Main Functions
Purpose: VP of Engineering leads engineering, automation, asset reliability, and capital investment across multiple manufacturing sites. This role is responsible for the safe and successful execution of capital projects while optimizing asset performance, operational efficiency, and equipment reliability.
As a member of the Leadership Team, the VP drives continuous improvement, sustainability initiatives, and long-term asset strategies that support business growth and operational excellence. The role provides leadership to engineering and automation teams, ensuring alignment with safety, quality, operational, and strategic priorities.
Essential Functions:
- Direct engineering and automation across four production sites, setting annual priorities, allocating resources, and ensuring the safe, effective execution of $20M+ in capital projects aligned with approved plans, budgets, and business objectives.
- Develop, prioritize, and manage a reliable rolling 5-year capital and asset plan, ensuring investments address business growth, asset condition, reliability, capacity, infrastructure requirements, equipment renewal needs, and risk while delivering appropriate business value and return on investment.
- Provide leadership for lifecycle management across facilities, establishing appropriate maintenance and reliability strategies, performance measures, and improvement priorities to optimize equipment and infrastructure availability, reliability, and long-term value.
- Partner with Operations and other functional leaders to solve operational challenges and improve plant processes, manufacturing capability, reliability, capacity, and overall performance.
- Ensure engineering designs, equipment and process modifications, maintenance practices and capital projects appropriately address employee and contractor safety, food safety, product quality and regulatory requirements, including appropriate risk assessment, management of change and technical review.
- Build and develop high-performing engineering teams across facilities, ensuring work is appropriately resourced and providing ongoing coaching, performance feedback, technical capability development, succession planning, and knowledge transfer.
- Advance sustainability and GHG initiatives.
- Lead and facilitate the implementation of effective people, safety, quality, technical, operating, and business systems; ensure consistent governance and engineering standards across facilities; and use appropriate KPIs to monitor engineering and capital/project performance and drive continuous improvement.
- Champion changes and foster collaborative relationships across functions and facilities while promoting safety, quality, cost-consciousness, continuous improvement, and a results-driven culture.
- Act as a safety champion, constantly applying the principles and spirit of “Taking Pride in Doing the Right Thing – The First Time and Every Time,” and maintain awareness and understanding of sites’ operations-related standards, including specific governance and local, state, and federal legislative requirements across the countries and jurisdictions in which the business operates.
Technical skills
Required
- 15 years of proven experience in maintenance and engineering, ideally gained in a critical industry, specifically bioprocessing and/or biotechnology, with a minimum of 5 years’ experience at a management level and demonstrated progressive leadership responsibility.
- A solid background in plant operations and project management, preferably in a critical infrastructure industry.
- Expertise in local, provincial/state, and federal legislation.
- Multi-site manufacturing leadership experience is strongly preferred; international or multi-country experience is an asset.
- Demonstrated experience leading capital projects, engineering and automation programs, and improving manufacturing performance.
- Participation in industry associations and alliances.
- Demonstrated knowledge of capital planning, engineering project management, automation, asset reliability and lifecycle management, and manufacturing optimization within a multi-site manufacturing environment.
- Proven ability to lead and sustain change, building an agile and responsive organization while driving adoption and accountability across teams.
- Demonstrated expertise in maintenance systems, asset reliability principles, and industry best practices, with proven experience implementing strategies that improve equipment reliability, availability, and long-term asset performance.
An asset
- Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, Industrial, Civil, or related engineering discipline or equivalent) is preferred.
Personal abilities
Required
- Strong strategic, critical thinking, analytical, and financial acumen with the ability to connect engineering, technology, assets, and capital investment decisions to operational and business outcomes.
- Proven ability to execute plans, lead and sustain change, develop technical talent and hold self and others accountable for results.
- Strong communication, interpersonal, and influencing skills with the ability to collaborate effectively across functions, facilities, countries, and organizational levels.
- Strong sense of professionalism and purpose, with proven capacity for problem-solving and producing sustainable results through teamwork and individual effort.
- Strong mechanical/technical aptitude, oral and written communication skills.
General criteria
Required
- This position is a remote position. Travel to NAB locations, including head office as needed - up to 60%.
- Follow GMPs and applicable BMS/DC and SITES Procedures and Instructions at all times to ensure product food safety, legality, and quality. Ensure that all direct reports comply at all times.
Organization
Lallemand is a privately held Canadian company founded in the late 19th century, which develops, produces, and markets microorganisms for various markets. The administrative offices of the parent company are in Montreal, Canada. Today, Lallemand employs more than 6,500 people working in more than 45 countries on 5 continents.
Lallemand Baking offers a range of superior quality baker's yeast – both fresh and dry varieties – and specialty ingredients to meet bakers' needs across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Baking cultures and dough conditioners round out our impressive product range.
The Lallemand baking team's many branches collaborate closely to provide innovative products and efficient services, backed by a skilled technical support team in each region of operations.
Please take note that accommodations will be provided in all parts of the hiring process. Applicants need to make their needs known in advance.
