Senior Execution Engineer - Ethanol

Senior Execution Engineer - Ethanol

Purpose 

The Senior Execution Engineer is Whitefox's technical authority for each project, from FEL1 through commissioning and the O&M contract, owning the quality of engineering delivered by an execution partner, the technical relationship with that partner, and the client's technical counterpart role for the Whitefox system. It is a role of influence rather than control, the work is done by external teams outside the role's reporting line, yet must still meet Whitefox standards, driving the technical conversation on solution development, systems design and deliverable review while keeping the Project Manager involved, informed and consulted. Post-commissioning, the role drives installed systems to the levels of benefit and performance offered and quantifies what has been achieved, supports troubleshooting to keep membrane lifetime within approved conditions, hold product flow and purity against plant capacity and specification, and minimise downtime (with Customer Support holding overall accountability), and analyses the technical impact of plant changes, such as new technology, on contractual obligations, making recommendations accordingly. It is home-based in the US (Midwest preferred), dedicated to the project team (POD) from FEL1 through O&M with no ongoing direct reports (as well as supervise and train the POD's Execution Engineers), and involves approximately 30% travel, predominantly domestic to client and partner sites and peaking around commissioning and post-commissioning.

Department Responsibilities

Execution Engineering is the Whitefox technical expert for every project. It holds the technical authority from FEL1 through commissioning and into O&M, controlling the quality of the engineering our partners produce, enabling them to work efficiently at Whitefox standards, and driving each installed system to the benefits and performance we offered. 

We do it as one team inside the POD, and we route what we learn in the field internally, so it becomes guidelines and standard configurations rather than local practice, and the next project starts better than the last.

Position Responsibilities

• Own the technical relationship with the execution partner's engineering team through the whole project, working as an equal rather than as a reviewer at the end, and make sure Whitefox knowledge is properly transmitted to the partner. 

• Chair technical reviews, set the agenda for technical progress, and escalate where partner capability or resourcing puts the design at risk. 

• Review and accept the partner's PFDs with heat and material balances, P&IDs, equipment design, sizing and selection, 3D models and equipment layout, and control narratives against Whitefox design criteria; hold the QC gates and record deviations with a technical rationale. 

• Own the technical accuracy of the IFC package that the partner releases. 

• Own Whitefox equipment sizing and selection, including the basis of design behind it, and the control narratives of the Whitefox CORE (accountable and responsible, with Customer Support consulted). 

• Act as co-responsible for commissioning and start-up execution with Customer Support (who holds full accountability), and flag the technical impact of change on cost and schedule to Project Management as soon as it is known. 

• Drive installed systems to the levels of benefits and performance offered post-commissioning, quantify what was achieved, and support troubleshooting of live operations against contractual obligations. 

• Own health and safety considerations in engineering design: hazard identification, safe operating limits, HAZOP and technical safety review participation, and closeout of design safety actions. 

• Identify design modifications, improvements and optimisations triggered by lessons learned and field feedback, and work with the Head of Execution Engineering to get them analysed and incorporated into future designs and the standard. 

• Provide on-the-job training and coaching to the Execution Engineers assigned to the POD, and to POD peers from Customer Support and Solutions Engineering, developing each Execution Engineer against a named goal. 

• Help develop simulation templates, tools, design criteria and training materials, and feed learnings from partner interaction and the field back to the Head of Execution Engineering. 

• Represent Whitefox Blueprint values, standards, and safety culture to customers and external stakeholders during site visits and support activities. 

Qualifications and Professional Experience Required

​​Education:  

• ​Degree in chemical or process engineering, or an equivalent discipline.​ 

Experience: 

• Eight or more years in process engineering on industrial plant, including work through detailed design into the field, with breadth across the discipline to cover the full lifecycle without cover. 

• Hands-on production of, or accountable review of, PFDs with heat and material balances, P&IDs, equipment design, sizing and selection, 3D models and equipment layout, control narratives, programming guidelines and SOPs. 

• Working command of a commercial process simulator, and the judgement to know when a converged model is still wrong. 

• Experience of commissioning and start-up on site, including troubleshooting under time and client pressure. 

• Technical depth in post-commissioning and O&M: driving an installed system to its benefits case and troubleshooting live operations against contractual obligations. 

• Working knowledge of process safety in design: hazard identification, HAZOP, safe operating limits and the discipline of closing design safety actions. 

• Experience of formal change control on an operating plant or in a project environment. 

• Experience delivering engineering through third-party EPC or engineering contractors, holding quality without holding the pen. 

• Separation or membrane process experience, or a demonstrable track record of getting to depth quickly in an unfamiliar unit operation. 

• Fluency in reading contractual performance guarantees and translating them into operating limits and test conditions. 

Desirable 

• Experience in ethanol, biofuels, distillation or dehydration plant. 

• Experience with evaporation. 

• Exposure to plant control systems and to programming guidelines or FAT processes. 

• Experience writing design criteria documents or engineering standards for external use. 

• Experience mentoring or line-managing junior engineers. 

Competencies

• Technical authority without positional authority: able to be heard by a partner's engineers and by a client's operations team on the strength of the argument. 

• Strong power skills in an externally facing role: this engineer represents Whitefox in front of clients and third-party partners, and the relationship is part of the deliverable. 

• Comfortable saying no to a client or a partner on a technical point, and doing it in a way that keeps the relationship. 

• Clear written communication: a review comment that is unambiguous and traceable to a criterion, not a preference. 

• Works as a peer in a cross-functional POD, with no instinct to defend a functional boundary. 

• Sound judgement on when to escalate and when to absorb, and honest about uncertainty in their own numbers. 

• Teaches by default: turns what they learn into a template, a tool or a coaching conversation rather than keeping it. 
• Steady under commissioning conditions — long days, incomplete information, an audience. 

Job Type: 

• Full-time, Permanent

Schedule:

• Standard US full-time hours (40 hrs/week),
• Travel within USA: 30%

Additional pay:

• Bonus pay

Benefits:

• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Paid time off
• Professional development assistance

We are an equal opportunities employer, and we welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of their sex; religious or similar philosophical belief; political opinion; race; age; sexual orientation; or, whether they are married or are in a civil partnership; or, whether they are disabled; or whether they have undergone, are undergoing or intend to undergo gender reassignment.

Find out more about being part of Whitefox Technologies, diverse, inclusive and innovative culture.  

‘Waste Less and Produce More’.

Voted as one of the 50 Hottest Companies in the Advanced Bioeconomy, The Digest.
Named as one of the Sunday Times Top 10 Green Tech companies to watch.
Winner, BusinessGreen, International Impact Award: Energy Efficient Ethanol Plants.
Winner, Clean Energy Awards: Most Efficient Biofuels Separation Technology Provider.