plus adoption, surrogacy, and Doula reimbursements.
• Income protection including Life and AD&D, short and long-term disability, critical illness, and an accident plan.
• Special discount programs including pet plans, pre-paid legal services, identity theft, car rental, airport parking, etc.
• Tuition reimbursement, college savings plan, and scholarship opportunities.