Sr. Engineer - Product Engineering

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 Senior Product Engineer independently leads complex new product development (NPD) projects from concept through commercialization with a proven track record of delivering results. This role blends advanced project management, strong technical judgment, and strategic influence. The Senior Product Engineer proactively identifies gaps, crafts solutions, and shapes both technical and commercial outcomes. They refine NPD processes, mentor others, and partner closely with Manufacturing, Suppliers, and Finance to accelerate launches and improve business results.

Essential Functions

• End-to-End Project Leadership: Independently manage multiple concurrent projects, owning scope, capital budgets, timelines, and stakeholder alignment. Drive decisions and accountability across cross-functional teams.
• Strategic Influence: Shape project direction through technical and commercial insight-evaluate options, recommend trade-offs, and influence proposals, pricing, and make/buy strategies.
• Advanced Planning & Risk Management: Anticipate challenges; conduct robust risk assessments (e.g., FMEA-style thinking), build mitigation plans, and adjust strategy quickly as conditions change.
• Technical Commercialization Lead: Conduct thorough technical reviews across the full manufacturing process (materials, packaging, formulation, equipment, process windows, quality controls). Translate complex impacts into clear requirements for Manufacturing.
• Site Readiness & Trials: Perform pre-commercialization site assessments, identify constraints (capacity, capability, utilities, tooling), and co-develop action plans with Manufacturing to de-risk trials and ramp-up.
• Tool & Process Development: Create and standardize planning tools, dashboards, and templates that improve forecasting, capacity planning, and issue tracking; share and train the broader team.
• Supplier & Partner Management: Build strong supplier relationships; negotiate and coordinate to expedite timelines, qualify alternates, and communicate risks and contingencies effectively.
• Financial Partnership: Partner with Finance to review and challenge financial models (BOM, yields, run rates, scrap, tooling/capex, logistics). Provide data-driven recommendations to improve margins and payback.
• Continuous Improvement: Identify NPD process gaps and propose enhancements to stage gates, governance, and KPIs. Document lessons learned and institutionalize best practices.
• Team Leadership & Mentorship: Model ownership and accountability. Coach Level I/II engineers in project planning, decision-making, supplier engagement, and commercialization excellence.
• Stakeholder Communication: Maintain clear, concise updates for leadership; escalate critical risks early with options and recommended decisions.

Please note this job description is not designed to contain a comprehensive list of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without prior notice.

Travel

• 15%

Qualifications

• Minimum Qualifications:
  • 4 Years - Experience in Field or similar manufacturing environment
  • 4 Years - Experience in Position
  • 4 Years - Experience managing people/projects

*experience may include a combination of work experience and education

• Preferred Qualifications:
  • 6 Years- Experience in Field or similar manufacturing environment
  • 6 Years - Experience working in Position
  • 6 Years - Experience managing people/projects

*experience may include a combination of work experience and education

• Demonstrated success independently leading multiple NPD projects through launch with measurable business impact.
• Strong command of manufacturing processes, scale-up, and commercialization best practices.
• Proficiency with project management and data tools (e.g., Smartsheet, MS Project, Excel/Power BI, PLM/ERP); experience building custom templates/dashboards preferred.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and stakeholder management skills.

Technical Competencies

• Program Leadership & Delivery: Drives timelines, resources, and decisions; consistently delivers to plan.
• Critical Thinking & Decision Quality: Quickly synthesizes technical and commercial data to make sound, timely decisions.
• Technical Depth: Understands end-to-end manufacturing impacts (process capability, quality controls, changeover, cost drivers) and can teach others.
• Influence Without Authority: Uses relationships and credibility to align cross-functional teams and suppliers.
• Proactive Planning & Risk Mitigation: Anticipates issues, builds contingencies, and redirects efforts to protect launch dates and quality.
• Business Acumen: Connects design/process choices to cost, margin, and capital outcomes; improves financial models with real-world data.
• Ownership & Courage: Escalates early, makes tough calls, and acts in the organization's best interest.
• Continuous Improvement Mindset: Elevates tools, processes, and standards; mentors others to raise the team's bar.

Core Competencies

This position embodies the values of Niagara's LIFE competency model, focusing on the following key drivers of success:

• 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.

Education

• Minimum Required:
  • Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, Product Design, Manufacturing or related field

• Preferred:
  • Master's Degree in Engineering, Product Design, Manufacturing or related field

Certification/License:

• Required: N/A
• Preferred: Project Management Professional (PMP)

Foreign Language

• Required: None Required
• Preferred: None Required

Typical Compensation Range
Pay Rate Type: Salary

$111,766.36 - $159,267.07 / Yearly

Benefits

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

Regular full-time team members are offered a comprehensive benefits package, while part-time, intern, and seasonal team members are offered a limited benefits package.

• 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
• And more!

https://careers.niagarawater.com/us/en/benefits