Director Of Engineering

Director Of Engineering

Primary Location: Bolingbrook, Illinois, United States of America

At Solina, our community of close to 5,000 people share a passion for food and live our entrepreneurial culture.

We design customized savory solutions for our clients operating in the food industry, food service, butchery, and nutrition markets. With sustainability at the heart of our business model, we aim to produce food that is good in every sense of the word: delicious, nourishing, affordable, sustainable, and convenient.

Solina is a fast-growing business, with around 50 production sites and R&D laboratories present in more than 19 countries mainly in Europe and North America.

By constantly rethinking culinary solutions, we make food matter for people and the planet.

If you're ready for a new adventure in a dynamic, expanding, passionate, international company, join us!

Solina USA, is a proud Solina Group company, specializing in the creation of customized seasonings and sauces. We take pride in our four strategically located production facilities across the United States which empower us to deliver high-quality, innovative flavor solutions efficiently to our customers. Our focus is on catering to Quick Service Restaurants, Fast casual, Casual dining, and food manufacturers, where our commitment lies in providing exceptional flavor solutions tailored to their unique needs. Solina USA has a proven national reputation of providing an exceptional customer experience by providing a high-quality product at a cost-competitive price point. We create dynamic relationships where our creativity can be visible through our customers culinary vision making "Food Matter."

Summary Of Position

The Director of Engineering is responsible for leading the engineering, capital project execution, and multi-site maintenance strategy across all Solina USA facilities. This role owns the development and delivery of the annual and multi-year capital expenditure (CAPEX) plan and ensures projects are executed safely, on schedule, and within approved budgets while supporting business growth, food safety, and operational excellence.

This position provides functional leadership to site Maintenance Leaders, ensures preventative maintenance plans are executed consistently, and drives reliability performance through standardized KPIs, best practices, and strong technical support. The Director of Engineering also serves as a technical liaison to Operations, Quality/Food Safety, Sanitation, and EHS teams, and is a key resource for electrical, controls, and automation initiatives supporting Solina's future automation roadmap in the United States.

The Director of Engineering partners closely with cross-functional leaders at each facility and at the corporate level to identify risks, align priorities, and deliver projects and improvements that are inclusive of all stakeholders. This role is expected to provide concise, executive-ready updates on performance, risks, and plans.

Essential Functions

This document in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the employee occupying the position.

CAPEX Planning, Governance, and Execution (Consolidated)

Develops and owns the annual and multi-year CAPEX plan for all Solina USA facilities, including project identification, prioritization, business case development, ROI/risk justification, and alignment with safety, food safety, quality, capacity, and cost initiatives.

Leads CAPEX governance and execution discipline across all projects, including scope definition, design review, budget development, procurement strategy, schedule management, change control, commissioning/start-up, turnover to site teams, and project closeout documentation.

Ensures CAPEX budget adherence through forecasting, variance management, and timely escalation of risks, scope changes, and cost drivers to executive leadership.

Project & Team Leadership

Directly manages (1) Project Manager and provides coaching, prioritization, and accountability for project planning, execution, contractor management, and documentation standards across all sites.

Maintenance & Reliability Leadership

Provides functional leadership to Maintenance Leadership at each US site; ensures key maintenance KPIs are defined, measured, reviewed, and achieved (e.g., equipment uptime, PM completion, maintenance response time, reliability improvements, and contractor performance).

Standardizes and continuously improves preventative and predictive maintenance programs across sites, including CMMS utilization, work order quality, equipment history, PM optimization, and reliability-centered maintenance practices.

Establishes and maintains a multi-site spare parts strategy, including critical spares identification, min/max stocking levels, vendor/service agreements, inventory accuracy controls, and reduction of excessive stock-level variance while protecting uptime.

Technical Leadership & Automation

Acts as a technical liaison and escalation resource for Operations and Maintenance teams, supporting complex troubleshooting, root cause analysis, corrective and preventative actions, and technical decision-making.

Leads and supports Solina's future automation plan implementations in the US by providing electrical and controls expertise, partnering with integrators/contractors, and ensuring robust standards for PLC/SCADA systems, instrumentation, VFDs, and documentation.

Supports Wonderware/SCADA and PLC change management best practices (where applicable), including backups, controlled access, version control, alarm/setpoint governance, and proper turnover of as-built documentation.

Food Safety, Compliance, and Cross-Functional Partnership

Ensures strong sanitary design and hygienic engineering principles are embedded in all projects and equipment modifications, including cleanability, materials of construction, drainage, access for inspection, and prevention of harborage or foreign material risks.

Champions a strong environmental, sustainability, food safety, and worker safety mindset in all engineering and maintenance activities, ensuring compliance with OSHA, FDA/FSMA expectations, local regulatory requirements, and internal Solina standards.

Facilitates and leads cross-functional meetings with Operations, Quality/Food Safety, Sanitation, EHS, Supply Chain, and Finance to define inclusive project scopes, identify risks and constraints, and drive timely decision-making and execution.

Standards, Suppliers, and Reporting

Develops and maintains multi-site engineering standards and templates (e.g., URS/specifications, sanitary design checklists, electrical/controls standards, vendor qualification expectations, and commissioning/validation checklists).

Manages key engineering and service suppliers (OEMs, contractors, integrators, utilities/service providers) to ensure safety compliance, technical performance, cost competitiveness, and service responsiveness.

Provides concise, executive-ready updates and plans to leadership, including CAPEX status, milestone tracking, risk/issue logs, budget performance, reliability trends, and strategic recommendations.

Travels to Solina USA sites as required to support project execution, maintenance performance reviews, technical problem solving, audits, and critical events.

Required Skills, Education, And Experience

Any combination of education and experience providing the required knowledge and skills will be considered. Typical qualifications include:

Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Industrial, Chemical, or related field) required.

10+ years of progressive engineering, maintenance, and/or capital project leadership experience within food manufacturing or similarly regulated process manufacturing; multi-site experience strongly preferred.

Demonstrated experience building CAPEX plans and executing capital projects from concept through commissioning while maintaining budget and schedule adherence.

Proven people leadership experience, including direct management of professional staff and functional leadership of site leaders.

Strong understanding of preventative maintenance, reliability fundamentals, and KPI-driven performance management in a manufacturing environment.

Working knowledge of electrical systems, industrial automation, PLCs, instrumentation, VFDs/servo drives, and SCADA concepts; ability to lead troubleshooting and partner effectively with integrators and controls specialists.

Strong sanitary design and hygienic engineering knowledge applicable to sauce/seasoning and food processing facilities.

Strong commitment to worker safety, food safety, quality systems, and environmental compliance; ability to lead by example and enforce standards.

Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to create concise executive summaries and facilitate cross-functional alignment.

Proficient in AutoCad, Bluebeam Revu (or equivalent), MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook; comfortable with project tracking tools (e.g., MS Project or equivalent) and CMMS platforms.

Willingness and ability to travel regularly to all US sites as business needs require.

Preferred Qualifications

Project Management Professional (PMP) certification or equivalent formal project management training.

Experience implementing automation upgrades, line controls standardization, and/or data connectivity initiatives in a PLC/SCADA environment (Wonderware/AVEVA, Allen-Bradley, Siemens, or similar).

We are open to talents of all backgrounds. Our recruitment process is based on competences, and we openly welcome all candidates of all types according