Job Type
Full-time
Description
The Senior Project Engineer - Continuous Improvement is a hybrid technical and organizational role responsible for diagnosing engineering execution on the company projects time, quality, or predictability (particularly within configuration control and design execution) and leading the improvement projects that fix it. This role combines problem solving rigor with broad organizational influence and sound judgment, partnering across functions to drive engineering priorities to closure while engaging credibly with the engineering organization.
This role is an execution-health and process-ownership role: the person in this seat is accountable for making the engineering organization run better and for the measurable results of the improvement projects.
The base salary range for this position is $120,000 - $155,000 per year plus a comprehensive compensation package. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location.
Duties and Responsibilities:Specific duties and responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
- Assess how engineering work actually flows through the Chrysalis program, requirements development, the quality program, design, documentation, and updates affecting the license. Identify the specific points where work stalls, quality slips, or rework accumulates.
- Scope and lead structured improvement projects using a rigors problem solving process (an example is Six Sigma/DMAIC-style methodology) to resolve root causes of engineering execution pinch points, not just symptoms.
- Partner with Engineering, Project Controls, Construction, Quality, and Licensing to redesign and implement improved processes, workflows, and tools
- Build and maintain metrics and dashboards that make engineering execution health (cycle time, rework rate, configuration control backlog, design review throughput, etc.) visible to engineering leadership
- Operate as a direct extension of engineering leadership: represent leadership priorities in cross-functional forums, track follow-through on commitments, and surface emerging risks before they become critical-path issues
- Detects program execution obstacles that potentially affect performance and/or the ability to meet agreed upon deliverables and takes timely preventative or corrective action to obviate them
- Facilitate structured root-cause problem solving for recurring execution failures, and drive corrective and preventive actions to closure
- Analyzes short and long-term project and company resource needs
- Own headcount and staffing plan development for the Chrysalis engineering organization: build and maintain staffing plans that align hiring, contractor ramp-up/ramp-down, and skill-mix decisions against the project schedule and upcoming milestones
- Partner with engineering leads, Program/Project Controls, and HR/Talent Acquisition to identify staffing gaps early, forecast future headcount needs against schedule changes, and recommend build-vs-contract tradeoffs
- Build structured problem-solving capability across the engineering organization by coaching engineers and engineering leads, rather than solving every issue personally
- Prepare and deliver clear, executive-ready updates on improvement initiatives, program health, and organizational risk for project and leadership reviews
Requirements
Requirements: - Bachelor's degree in engineering or a related technical discipline; advanced degree a plus. Suitable work experience in a technically related field may be considered in lieu of formal education
- 8+ years of professional experience spanning engineering execution and process/operational improvement
- Experience with engineering change control processes, ideally within a complex, regulated, or highly engineered product environment
- Strong organizational instincts and executive communication skills; comfortable operating with significant autonomy, ambiguity, and shifting priorities
- Working knowledge of the engineering design and product development lifecycle (concept through delivery) sufficient to engage credibly with engineers and diagnose true root causes
- Experience building and managing headcount/staffing plans against a project schedule (e.g., staffing curves, hiring forecasts, contractor ramp planning) for an engineering or technical organization
- Strong project management skills, including knowledge of project management principles, practices, techniques, tools, and software, with demonstrated ability to develop and maintain project schedules, budgets, and resource plans.
- Excellent group facilitation, mediation, and conflict resolution skills, with strong interpersonal skills across cross-functional project teams.
Preferred:- Experience in nuclear, aerospace, pharmaceutical, or other highly regulated hardware environments.
- Six Sigma Black Belt certification (or demonstrated equivalent structured problem-solving experience) preferred
- Prior experience in engineering program or project management, or engineering operations role supporting a senior technical leader.
- Project Management Professional (PMP) certification or equivalent project management experience.
Working Conditions and Physical Effort: Employees must be able to perform the essential functions of the position satisfactorily. If requested, reasonable accommodations will be made to enable employees with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this job, absent undue hardship.
Eligibility for employment is conditioned on the applicant's ability to qualify for access to information subject to U.S. Export Controls. Additionally, applicant's eligibility may be conditioned based upon meeting the Nuclear Regulatory Commission requirements for access to Safeguards Information, which typically requires a pre-employment drug screen, fingerprinting and criminal background check.
