Plant and Value Chain Optimizing

Drax Group•Monroe, LA

2d•Onsite

About The Position

This application is for a roving employee who will work at 1500 N. 19th Street, Suite 501, Monroe, LA 71201 and various unanticipated locations. The role involves coordinating with North American operations staff and core services to advance low and no capital opportunities for business improvements through effective modeling and debottlenecking. The Director will work with stakeholders to scope new opportunities, quantify potential value, and identify concepts ready for development. They will engage commercial partners, contractors, public institutions, and other external stakeholders to forge relationships and terms for implementing new technology. The role also includes creating and managing scope for small-scale tests of new technology at North American assets, coordinating cross-functional groups to create valuable products from new data streams and measurement technologies, and identifying means of reducing cost and improving efficiency at DBI assets. The Director will improve the existing DBI business by harnessing benefits of new technology, provide leadership for implementation of novel solutions, and evaluate and control spend within budgets. They will engage with staff to understand needs and opportunities across the North American value chain and identify new technology to address challenges and unlock value. The role involves scoping projects with partners, gaining stakeholder alignment on execution strategy, developing budgets, and coordinating resources for new technology installation. Ensuring product quality through continuous feedback and communication, measuring financial benefits of projects, and reporting successes are also key responsibilities. The Director will work closely with the Innovation Senior Leadership Team to stay aware of future market developments and ensure Drax makes the most appropriate choices to deliver its purpose at greatest value. Additionally, they will provide leadership, coaching, and direction to other members of the Innovation team.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree or foreign equivalent in Chemical Engineering, Environmental Engineering or a related field of study, and three (3) years of experience in a related position in the wood pellet manufacturing or similar industry.
Experience in renewable energy, decarbonization, and process optimization
Process engineering experience in the manufacture of wood pellets, including equipment troubleshooting on common unit operations such as hammermilling, drying, and pelletizing
Project execution and management experience in industrial environments
Experience evaluating, testing, and implementing new technology or process improvements in the field of wood products manufacturing
Experience troubleshooting mechanical equipment with a focus on rotating machinery
Knowledge of operating principles and control schemes for major process operations in wood pellet manufacturing, including rotary drum drying, hammermilling, environmental controls, and pellet mills.

Responsibilities

Coordinate with North American operations staff and core services to advance low and no capital opportunities to make business improvements through effective modelling and debottlenecking.
Work with stakeholders inside Drax to scope new opportunities, quantify potential value, and identify concepts ready for development toward implementation.
Engage commercial partners, contractors, public institutions, and other external stakeholders to forge relationships and terms in support of the commercial or technical requirements for implementation of new technology.
Create and manage scope for small scale tests of implementing new technology at North American assets to debottleneck or improve existing processes.
Coordinate cross functional groups to create valuable products harnessing the power of new data streams and measurement technologies toward meaningful business improvement.
Help identify means of reducing cost and improving efficiency at DBI assets, which is critical to Drax achieving its purpose of enabling a zero carbon lower cost energy future.
Improve the existing DBI business through harnessing benefits of new technology that augments existing operations.
Provide leadership for implementation of novel solutions to address business challenges through providing vision to diverse stakeholders and creating alignment.
Evaluate and control spend to stay within existing budgets.
Engage Horizon 1 staff to understand needs, pain points, and opportunities across the North American value chain and gain input on technology gaps prevent resolution of challenges.
Evaluate and identify, with assistance from the Innovation Engineers, new technology to address challenges within North America and unlock value for DBI.
Scope projects with partners in the business including Horizon 1, Data Analytics, and other Core Services to implement and harness new technology toward process improvements.
Gain alignment from stakeholders on execution strategy for projects and develop budgets.
Coordinate resources as needed to install new technology and harness new data streams.
Ensure quality of products through continuous feedback from Horizon 1 users and by ensuring quality communication between Horizon and other partners in the business.
Measure financial benefits of projects and report successes to relevant Drax leadership with concepts for scale out/scale up.
Work closely alongside the Innovation Senior Leadership Team to ensure awareness of future developments in the marketplace and consider the options to capitalize on them.
Ensure the most appropriate choices are made which allow Drax to deliver our purpose at greatest value.
Provide leadership, coaching and direction to other members of the Innovation team.