Lead Facilities Engineer

Newell Brands•Remo, VA

About The Position

Newell Brands is seeking an experienced Facilities and Site Resilience Engineer to join its Engineering, Reliability & Automation team within Global Procurement & Supply Network. The Lead, Facilities & Site Resilience Engineering serves as the licensed technical authority for facilities, building protection, and site resilience across the company’s manufacturing and distribution network. The role establishes facilities standards, reviews and supports site and capital project teams, and develops resilience programs and business continuity plans to protect physical sites and critical infrastructure. It ensures projects are scoped, designed, and executed in accordance with Newell standards, without owning project delivery or serving as design-of-record engineer. The position owns network-wide site resilience and vulnerability assessment programs, fire and life safety standards, technical review of capital projects, and support for power, energy, water, and other facility systems. It conducts site assessments and peer reviews, maintains condition and compliance tracking, verifies completed project outcomes, contributes to capital planning, and prepares clear portfolio reporting for senior leaders. The role partners with site teams, Operations, EHS, contractors, insurers, authorities having jurisdiction, and regional teams, including on international projects. The ideal candidate is an active U.S.-state-licensed Professional Engineer with at least seven years of facilities, plant, or infrastructure engineering experience in industrial, manufacturing, or distribution environments. This technical leadership role calls for sound engineering judgment, strong communication, and the ability to influence teams without direct authority. Travel of up to 50%, including international travel as needed, is required.

Requirements

Active Professional Engineer (PE) license in a U.S. state.
Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline such as Mechanical, Civil, Architectural, or Fire Protection Engineering.
At least 7 years of facilities, plant, or infrastructure engineering experience, including delivering, managing, or overseeing capital projects in an industrial, manufacturing, or distribution environment.
Working technical command of HVAC, roofing, building envelope, civil, and fire protection systems, with the ability to critically review designs and proposals.
Experience conducting site assessments, audits, or resilience and vulnerability studies and translating findings into funded action plans.
Demonstrated experience developing or reviewing contractor scopes, RFPs, and project budgets and holding contractors accountable to scope, schedule, and cost.
Ability to influence site and project teams through technical credibility and sound engineering judgment without direct authority.
Working knowledge of NFPA 13 and 25, ASCE 7-22, OSHA 29 CFR, and local AHJ requirements.
Proficiency in the Microsoft Office suite for project tracking and executive communication.
Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Ability to travel up to 50%, including international travel as projects require.

Nice To Haves

PE license in Mechanical Engineering, particularly HVAC and refrigeration, Civil, Structural, or Fire Protection Engineering.
Experience with greenfield construction or major facility expansion projects, including design review, construction management, commissioning, and startup.
Experience with property insurer loss prevention standards, such as FM Global.
Familiarity with NFPA 72, NFPA 101, NFPA 110, NFPA 70 (NEC), IBC, and CMMS platforms.
Hands-on experience with measurement and verification, including baseline establishment and post-implementation reporting.
Experience with on-site power generation, compressed air optimization, or process cooling water systems.
Experience supporting projects at international sites, including working with non-U.S. codes and standards.
Regular use of AI tools, Power BI, Power Automate, and SharePoint within engineering workflows.
CFM, CPE, CEM, or CFPS credential, or NIMS/ICS training.

Responsibilities

Own site resilience programs across the network, from vulnerability assessment through corrective action and verification.
Assess sites against ASCE 7-22 wind, snow, and seismic thresholds and FEMA flood zone criteria, and translate findings into prioritized mitigation roadmaps.
Develop redundancy strategies for critical utilities, including power, compressed air, chilled water, HVAC, and domestic water.
Develop facility-focused business continuity plans, escalation frameworks, and recovery time objectives for buildings and critical utilities in partnership with Operations and EHS.
Set and maintain global standards for fire suppression, sprinkler, fire alarm, clean agent, and smoke control systems.
Review design packages, contractor proposals, and AHJ submittals against relevant NFPA standards and local codes, and identify technical gaps.
Define inspection, testing, and maintenance programs, and track deficiency closure and compliance across the portfolio.
Work with property insurers and AHJs on loss prevention recommendations and compliance gap closure.
Provide technical review and support to site and project teams on facilities capital projects from scope definition through closeout, without owning project delivery.
Review scopes, RFPs, SOWs, design packages, contractor proposals, and bid leveling for roofing, HVAC, building envelope, civil and site work, fire protection, and compressed air.
Identify contractor proposals that are incomplete, overpriced, or out of specification.
Develop reusable scope, RFP, and SOW templates and contractor qualification criteria.
Support contractor selection and performance and help site teams resolve technical issues in the field.
Support standby generation, transfer switch, UPS, and backup power deployment from site preparation through commissioning.
Lead and support energy programs, including lighting, VFD optimization, power factor correction, and utility incentive capture.
Support solar, microgrid, and self-generation feasibility work with the ERA Sustainability pillar.
Partner with process water engineering on cooling towers, closed-loop treatment, and Legionella prevention.
Conduct structured site assessments and engineering peer reviews.
Maintain site condition scorecards and standards compliance matrices that inform capital planning.
Define measurement and verification protocols and review completed project results for alignment with scope, performance targets, and savings identified in appropriation packages.
Develop facilities engineering standards and lead updates through the standards publishing workflow.
Support international projects, working with regional teams to apply Newell standards alongside local codes and AHJ requirements.
Review capital justification packages, ROI models, and bid comparison matrices prepared by site and project teams.
Build tools and templates to improve consistency and quality across the network.
Support three-year capital planning and maintain portfolio-level status reporting for senior leaders.
Travel up to 50%, including internationally, as projects require.