Corporate Process Control Leader

W. R. Grace

Columbia (MD)

On-site

USD 161,000 - 221,000

Full time

8 days ago

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Benefits offered by this job

Medical Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

Retirement Plans

Paid Vacation

Job summary

W. R. Grace is seeking a Corporate Process Control Leader to drive strategic governance for process automation across its global manufacturing network.

The role leads the Corporate Process Control Team and Global Process Control Network, ensuring safety, reliability, and cost-effective lifecycle decisions. The incumbent will balance global leverage with site-specific needs, guiding capital projects, standards, and architectures while maintaining risk-based stewardship and strong collaboration

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in engineering or related discipline required.
Experience leading automation projects with multiple sites and lifecycle decisions.
Ability to travel ~25% to global sites and communicate with senior leadership.

Responsibilities

Lead the Corporate Process Control Team and Global Process Control Network, setting priorities and governance.
Establish standards for process automation and lifecycle management; guide projects through technology selections.

Skills

Technical leadership

Cross-site collaboration

Communication skills

Project governance

Risk-based decision making

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering

Tools

Honeywell Experion

Emerson DeltaV

TDC 3000

Job description

Annual Wage Range: $160,680.00 - $220,935.00

Other Compensation: Eligibility for the Short-Term Incentive program and other applicable bonuses

Benefits: U.S. Employee Benefits Summary (grace.com)

Grace, a Standard Industries company, is a leading global supplier of catalysts, engineered materials and fine chemicals. We provide innovative products, technologies and services which our customers use to manufacture everyday products like renewable fuels, pharmaceuticals, toothpaste, cosmetics, food packaging, beer, edible oils and more. Our thousands of employees help shape a better future at our global headquarters in Columbia, MD and locations worldwide.

Job Description

The Corporate Process Control Leader provides strategic, technical, and people leadership for process control across Grace’s global manufacturing network. The role leads the Corporate Process Control Team and the Global Process Control Network, establishes governance and standards, and enables sites and capital projects to select, implement, and sustain safe, reliable, fit-for-purpose automation solutions. The leader balances global leverage with site-specific needs and total lifecycle economics, while ensuring that safety and regulatory requirements remain non-negotiable.

Responsibilities (1 Of 2)

Lead, develop, and set priorities for the Corporate Process Control Team. Establish clear accountabilities, coach technical staff, strengthen succession plans, and allocate limited specialist resources to the highest-value global needs.
Lead the Global Process Control Network as the primary forum for connecting site experts, sharing lessons learned, reusing proven designs, coordinating training, and pooling scarce process-control resources across geographic and organizational boundaries.
Own and communicate the global process-control vision: safety first, lowest long-term cost, fit-for-purpose architecture, and shared global capability.
Guide sites and projects through a consistent technology-selection process. Understand site objectives, hazards, constraints, skills, and lifecycle stage; evaluate safety, reliability, maintainability, cybersecurity, integration, and total cost; document the selected architecture and long-term support model.
Establish, maintain, and govern global process automation standards, engineering practices, reusable libraries, templates, and lifecycle requirements. Standardize where common solutions create value while allowing site-specific solutions where they provide better lifecycle value.
Provide technical governance and assurance for capital projects with significant automation scope, including distributed control systems, safety instrumented systems, burner management systems, PLCs, package controls, operator interfaces, networks, and data historians.
Ensure obsolete and unsupported control systems are identified, risk-ranked, and supported by documented lifecycle roadmaps addressing migration strategy, cybersecurity, backups, spares, training, vendor support, and sustainment cost.
Serve as the senior process-control technical authority for major project reviews, architecture decisions, vendor evaluations, functional specifications, design reviews, factory acceptance testing, site acceptance testing, commissioning, and startup readiness.
Advance process safety and operational discipline through appropriate application of alarm management, high-performance graphics, interlock and permissive design, sequence control, management of change, and recognized engineering practices.
Partner with site operations, maintenance, engineering, process safety, IT/OT cybersecurity, procurement, and project management to deliver solutions that are supportable by the site and aligned with business objectives.
Sponsor productivity and reliability initiatives that use process automation to reduce raw-material and energy consumption, improve quality and production rates, reduce unplanned downtime, and improve operator effectiveness.

Responsibilities (2 Of 2)

Develop strategic relationships with automation suppliers, system integrators, and engineering contractors. Define technical expectations, assess execution capability, manage escalations, and improve commercial leverage without compromising safety or lifecycle supportability.
Define measures of success for safety, lifecycle value, site ownership, and global leverage. Communicate portfolio risks, resource needs, priorities, and progress to Global Operations leadership. Provide escalation support for significant control-system events and coordinate cross-site expertise when urgent troubleshooting or recovery is required.

Leadership Scope

Corporate Process Control Team: people leadership, technical direction, workload prioritization, capability development, and delivery accountability.
Global Process Control Network: community leadership, governance, knowledge sharing, standards deployment, expert connectivity, and cross-site support.
Global automation portfolio: strategic direction for control-system lifecycle, modernization, platform selection, support models, and technical risk reduction.
Site enablement: ensure each site has a documented architecture, lifecycle roadmap, capable support path, appropriate backups, training, and access to global expertise.

Physical Requirements And Environment

Must be willing to wear PPE (Personal Protective equipment) including but not limited to hard hat, protective eyewear, steel-toed boots, hearing protection, Level A suit, full face respirator
Must be able to stand, walk, sit, climb, balance, stoop, kneel, crouch, crawl, and climb stairs and ladders over 100 ft.

Required Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in engineering, preferably Chemical, Electrical, Controls, or a related discipline.
Substantial experience in industrial process control, automation engineering, manufacturing operations, or capital project execution in process-industry environments.
Demonstrated technical leadership across complex automation projects and multiple sites, including the ability to make and defend risk-based architecture and lifecycle decisions.
Working knowledge of distributed control systems, PLC-based controls, safety instrumented systems, industrial networks, control-system cybersecurity, batch and sequence control, alarm management, and operator interface design.
Demonstrated ability to lead technical professionals, influence without direct authority, develop talent, resolve cross-functional issues, and communicate effectively with both technical teams and senior leadership.
Strong written, verbal, facilitation, and technical-documentation skills
Ability to travel approximately 25% to global manufacturing sites, with intermittent periods of increased travel during major project execution, commissioning, or startup.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with Honeywell Experion or TDC 3000 and Emerson DeltaV control systems.
Experience leading DCS, SIS, BMS, PLC, virtualization, and control-system modernization programs.
Experience with alarm rationalization and management, high-performance graphics, flexible batch libraries, and control-system lifecycle planning.
Knowledge of applicable industry standards and recognized practices, including ISA-18.2, ISA-88, ISA-84/IEC 61511, NFPA 85, and NFPA 86.
Experience developing global standards, governance models, technical communities of practice, and supplier or system-integrator strategies.

Benefits