Position Summary: The Director of Engineering & Business Development leads engineering strategy, capital planning, commercialization support, and long-range capacity planning across Just Born's manufacturing network. This role drives the manufacturing capabilities, infrastructure, and technologies needed to support growth, innovation, and operational excellence.
The Director leads a team of three professionals across Project Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, and Contract Manufacturing, while partnering across the business to evaluate capacity, advance commercialization efforts, oversee capital investments, and execute strategic manufacturing initiatives.
Location: Bethlehem, PA
How You'll Impact Results:•
Engineering Strategy & Technical Leadership o Set the long-term engineering strategy aligned with operational goals, asset optimization priorities, and growth requirements.
o Establish and maintain engineering standards that ensure safety, quality, regulatory compliance, and operational excellence.
o Champion advanced processes, equipment strategies, and technologies that advance manufacturing and enhance asset performance and manufacturing efficiency.
o Provide strategic oversight of facilities, utilities, and site infrastructure to maintain safe, compliant, and reliable manufacturing environments.
o Develop relationships with 3rd party engineering firms to deliver high quality, on time, on budget engineering projects.
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Commercialization & Business Development o Support commercialization of new and renovated products by providing operational feasibility assessments, capacity inputs, and manufacturing readiness.
o Ensure accurate engineering and technical deliverables for commercialization stages, including risk assessments, material readiness, and operational data.
o Influence product design, packaging, and process decisions for cost efficiency, manufacturability, and network fit.
o Identify new equipment to meet future state business needs.
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Network Capacity Strategy o Lead enterprise-level capacity assessment to support long-term growth, network scaling, and operational resilience.
o Conduct make/buy analyses to determine whether production should be internal or outsourced to contract manufacturers, considering cost, capability, capacity, and capital needs.
o Recommend network strategies that optimize total cost, service performance, asset utilization, and scalability.
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Capital Planning & Project Portfolio Management o Lead development and execution of the 3-5 year capital strategy that supports growth, infrastructure needs, and technology advancement.
o Oversee the Operations Capital Equipment Approval (CEA) process and ensure consistent application of the Capital Project Process (CPP).
o Direct the portfolio of capital projects across manufacturing sites and functional areas, ensuring alignment to budget, schedule, scope, and expected outcomes.
o Provide accurate capital budgets, forecasts, and IRR evaluations to drive disciplined financial decision-making.
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Productivity, Continuous Improvement & Operations Support o Drive site productivity plans and annual productivity planning, as they relate to capital projects, ensuring alignment with company cost, waste, and operational targets.
o Lead engineering-related process optimization, simplification, and loss-elimination initiatives in partnership with CI resources.
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Leadership, Talent Development & Culture o Lead and develop a multi-disciplinary engineering and facilities organization, ensuring capability-building, technical depth, and succession readiness.
o Drive a culture of innovation, disciplined project execution, and cross-functional partnership.
Your Qualifications That Will Ensure Success:
Education & Certification: - Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, or Chemical preferred) or equivalent experience; Master's degree or MBA desired.
Experience: - 10+ years in engineering and operations leadership within food, CPG, or closely related manufacturing, with multi-site exposure. Confectionery experience is a plus.
- Demonstrated success building and executing a 3-5 year capital and technology roadmap, including portfolio prioritization, IRR and NPV based decisions, and on-time start-ups that deliver promised outcomes.
- Proven track record partnering with commercialization teams to bring new or renovated products to market through I2M or similar stage-gate processes, from feasibility through launch readiness.
Skills & Knowledge: - Ability to set and execute long-range engineering, capacity, and manufacturing infrastructure strategies that support growth, compliance, and operational performance.
- Demonstrated capability to successfully convert strategy into clear annual execution plans with defined milestones, risks, and cross-functional alignment.
- Experience working with 3rd party engineering firms to accomplish capital engineering project work.
- Skilled at challenging entrenched practices, raising standards, and driving meaningful improvements through data-driven problem solving.
- Ability to build, develop, and mentor a high-performing engineering, CI, and facilities organization across multiple sites.
- Strong financial and business acumen, including comfort with capital evaluation tools such as IRR, NPV, cost modeling, and make/buy analysis.
- Plant manufacturing knowledge with the ability to diagnose issues at the line, coach teams and bridge strategy with hands-on support.
- Proven strength in Continuous Improvement methodologies (IWS, Lean, TPM, IL6S, or similar) with a track record of standardizing and simplifying processes while eliminating waste.
