Director, Capital Projects

Plantible Foods • Vista, CA

5d • Onsite

About The Position

Plantible is scaling from building our first commercial facility to developing and executing the next generation of Plantible facilities. We are looking for a Director of Capital Projects to own the execution of those builds. This is not a design-only or advisory role. You will be accountable for turning a defined facility need into an operating plant and will bring together Plantible's engineering, operations, development, finance, and technical teams with external engineers, contractors, vendors, and construction partners. You will own the project from FEL through design, procurement, construction, commissioning, and handoff to Operations.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Process Engineering, Bioengineering, Civil Engineering, Construction Management, or related technical field.
• 10+ years delivering industrial capital projects with increasing ownership and leadership responsibility.
• Required experience in biotechnology, food processing, fermentation, protein processing, pharmaceutical, biochemical, or similar hygienic process-manufacturing environments.
• Personally led a significant greenfield or major expansion project through engineering, construction, commissioning, and startup. We want to understand what you owned, what went wrong, and how you got it built.
• Experience owning project budgets, schedules, forecasts, contingency, and change control.
• Managed multidisciplinary engineering teams, contractors, equipment vendors, and external engineering firms.
• Strong understanding of FEL/FEED, detailed engineering, procurement, industrial construction, commissioning, and startup.
• Enough technical depth to challenge an engineering firm without needing to personally design every system.
• Strong people leadership. You create clarity, set expectations, hold people accountable, and get technical teams moving in the same direction.
• Comfortable making decisions with incomplete information and creating structure in an environment that is still evolving.
• Willingness to spend significant time at project sites during design, construction, commissioning, and startup.

Nice To Haves

• Owner-side capital project experience.
• Delivered projects in the $50M–$250M+ range.
• Experience in food, ingredients, biotechnology, chemical/process manufacturing, agriculture, or another process-intensive industry.
• Experience building greenfield facilities around a technology or process that was itself being scaled.
• High-volume repetitive structural installation, modular construction, solar, PEMB, warehouse, or similar execution environments.
• Agricultural production integrated with downstream processing.

Responsibilities

• Own the Build: Own scope, schedule, budget, risk, and execution strategy for major Plantible capital projects. The Upstream scope includes large-scale greenhouse and cultivation infrastructure. The Director of Capital Projects will provide overall leadership for execution strategy, contractor performance, installation productivity, and standardization across repeated modules. The Downstream covers food-processing environments across biomass handling, maceration, extraction, centrifugation, solid-liquid separation, filtration, purification, drying, and CIP.
• Build and maintain the integrated project plan from FEL through commissioning and startup. Know the critical path, what is slipping, why it is slipping, and what needs to happen to recover it.
• Establish clear project governance, decision rights, stage gates, and accountability across internal and external teams. Surface problems early. Bring leadership decisions and tradeoffs, not surprises.
• Turn Engineering into an Executable Facility: Partner with Plantible's engineering and technical leaders to translate process and operational requirements into buildable facility designs. Manage the interfaces between process, agricultural, mechanical, civil, structural, electrical, controls, utilities, and site infrastructure. Lead external engineering, EPC/EPCM, construction, and specialty partners. Challenge scope, design assumptions, and unnecessary complexity before they become expensive construction decisions. Make sure lessons from our previous designs become standards for the next facility rather than problems we solve twice.
• Control the Project: Own the project cost forecast, commitments, contingency, schedule, and change-control process. Partner with Finance to translate the project forecast and schedule into accurate cash-flow planning. Understand what has been spent, what has been committed, what remains at risk, and where the project is expected to finish. Evaluate changes based on cost, schedule, technical, and operational impact before approving execution. Establish reporting that tells leadership what they actually need to know to make decisions.
• Build It: Develop procurement and contracting strategies for major equipment and construction packages. Identify long-lead equipment before it becomes the critical path. Hold engineering firms, contractors, and vendors accountable for scope, schedule, quality, and performance. Oversee construction execution and drive resolution of RFIs, field changes, design conflicts, and contractor issues. Spend time where the project is happening. This is not a role that can be managed entirely from a conference room. Promote a strong construction-safety, process-safety, hygienic-design, and quality culture.
• Start It Up: Own the transition from construction through mechanical completion, commissioning, startup, and operational handoff. Bring Operations into the project early enough that we build something that can actually be operated and maintained. Establish commissioning and turnover plans before construction is finished. Capture what worked and what didn't and build those lessons into Plantible's next project.
• Build the Capability: Build and lead Plantible's Capital Projects organization as our project portfolio grows. Develop Project Engineers into strong owner-side project leaders. Establish the tools, standards, processes, and operating cadence required to repeatedly deliver major facilities. Help Plantible move from "building a facility" to having a repeatable model for how Plantible builds facilities.

Benefits

• Competitive health and wellness benefits
• Medical, Dental and Vision Insurance
• Discretionary Unlimited PTO Program
• Paid Holidays
• 401k Program
• Career Stipend
• Career development and growth opportunities
• Working in a rapidly growing, flexible and entrepreneurial environment
• Team building and company-wide events
• Financial support with your relocation, if necessary, ensuring a smooth transition
• lots of beautiful land for outdoor activities!

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director