Senior Project Engineer

Founded over 35 years ago, First Quality is a family-owned company that has grown from a small business in McElhattan, Pennsylvania into a group of companies, employing over 5,000 team members, while maintaining our family values and entrepreneurial spirit. With corporate offices in New York and Pennsylvania and 8 manufacturing campuses across the U.S. and Canada, the companies within the First Quality group produce high-quality personal care and household products for large retailers and healthcare organizations. Our personal care and household product portfolio includes baby diapers, wipes, feminine pads, paper towels, bath tissue, adult incontinence products, laundry detergents, fabric finishers, and dishwash solutions. In addition, we manufacture certain raw materials and components used in the manufacturing of these products, including flexible print and packaging solutions.

Guided by our values of humility, unity, and integrity, we leverage advanced technology and innovation to drive growth and create new opportunities. At First Quality, you’ll find a collaborative environment focused on continuous learning, professional development, and our mission to Make Things Better®.

We are seeking a Senior Project Engineer for our First Quality Tissue Home Care Products, LLC located in Archbold, OH.  The Senior Project Engineer will lead and manage projects related to the installation of equipment in the Compounding and Finishing areas, as well as oversee building construction activities. This role requires strong technical expertise, project management skills, and the ability to coordinate cross-functional teams to ensure projects are delivered safely, on time, within budget, and to quality standards.

Primary responsibilities include:

• Utilizes project management skills to prepare scopes, budgets, schedules, manage contractors and coordinate multiple disciplines to execute projects.

• Installs, starts up, and validates new equipment or process to ensure it meets project success criteria.  This includes creation and execution of detailed Factory Acceptance Test plans.

• Manage building construction projects, including design review, contractor selection, scheduling, and oversight.

• Develop detailed project plans, timelines, budgets, and resource allocations.

• Responsible for executing machine design changes or additions to lower costs and/or improve quality while ensuring customer requirements are met.

• Ensures system and equipment documents are updated and uploaded in the document control system.

• Interacts with representatives from a variety of functional groups, including Process Engineers, Maintenance, Operations, Planning, Procurement Safety, Environmental, Quality Assurance and contractors.

• Ability to identify machine, material and/or process improvements and implementation solutions.

• In conjunction with Operations, track root causes of problems, participates in risk analysis and evaluate effectiveness of corrective actions.

The ideal candidate should possess the following:

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Electrical or Industrial Engineering (or related field).

• Minimum of 5 years of experience in a manufacturing environment.

• Project engineering experience managing projects and contractors.

• Exceptional analytical problem solving, equipment, vendor management skills, and strong computer skills.

• Must be able to use technical drawings, machine schematics, and manuals in daily work.

• Attention to detail required.

• Proficient with AutoCAD or Autodesk programs and 3D Inventor, a plus.

• Proven experience managing $50K-$10.0M dollar projects, including budgetary responsibilities in all manufacturing areas, Compounding & Finishing.

• Proven experience with equipment installation and building construction projects, managing $50K-$10M dollar projects, (including budgetary responsibilities) in all manufacturing areas, Building, Compounding and Finishing.

• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and manage multiple projects simultaneously.

• Promote an action-oriented safety culture embracing safety as a core value, instilling, and exemplifying a safety mindset for all team members resulting in an incident free workplace.

• Exhibit strong core leadership skills: accountability, credibility and trust. 

• Self-motivated, able to work to complete multiple assigned tasks in short time frames and work well with others under time pressures

• Must follow written procedures and guidelines; possess good verbal and written communication skills.

• Some travel to other FQ sites and for external meetings required – domestic & international

What We Offer You

We believe that by continuously improving the quality of our benefits, we can help to raise the quality of life for our team members and their families. At First Quality you will receive:

• Competitive base salary and bonus opportunities

• Paid time off (three-week minimum)

• Medical, dental and vision starting day one

• 401(k) with employer match

• Paid parental leave

• Child and family care assistance (dependent care FSA with employer match up to $2500)

• Bundle of joy benefit (years’ worth of free diapers to all team members with a new baby)

• Tuition assistance

• Wellness program with savings of up to $4,000 per year on insurance premiums

...and more!