Director of Capital Engineering/Projects

Ecovyst, Inc.•Houston, TX

About The Position

The Director of Capital Engineering/Projects is responsible for enterprise-wide selection, prioritization, optimization, and governance of the capital project portfolio. The role ensures alignment with organizational strategy, realization of business value, and effective use of financial and organizational resources. It oversees the capital portfolio from strategic concept through execution and post-implementation benefit realization, with investments intended to support safety, reliability, regulatory compliance, capacity, and financial performance. The Director partners with executive leadership, platform engineering, operations, finance, and project delivery teams to balance strategic objectives, demand and capacity constraints, risk exposure, and capital efficiency. The position provides portfolio governance oversight, supports executive decision-making, and promotes transparency, discipline, and consistency in capital investment decisions and execution across the enterprise. The role is based in Houston and includes travel.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in engineering, finance, or a related discipline.
10–15 years of experience in capital project management, program management, or portfolio management within an industrial, manufacturing, or heavy-asset environment.
Demonstrated experience managing multi-site or enterprise-level capital portfolios.
Experience in capital portfolio selection, prioritization, and funding allocation.
Strong working knowledge of capital governance, financial planning, and demand-versus-capacity management.
Experience supporting executive leadership through governance forums, investment reviews, and stage-gate decision processes.
Ability to develop portfolio metrics, dashboards, multi-year roadmaps, and executive-level reporting.
Experience overseeing portfolio-level risk, interdependencies, and value realization.
Must be able to obtain a TWIC Card.
Strong analytical and financial acumen.
Ability to evaluate portfolio-level value, risk, and trade-offs.
Excellent organizational, prioritization, and decision-support skills.
Effective communication skills, including the ability to present to executive leadership.
Ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders without direct authority.
Strong proficiency in portfolio management tools, Excel, and presentation software.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in business administration or engineering management.
Proficiency with SAP; preferred but not required.
Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP) certification.
Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.
Lean / Six Sigma Black Belt or equivalent certification.

Responsibilities

Validate that capital projects and programs align with organizational strategies and defined measures of success.
Ensure portfolio decisions support long-term business objectives and risk tolerance.
Recommend selection, deferral, acceleration, or termination of capital initiatives based on value, risk, capacity, and strategic alignment.
Optimize the capital portfolio pipeline by balancing demand, priorities, and available resource capacity.
Manage portfolio-level trade-offs to maximize value delivery and execution effectiveness.
Analyze portfolio dependencies, constraints, and scenario impacts to support investment decisions.
Allocate capital funding across projects and programs in alignment with approved budgets and strategic priorities.
Develop portfolio-level financial plans and oversee capital spending to ensure adherence to approved funding.
Track and report expected versus realized business benefits at the portfolio level.
Deliver accurate and timely financial reports to leadership.
Manage enterprise capital portfolio governance, including communication, oversight, escalation, and constraint management.
Support and facilitate governance reviews, stage-gate decisions, and executive approval forums.
Prepare and present decision-ready analyses and recommendations to executive and investment approval forums.
Ensure consistent application of capital governance standards across sites and platforms.
Track and report progress against the enterprise capital portfolio roadmap.
Monitor portfolio performance metrics, business value realization, and key performance indicators.
Facilitate executive management participation by providing clear analysis, recommendations, and decision-ready information.
Advise leadership on portfolio risks, opportunities, and trade-offs.
Promote lessons learned, continuous improvement, and knowledge sharing across projects and programs.
Drive standardization and maturity of portfolio management practices across the enterprise.