Sr. Automation Engineer

Job Description:
The Hershey Company is the Client industry leader in digital manufacturing. We’re at the forefront of implementing transformative technologies across our entire supply chain to deliver our vision of being a Leading Snacking Powerhouse.
The Physical Automation Team at The Hersey Company manages capital projects for all our facilities across the U.S. and Canada. All their work revolves around capital investments, executing multiple, complex projects valued at anywhere from *** million to *** million. These projects typically involve some aspect of electrical or controls-related components but could be any equipment related to our manufacturing processes. Our Project Managers make sure our work is executed on time and in budget.
Project Managers would initiate and execute capital projects of varying complexity, ensuring that capital plans are delivered on time and in budget. Staff Engineers are responsible for promoting and implementing the best use of technology and developing solutions to complex engineering problems. They lead teams through all phases of large projects, from development through close-out.

Qualified candidates possess the following –
• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Chemical, Civil / Structural, Electrical, etc.) or Engineering Technology (Electromechanical, Mechatronics, etc.); Master’s degree is desirable (Engineering, Science, Business)
• At least 10-12 years of related Project Management experience (3 to 5 years with Master’s degree), including capital budget administration, planning, coordination, and leadership in the implementation of complex overhauls, upgrades, and other problem-solving tasks.
• Advanced understanding of capital project management best practices such as purchase requisitioning, monitoring of contract time, internal order numbers, purchase orders, and project timelines.
Main Duties:
• Leverages engineering knowledge, judgment, creativity and experience to lead multiple automation engineering initiatives of medium to high complexity and 9- 12 months duration.
o Projects include robotic palletizers, Cobots, End of Line automation and Packaging automation initiatives.
• Supports development of the business case, technical feasibility, and plan for customer (plant) acceptance.
• Provides technical direction to multiple teams in the development of sound engineering alternatives (cost estimates, feasibility, specifications, and interpretation of requirements) and recommendations.
• Provides leadership for all phases of a capital project to include project development, project execution, and production start-up and project close out.
• Accountable for developing and implementing multiple capital projects simultaneously.
• Develop and manage project schedules to deliver on time.
• Demonstrates negotiation skills to "sell" project through the capital approval process.
• Develops a process to assure accuracy of monthly spending forecasts
• Manages Onsite vendors and procurement process for all aspects of the project
• Established cadence and leads design and construction phases of multiple projects at different sites.
Typical Day: Provide Project management and construction management cadence to projects, Conduct engineering reviews of projects scope at site level and design level. Visits site for construction coordination of vendor locations for FATs. Review cashflow and POs are on track for project execution.

Top Three Technical Skills:
Project, Capital and construction Management, Vendor management and engineering design.

Pre-Screening Questions: (any pre-screening Q’s manager would like staffing vendors to ask)

Must Haves (i.e., years of experience?) min 10-15
Software Skills and Purpose (if applicable): Office, SAP and MS Project
Industry Experience: Food, Client, Pharma
What do you foresee as being the biggest challenge in this position? Handling of multiple projects at once, navigating technologies, vendors and deployment needs at sites
Target companies you would like to see candidates from: P&G, UL, Mars, etc
Training
How long is training? 2-3 weeks
What is involved? PDP process training 1:1 meetings for process understanding and project scope development

2 Rounds of interviews
 

Desired Skills and Experience

AUTOMATION ENGINEER