Manager of Biogas Operations Support

Innovation & Technology (InnoTech) Global Business Unit (GBU) provides our customers with innovative, competitive, and sustainable technologies, bringing concepts from our labs to industrial-scale applications gathering: Research & Development (R&D), including ALIAD (Air Liquide venture capital arm) Engineering & Technologies (E&T) brings together Engineering and Construction (E&C), Capital Implementation (CI) and Technologies (ALAT, ALATUS, ALES, Cryolor) Biogas Solutions.

The Biogas OTF organization has the mandate to develop, invest in, build, own and operate facilities that produce renewable natural gas (RNG) from waste. The Manager of Operations Support will report to the Director of RNG Business Development and Operations and will be an engineering manager, providing strategic leadership for a team of direct reports including engineers, maintenance specialists, and operations specialists, while working hands-on with the team. In the engineering management capacity, the Manager develops detailed roadmaps to senior leadership to maximize availability and productivity, while maintaining safety, at existing and future plants in the US Biogas OTF fleet. Additionally, the Manager will take key decisions on implementation of these roadmaps at the plants.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of operations engineers, reliability/maintenance leaders, and technical experts and specialists for Biogas OTF Operations, ensuring responsibilities and targets are clearly defined and consistent with driving productivity and profitability at the plants

• Serve as "working" manager providing hands-on production engineering support to sites as appropriate

• Establishes Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for each of the plant operations. On a daily basis, monitors the KPIs, trends and the ultimate performance of the unit against the plant goals for personal safety, process safety, quality and productivity.

• Takes action to resolve gaps between performance and goals. Determines source of gap from equipment, process, feed, or plant operations. As needed, advises plant personnel on strategies to improve plant performance.

• Work with operations team to identify plant-level projects to maximize productivity at each plant, and lead the development and prioritization of these projects across all plants in the US

• Work with operations team to identify robust maintenance strategies for each plant, and lead the definition/development and prioritization of these strategies (e.g., digital tools, methods, spare-part inventory management, etc)

• Communicate to management the prioritized projects and strategies, and take key decisions on implementation of these once approved

• Will have Delegation of Authority approval levels for key POs and engineering work for plant-level ACEs

• Always complies with safety and regulatory requirements and good engineering practices

• Serve as a subject matter expert and resource on the technical capability and capacity of the production plants. Understands how the plant operates. Understands the customer specifications and expectations for the product.

• Coach, mentor, and develop technical staff and provide career development planning and opportunities

• Creates and updates documentation including learning resources and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the plant. Provides knowledge transfer to the operators and ensures it is being used.

• Ensures Root Cause Analyses (RCAs) are conducted for Process and Equipment Incidents.

• Supports the development, engineering and commissioning of new plants under construction

• Drives all of Air Liquide's key cultures including safe and ethical behavior with their actions and their words on a daily basis.

• Working conditions: (i) Travel up to 40% of the time to facilities, as needed (today we operate in WI, IL, MI, PA, GA, MS, LA); (ii) work within production plants including outside environments, wearing FRC, steel-toe footwear, safety glasses, and other appropriate personal protective equipment

Requirements

• BS in Engineering, or physical science (chemistry, physics, engineering technology, etc.)

• 7+ years experience in operations, process, production, commissioning or project engineering

• Experience in troubleshooting operational issues and running root-cause-analysis (RCA) studies with a data-driven approach (e.g., collect appropriate operational data from the SCADA using trending features, talk to OEMs)

• Experience establishing, tracking and driving gap closure with operational KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) or equivalent.

• Experience in establishing maintenance plans for operations

• Prior team management experience

• US Citizen or Green Card Holder - The candidate must have valid unrestricted employment authorization in the U.S. and must not require visa sponsorship now or in the future.

Preferred

• Experience in biogas plant operation at landfill- and digester-based facilities

• Experience with rotating equipment, mechanical aptitude

• Six Sigma Green or Black Belt certification or equivalent knowledge

• 5S and Lean Manufacturing experience

• Process hazard analysis training; LOPA and HAZOP

• Leadership of improvement projects or capital project experience

• Project Management experience

Salary & Benefits

• Salary range for this position in Newark DE is $130 to $140k with an additional annual target incentive of 14% based on performance

• Medical, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Short-Term Disability, Long-Term Disability, 401(k) match, Flexible Spending Accounts, EAP, Education Assistance, Parental Leave, Paid time off, and Holidays.

• For more information you can go to Air Liquide Benefit Offerings

Our Differences make our Performance

At Air Liquide, we are committed to build a diverse and inclusive workplace that embraces the diversity of our employees, our customers, patients, community stakeholders and cultures across the world.

We welcome and consider applications from all qualified applicants, regardless of their background. We strongly believe a diverse organization opens up opportunities for people to express their talent, both individually and collectively and it helps foster our ability to innovate by living our fundamentals, acting for our success and creating an engaging environment in a changing world.