Senior Director of Engineering

Guided Search Partners (GSP) Guided Search Partners is an Executive Search firm built on Trust, Transparency, Specialization, and Long-term Relationships. We connect high-performing professionals with organizations that value people, performance, and growth—helping leaders find roles where they can make an impact and build meaningful careers.

About the Opportunity

We’re partnering with a multi-site, high-volume food manufacturer operating a network of facilities across the U.S. This confidential senior leadership opportunity sits at the center of enterprise engineering—setting standards, building strong operating partnerships with plant leadership, and ensuring capital and reliability strategies translate into safe, consistent performance across the footprint.

This role exists due to a confidential leadership transition and is being filled immediately. Early priorities will center on stabilizing performance at a key site that has significant enterprise visibility, while simultaneously building the systems and governance required to scale engineering excellence across all locations.

The right leader thrives in complexity: hands‑on enough to solve urgent site issues, strategic enough to build multi‑year roadmaps, and experienced enough to partner confidently from plant floor through C‑suite.

Work model: Remote with ~75% travel (HQ + multiple manufacturing sites).

What You’ll Do

• Establish enterprise engineering standards that reinforce safety, food safety, quality, cost, and service consistency.
• Build a strong operating partnership with Operations so engineering directly enables throughput, uptime, and capacity reliability.
• Own end‑to‑end asset lifecycle performance—from concept and design through installation, commissioning, maintenance strategy, and long‑term reliability.
• Lead enterprise capital strategy and governance, balancing growth, cost discipline, risk mitigation, and ROI.
• Evaluate and deploy automation, controls, and emerging manufacturing technologies that strengthen reliability, safety, throughput, and sustainability.
• Create clear KPI visibility for projects and portfolio performance, ensuring priorities stay aligned as conditions change.
• Lead through direct and indirect influence—aligning leaders across sites and functions to deliver consistent execution.
• Ensure employee safety and food safety are non‑negotiable design principles in all engineering work.
• Communicate effectively across levels—from plant teams to senior leadership—driving clarity, alignment, and momentum.

Who You Are

You’re an enterprise‑minded engineering leader who can step into ambiguity and quickly bring structure. You build trust with operators, speak the language of finance and ROI, and hold a high bar for safety and food safety without slowing the business down. You’re comfortable being on the road, close to plants, and visible where it matters most. You lead with integrity, push for excellence, and know how to win as one team.

Preferred Experience & Attributes

• BS in Engineering (Mechanical, Industrial, Chemical, or related); Master’s preferred.
• 15+ years of engineering leadership experience in food manufacturing / CPG manufacturing.
• Multi‑site leadership is required (enterprise coverage across a broad footprint).
• Proven process standardization experience across multiple facilities.
• Strong knowledge of sanitary design and regulatory requirements.
• Experience with automation, controls, and industrial digitalization.
• Enterprise‑level capital portfolio management experience.

Why This Role Matters

This role sets the engineering direction for an entire manufacturing network—impacting safety, reliability, cost, and capacity across multiple sites. You’ll help stabilize a high‑priority operation quickly while building the standards, governance, and capability needed for long‑term performance. If you’re motivated by scale, visibility, and the chance to shape enterprise execution, this is a rare seat with real leverage.

Reporting Structure

• Reports to: Senior Operations Leadership (enterprise level)
• Direct reports: 5 (engineering, reliability, project management, environmental/sustainability leadership)
• Interfaces frequently with: plant leadership teams, operations, finance, HR, and executive leadership