Burlington, NC, Indianapolis, IN or Durham, NC

The Executive Director, Capital and Engineering leads all capital and engineering planning and execution for Global Facilities Management & Real Estate (FM&RE), supporting approximately 3,000 sites worldwide. This role sets enterprise strategies and policies that enable growth across offices, laboratories, and patient service centers. The position oversees the global 5‑year capital plan and manages an annual project portfolio of $100M–$150M across 500+ projects of varying size and complexity.

The Executive Director is accountable for standards, work processes, and performance across Capital Execution, Construction Management, Project Engineering, and Reliability Engineering. This includes prioritizing major repairs and capital projects to meet business demands while strengthening a reliability‑driven culture across all facility types.

Job Responsibilities

Capital Strategy & Governance

• Lead the enterprise capital planning process, including portfolio prioritization, business case development, funding governance, and long‑range capital forecasting.

• Establish and enforce capital project management standards, stage‑gate controls, cost discipline, risk management, and assurance processes.

• Partner with executive leadership, finance, operations, and supply chain to align capital investments with business strategy, growth plans, and financial targets.

• Provide transparent portfolio reporting to senior leadership, including performance against cost, schedule, scope, safety, and value realization metrics.

Construction Management Leadership

• Oversee all construction management activities to ensure projects are executed safely, efficiently, and in compliance with regulatory, environmental, and quality standards.

• Set expectations for contractor management, constructability reviews, site safety culture, and labor productivity.

• Drive continuous improvement in construction methods, contracting strategies, and cost control practices.

Project Engineering Oversight

• Lead the Project Engineering function to ensure strong front‑end planning, sound engineering design, and technical rigor throughout the project lifecycle.

• Lead a team of 100–200 colleagues and contingent staff located across the globe, with the majority based in the U.S.

• Ensure projects meet defined scope, quality, operability, and maintainability requirements.

• Champion engineering standards, design reviews, value engineering, and integration between engineering, procurement, and construction.

Reliability Engineering & Asset Performance

• Provide strategic leadership over Reliability Engineering to optimize asset lifecycle performance, availability, and total cost of ownership.

• Integrate reliability principles into capital project design, equipment selection, and commissioning to support long‑term operational excellence.

• Partner with operations and maintenance leaders to drive proactive reliability programs, root cause analysis, and continuous improvement initiatives.

People Leadership & Organizational Development

• Build, lead, and mentor high‑performing teams across Construction Management, Project Engineering, and Reliability Engineering.

• Establish clear accountability, development plans, and succession pipelines for critical technical and leadership roles.

• Foster a culture of safety, collaboration, innovation, and disciplined execution.

Risk, Safety & Compliance

• Champion a zero‑incident safety culture across all capital activities.

• Ensure compliance with applicable codes, standards, environmental regulations, and internal policies.

• Identify, assess, and mitigate technical, execution, and financial risks across the capital portfolio.

External Partnerships & Industry Leadership

• Represent the organization with regulators, industry groups, and strategic partners.

• Establish strategic alliances with key vendors and engineering firms.

• Benchmark against industry leaders and adopt best practices.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Civil, Chemical Engineering, or a related engineering discipline.

• 5 or more years of executive‑level leadership experience managing large, multidisciplinary teams and enterprise‑scale capital portfolios.

• 15 or more years of progressive experience in capital project delivery, engineering, construction, or asset reliability within industrial, manufacturing, energy, utilities, healthcare, or complex facilities environments.

• 10 or more years of experience in project planning and execution across a diverse portfolio of facilities projects.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Civil, Chemical Engineering, or a related engineering discipline.

• Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA)

• Professional Engineer (PE) license.

Additional Job Standards

• Deep knowledge of capital project governance, front‑end loading, engineering design, construction execution, and reliability engineering principles.

• Proven ability to manage large capital budgets and deliver complex projects safely, on time, and within approved funding.

• Strong financial acumen, including capital justification, lifecycle cost analysis, and portfolio optimization.

• Strategic thinker with strong execution discipline and attention to detail.

• Influential leader capable of partnering effectively with executives, operations, and external stakeholders.

• Excellent communication skills with the ability to present complex information clearly to senior leadership and boards.

• Change leader who drives standardization, continuous improvement, and organizational maturity.

• Comfortable working in and around vivarium’s.

Relocation assistance may be available.

Benefits: Employees regularly scheduled to work 20 or more hours per week are eligible for comprehensive benefits including: Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, STD/LTD, 401(k), Paid Time Off (PTO) or Flexible Time Off (FTO), Tuition Reimbursement and Employee Stock Purchase Plan. Employees regularly scheduled to work less than 20 hours, Casual, Intern, and Temporary employees are only eligible to participate in the 401(k) Plan. Employees who are regularly scheduled to work a 7 on/7 off schedule are eligible to receive all the foregoing benefits except PTO or FTO. For more detailed information, please.