Maintenance Project Engineer

Company Description

Ulbrich was established in 1924 and is family-owned and privately held.  An international corporation with subsidiaries located in the US, Mexico, Germany, and Austria. Ulbrich employs over 700 people worldwide. 

At Ulbrich, we are Improving Lives with More Than Metal. We work hard for each other, our families, and the communities we live in.  The respect and integrity of Ulbrich team members, dedication to their professions, collaborative participation in lean, and ensuring that safety comes first, has created a culture that has a positive impact on the lives of many. We connect with the world through our responsibility to produce critical products that benefit mankind.  

The Ulbrich culture is guided by a set of shared values we call Our Core Tenets.  The tenets we live by each day are Continuous Improvement, Quality Commitment, Family Values, Total Company Involvement, and Customer Responsiveness. Through practicing these shared values, we drive profitable growth and success.

Come join the Ulbrich team and become part of a greater purpose and a promising future!

Job Description

Responsibilities

Equipment Reliability & PM Optimization

• Review and optimize PM procedures.
• Analyze repetitive failures and engineer permanent solutions.
• Evaluate bearings, seals, housings, lubrication, alignment, and wear patterns.
• Monitor motors/drives, including insulation trends, commutator/brush inspection for DC motors, encoder health, SCR stack conditions.

Capital & Upgrade Projects

• Scope, quote, design, and manage upgrades:
  • Drive modernization (AC drives replacing DC, rectifier upgrades, SCR improvements).
  • Mill rebuilds, roll changes, precision alignments.
  • Hydraulics upgrades (AGC, bending cylinders, tensioning).
  • Instrumentation replacements (encoders, tachometers, tension cells, thickness gauges).
  • Expansion projects.
• Manage fabrication, installation, commissioning, vendor coordination, and documentation.

Maintenance Outage Coordination

• Plan, sequence, and coordinate mill outages.
• Create work packs, job safety analyses, checklists, and acceptance criteria.
• Manage contractors and ensure work meets standards.

Problem Solving & Breakdowns

• Respond to unplanned downtime:
  • Troubleshoot drives, transformers, encoders, PLC faults, mechanical jams, overloads, bearing failures, misalignment, and hydraulic issues.
• Determine root cause and prevent recurrence.

Documentation & Compliance

• Keep updated drawings, torque specs, electrical schematics, PM instructions.
• Ensure compliance with company, OSHA, and industry standards.
• Maintain spare parts strategies and bill of materials for critical assets.

Vendor & Contractor Management

• Source parts, get quotes, coordinate repairs.
• Work with OEMs (for example, Ungerer, Sendzimer, ABB, Siemens, Hitachi, Morgan, etc.).
• Evaluate vendor proposals and ensure technical accuracy.

Cost Control

• Track project budgets, downtime costs, maintenance expenses.
• Build cost-benefit analyses for upgrades (e.g., replacing motors, transformers, drives).

Training & Knowledge Transfer

• Train technicians on new systems.
• Maintain “tribal knowledge” documentation.
• Improve team competency in alignment, balancing, lubrication, safety, troubleshooting.

Qualifications

Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Electromechanical, Manufacturing, or other relevant engineering discipline strongly preferred.  Associate's Degree in Electrical or Mechanical Engineering, or related discipline with relevant experience considered as well.

Strong Technical Foundation

• Solid understanding of mechanical, electrical, and controls systems.
• Ability to read/interpret P&IDs, mechanical drawings, schematics, PLC I/O tags, power distribution diagrams, etc.
• Familiar with industrial equipment: motors (AC/DC), drives (for example, Micromaster, Siemens, ABB, Rockwell), gearboxes, pumps, compressors, mechanical drives, bearings, housings, hydraulics.

Troubleshooting Mindset

• Skilled at diagnosing failures: mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, or process-related.
• Able to perform root cause analysis (RCA) using methodologies such as 5-Why, fishbone, FMEA.
• Comfortable jumping into a mi