- Where
- Denver, CO · Minneapolis, MN · Lenexa, KS · Chicago, IL · Dallas, TX · Atlanta, GA · Charlotte, NC
- Level
- Senior
Position Overview
The Director of Manufacturing Engineering & Reliability is a senior, working leader responsible for establishing a new enterprise capability that elevates how Stella-Jones plants operate, maintain critical assets, integrate capital improvements, and adopt future-ready operational technologies. This is an operations-facing engineering role focused on the physical performance, process reliability, equipment capability, and infrastructure across our North American manufacturing network. It is not a product design, product development, or laboratory R&D position. The Director serves as the technical engine of the Operational Innovation & Excellence Center (OIEC), identifying constraints on the plant floor and turning them into practical, sustainable engineering solutions.
Because this is a brand-new role and function, success will not come from managing an established department, but from building an operating model from the ground up. The Director must lead through a complex matrix (partnering with Plant Leadership, Operations, Maintenance, the PMO, IT/OT, and external engineering firms) establishing consensus on standards where none exist today, creating momentum amid ambiguity, and remaining directly accountable for field-level operational impact.
This position can be based remotely anywhere in the continental United States, ideally near a major commercial airport to accommodate regular travel (up to 60%) across our North American manufacturing network. Candidates residing near a Stella-Jones corporate office (including Lenexa, Kansas, Montreal QC, etc) or near a manufacturing location are also welcome to operate on a hybrid schedule.
Core Responsibilities
The Director will drive five core pillars that connect day-to-day plant realities with enterprise strategy:
1. Engineering Process & Equipment Optimization
Translate plant floor bottlenecks into high-value engineering solutions that improve throughput, safety, and operating margins across treating, material handling, and utilities.
Process & Bottleneck Engineering: Partnering to analyze operational workflows, chemical treating processes, drying cycles, and yard material flow to eliminate constraints and reduce cycle times.
Equipment & Facility Capability: Evaluate industrial equipment condition, capability, obsolescence, and total cost of ownership; formulate sound engineering alternatives for retrofits, replacements, or capacity debottlenecking.
Engineering-Led Continuous Improvement: Apply disciplined problem-solving and CI methodologies with deep engineering rigor, ensuring process modifications are technically sound, safe, and adopted into standard operating procedures.
Repeatable Solutions: Identify high-impact solutions at one facility and adapt them across the network, accounting for unique plant layouts and regional operating contexts.
2. Asset Reliability & Maintenance Strategy
Build the enterprise reliability framework and technical foundation needed to shift facilities from reactive repairs to predictive asset health, in close partnership with plant maintenance.
Reliability Capability Building: Develop and roll out consensus-based reliability frameworks, introducing asset criticality modeling, bad-actor resolution, and lifecycle asset management to plants across the enterprise.
Maintenance System Standards: Identify opportunities to establish practical corporate methodologies for preventive/predictive maintenance (PM/PdM), condition monitoring, vibration/oil analysis, and critical spares philosophy without overburdening plant personnel.
Chronic Failure Elimination: Act as the senior technical resource for plants facing recurring equipment failures, facilitating structured root-cause analysis (RCA) and permanent corrective redesigns.
Field Partnership & Transition: Respect plant autonomy, day-to-day maintenance execution remains with local plant teams, while this role provides the technical standards, coaching, and engineering muscle to build…