Director, Engineering

Rich’s, also known as Rich Products Corporation, is a family-owned food company dedicated to inspiring possibilities. From cakes and icings to pizza, appetizers and specialty toppings, our products are used in homes, restaurants and bakeries around the world. Beyond great food, our customers also gain insights to help them stay competitive, no matter their size. Our portfolio includes creative solutions geared at helping food industry professionals compete in foodservice, retail, in-store bakery, deli, and prepared foods, among others. Working in 100 locations globally, with annual sales exceeding $4 billion, Rich’s is a global leader with a focus on everything that family makes possible. Rich’s®—Infinite Possibilities. One Family.

 

Purpose Statement

We are looking for a Director of Engineering – Capital Systems who is passionate about driving Engineering excellence through Early Innovation Management, TPM processes, Capital Management systems, and by defining and implementing engineering capability development programs across different teams, plants and businesses, exceeding our customers’ expectations. You will lead Rich’s capital investment strategies for multiple product categories, successfully identifying, developing, and implementing systems and processes to drive investment effectiveness and project execution excellence across multiple sites across the Enterprise. You will own and lead a portfolio of business-critical investments – growth, cost reduction, productivity and plant improvement projects, following a disciplined approach to arrive to effective multi-year investment program.  You will be the Global leader of the Early Innovation Management (EIM/EEM) Pillar within the Total Productive Manufacturing (TPM) framework, driving project excellence from idea conception, definition, execution and vertical start up. You will look at ways to optimize processes, people capability development, organizational excellence, and systems to optimize capex and opex costs, own the Enterprise capital expenditure and project management systems.

The role will directly interface with Project Managers, Manufacturing Directors, Engineering Directors, VP’s of Engineering and Manufacturing, top Business leaders, Chief Operations Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Treasury & Accounting leaders, as well as other functional leaders to define and drive prioritization of the multi-year capex investment program across RPC. 
Although this is initially considered a remote position for candidates within continental U.S., we will prioritize candidates located in Buffalo, NY (RPC Headquarters) or willing to relocate to Buffalo, NY.

Key Accountabilities and Outcomes

•    Lead RPC Capital Management Systems across the Enterprise, including project and capital portfolio definition, capital spending plans, capital forecast and spending reconciliation across all Business Units (BU’s) & Functional capital investment plans.

•    Lead standard Engineering Work Processes (EWP) and champion the best engineering practices for improved performance. Lead the Global Early Innovation Management (EIM/EEM) Pillar partnering with the Global TPM Pillar leaders, Engineering Business Partners, Manufacturing Directors and Project Managers to follow the best engineering and capital investment practices driving effectiveness value.

•    Lead Business, Operational, R&D, Engineering, project and financial reviews as required. Communicate and inform operational and business leaders of related capital plans through global reports, capex forecasting activities, business leadership meetings and required portfolio status reviews.

•    Effectively lead, develop and allocate resources across a team of talented engineers to support diverse business needs, advanced data analytics and project definition and execution support.

•    Search and reapply: Lead capital systems and capital planning systems, discovery efforts across the industry and develop viable technology solutions adapted to our capital and project execution processes. Represent the company's position and interests effectively in dealing with outside contractors, vendors, engineering consultants and professional associations, with a positive attitude across the organization and working teams. 

•    Demonstrate thorough knowledge of disciplined capital project administration and capital investment management procedures and follow Rich’s capital management processes and Internal Control guidelines.

•    Assists other department’s efforts to provide technical training and guidance to improve operations.

 

All other duties and responsibilities as assigned.

Knowledge, Skills, and Experience

Required:
•    A BSC degree in Engineering with 15+ years of experience in Food, Beverage, Fast Consumer Packaged Goods and/or similar