Lead, Project Engineer

Bridgestone Americas•Oxford, AL

28d•Onsite

About The Position

The Lead Project Engineer leads the definition, design, execution, and closeout of capital and continuous-improvement projects at Bridgestone’s Oxford, North Carolina manufacturing plant. The role owns multiple concurrent projects from concept through commissioning and ensures solutions are safe, technically sound, cost-effective, maintainable, and aligned with production, quality, environmental, and business objectives. It serves as a technical leader and cross-functional project owner, working with Operations, Maintenance, EHS, Quality, Procurement, Finance, suppliers, contractors, and plant leadership to deliver results while minimizing disruption to manufacturing operations. The role leads projects involving capital investment, reliability, automation, capacity, quality, and cost reduction. It develops project definitions and business cases, specifies and integrates equipment and plant infrastructure, manages project controls and contractors, and coordinates procurement, installation, commissioning, and handoff. It also identifies continuous-improvement opportunities, supports manufacturing performance improvement, ensures compliance with applicable standards, and communicates project status, risks, decisions, and recovery plans to stakeholders. Weekend or holiday work may be needed to support plant shutdowns or project installations.

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 and 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 or 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, establishing priorities, scope, schedules, budgets, risks, and resource plans.
Develop front-end project definitions, including business cases, alternatives analyses, feasibility assessments, equipment concepts, process requirements, preliminary layouts, cost estimates, and return-on-investment support.
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 registers, action tracking, contractor performance, and 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 with production and maintenance, including outage planning, lockout/tagout coordination, site readiness, startup support, and safe handoff to plant ownership.
Lead factory and site acceptance activities, commissioning, qualification, and performance verification; confirm 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, incorporating 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; promptly escalate issues when scope, cost, schedule, safety, or production commitments are at risk.
Be prepared to work weekends or holidays as needed to support plant shutdown activities or project installations.