Corporate Process Control Leader

W.R. Grace & Co.; Columbia (MD); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Life Insurance

Disability

Paid Vacation

Tuition Reimbursement

Retirement Plans

Grace Wellness Program

Flexible Workplace

Company Match

Job summary

Grace is seeking a Corporate Process Control Leader to drive strategic, technical, and people leadership for process control across its global manufacturing network. You will guide governance, standards, and lifecycle economics while ensuring safety and regulatory compliance across sites and capital projects.

The role balances global leverage with site-specific needs, leading the Global Process Control Network, and advancing alarm management, cyber security, and modernization initiatives across

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering or related field.
• Significant experience in industrial process control and automation within process industries.
• Proven ability to lead complex automation projects across multiple sites.
• Knowledge of control-system cybersecurity, alarm management, and lifecycle planning.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Corporate Process Control Team and Global Process Control Network with clear accountabilities.
• Establish governance, standards, and reusable templates for process automation.
• Evaluate safety, reliability, and lifecycle costs in technology selections and migrations.
• Provide technical governance for capital projects involving DCS, SIS, BMS, PLCs, and data historians.
• Partner with site operations, maintenance, IT, and procurement to deliver site-aligned automation solutions.

Skills

Industrial process control

Automation engineering

Manufacturing operations

Technical leadership

Cross-site collaboration

Education

Bachelors in Engineering

Tools

Honeywell Experion

Emerson DeltaV

DCS/SCADA

Job description

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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.

• 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.
• Life Insurance and Disability
• Grace Wellness Program
• Flexible Workplace
• Retirement Plans
• 401(k) Company Match
• Paid Vacation and Holidays
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Company Donation Match Program

Grace is not accepting unsolicited assistance from search firms for this employment opportunity. Please, no phone calls or emails. All resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at Grace via email, the Internet or in any form and/or method without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of Grace. No fee will be paid in the event the candidate is hired by Grace as a result of the referral or through other means.