Lead, Project Engineer

Bridgestone Americas • Oxford, AL

3d • Onsite

About The Position

The Lead Project Engineer position will lead the definition, design, execution, and closeout of capital and continuous-improvement projects at the Oxford, NC manufacturing plant. This role owns multiple concurrent projects from concept through commissioning, ensuring solutions are safe, technically sound, cost-effective, maintainable, and aligned with plant production, quality, environmental, and business objectives. The position serves as a technical leader and cross-functional project owner, partnering with Operations, Maintenance, EHS, Quality, Procurement, Finance, suppliers, contractors, and plant leadership to deliver measurable results with minimal disruption to manufacturing operations.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering or a closely related engineering discipline.
• Eight or more years of progressive engineering experience, including responsibility for capital projects in a manufacturing, industrial, process, or high-volume production environment.
• Demonstrated success leading multiple concurrent projects through scope development, design, procurement, installation, commissioning, and closeout.
• Working knowledge of mechanical design, manufacturing equipment, utilities, machine guarding, contractor management, and project cost/schedule controls.
• Ability to work effectively in an active manufacturing environment and coordinate work across operations, maintenance, technical, and external partner teams.

Nice To Haves

• Professional Engineer (PE), Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean/Six Sigma certification, or equivalent project/continuous-improvement credentials.
• Experience with tire, rubber, automotive, chemicals, heavy industrial, or similarly complex manufacturing processes.
• Experience with automation, robotics, controls integration, material handling, process equipment, or reliability engineering.
• Proficiency with CAD, project scheduling tools, cost estimating, and structured problem-solving methods.
• Experience applying Lean, Kaizen, TPM, OEE, or Six Sigma methodologies to manufacturing performance improvement.

Responsibilities

• Lead a portfolio of complex capital, reliability, automation, capacity, quality, and cost-reduction projects; establish priorities, scope, schedules, budgets, risks, and resource plans.
• Develop front-end project definition, including business cases, alternatives analysis, feasibility assessments, equipment concepts, process requirements, preliminary layouts, cost estimates, and return-on-investment support.
• Apply expertise to specify, design, evaluate, and integrate manufacturing equipment, utilities, material-handling systems, tooling, guarding, piping, structural modifications, and related plant infrastructure.
• Prepare and review engineering drawings, scopes of work, bid packages, technical specifications, installation plans, commissioning plans, and turnover documentation.
• Manage project controls, including schedule, cost, forecast, change control, risk register, action tracking, contractor performance, and regular stakeholder reporting.
• Coordinate equipment procurement and contractor activities; lead technical bid evaluations, support vendor selection, negotiate technical requirements, and verify deliverables against scope and standards.
• Plan and execute installations in coordination with production and maintenance, including outage planning, lockout/tagout coordination, site readiness, startup support, and safe handoff to plant ownership.
• Lead factory/site acceptance activities, commissioning, qualification, and performance verification; confirm that projects meet safety, quality, throughput, reliability, maintainability, and financial objectives.
• Identify, prioritize, and lead continuous-improvement and automation opportunities using root-cause analysis, data, Lean principles, and structured problem-solving methods.
• Partner with Operations, Maintenance, Quality, EHS, and Technical teams to eliminate chronic losses, improve OEE, reduce scrap and downtime, increase capacity, and improve ergonomics and process stability.
• Ensure projects comply with applicable safety, environmental, quality, engineering, and plant standards; incorporate machine safety, energy isolation, ergonomics, and maintainability into designs.
• Develop technical standards and best practices for project execution, equipment design, documentation, spare parts, preventive maintenance, and contractor work.
• Communicate project status, decisions, risks, and recovery plans to plant leadership and other stakeholders; escalate issues promptly when scope, cost, schedule, safety, or production commitments are at risk.

Benefits

• A supportive and engaging onboarding experience to ensure a smooth transition into our team.
• The opportunity to develop and grow, through training and regular mentorship.
• Corporate Social Responsibility activities.
• A truly global, dynamic and challenging work environment.
• Agility and work/life effectiveness and your long-term well-being.
• An effective and inclusive team.

What This Job Offers

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