Mechanical Project Engineer

Georgia-Pacific LLC; Clatskanie (OR); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Georgia-Pacific's Consumer Products Division seeks a Mechanical Project Engineer to join our Wauna Paper Mill team in Clatskanie, Oregon. You will develop and execute capital and expense projects to improve safety, reliability, production capability, and cost performance.

The role emphasizes solving challenging mechanical problems, influencing through expertise, and developing capability across the organization.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering required.
• Experience drafting engineering scopes and technical specs for capital/maintenance projects.
• Experience mentoring cross-functional teams without formal supervision.
• Experience with rotating equipment, piping and structural systems a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead engineering and execution of small to mid-sized capital and expense projects from concept through startup and closeout.
• Provide mechanical engineering expertise for rotating and fixed equipment, piping, and civil infrastructure.
• Develop scopes of work, engineering packages, equipment specs, cost estimates, and schedules.

Skills

Mechanical engineering

Project management

Problem solving

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering

Tools

AutoCAD

Microsoft Suite

Job description

Your Job

Georgia-Pacific's Consumer Products Division is seeking a Mechanical Project Engineer to join our Wauna Paper Mill team in Clatskanie, Oregon. In this role, you will leverage your mechanical engineering expertise to develop and execute capital and expense projects that improve safety, reliability, production capability, and cost performance. While project management is part of the role, our primary focus is identifying a technically strong engineer who can solve challenging mechanical problems, influence others through expertise, and help develop capability across the organization.

Our Team

With more than 900 employees, Wauna is one of the largest integrated paper and tissue manufacturing facilities in North America. Employees at Wauna have the opportunity to work across large-scale manufacturing operations, utilities, infrastructure, and reliability systems while supporting well-known tissue, towel, and napkin brands. Our team recently invested more than $150 million to expand capabilities, strengthen our brands, and continue delivering the quality products our customers expect.

Learn more by visiting our consumer products homepage.

What You Will Do

• Lead the engineering and execution of small to mid-sized capital and expense projects from concept development through startup, commissioning, and project closeout.
• Provide mechanical engineering expertise for rotating equipment, fixed equipment, piping systems, structural systems, and civil infrastructure projects throughout the mill.
• Develop technical scopes of work, engineering packages, equipment specifications, conceptual designs, cost estimates, schedules, and capital investment proposals.
• Apply sound engineering principles and technical analysis to solve complex operating and reliability challenges while identifying practical, cost-effective solutions.
• Collaborate with operations, maintenance, reliability, procurement, contractors, consultants, and technology resources to deliver safe, reliable, and effective project outcomes.
• Review and coordinate engineering deliverables, vendor designs, equipment specifications, and construction activities to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, engineering standards, and mill safety expectations.
• Manage project scope, budgets, schedules, procurement activities, spending forecasts, and change management processes to achieve business objectives.
• Evaluate equipment failures, conduct root cause analysis, and implement sustainable improvements that enhance reliability, maintainability, operability, and safety performance.
• Support construction, checkout, startup, and post-project reviews while providing technical guidance and field support during implementation.
• Influence and mentor engineers, technicians, contractors, and operations partners through technical expertise, knowledge sharing, and collaborative problem solving, regardless of formal leadership responsibility.

Who You Are (Basic Qualifications)

• Experience supporting or executing engineering projects within a manufacturing, industrial or military environment.
• Experience supporting rotating equipment, fixed equipment, piping systems, and other mechanical assets.
• Experience developing engineering scopes, technical specifications, or project deliverables for capital or maintenance-related projects
• Experience mentoring, coaching, and influencing peers and cross-functional teams without formal supervisory responsibility.

What Will Put You Ahead

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Mechanical Engineering or a related engineering discipline.
• Pulp & Paper experience.
• Experience leading equipment reliability, asset improvement, or root cause failure analysis initiatives.
• Structural or civil engineering experience.
• Professional Engineer (PE) license or Engineer-in-Training (EIT) certification

At Koch companies, we are entrepreneurs. This means we openly challenge the status quo, find new ways to create value and get rewarded for our individual contributions. Any compensation range provided for a role is an estimate determined by available market data. The actual amount may be higher or lower than the range provided considering each candidate's knowledge, skills, abilities, and geographic location. If you have questions, please speak to your recruiter about the flexibility and detail of our compensation philosophy.

Hiring Philosophy

All Koch companies value diversity of thought, perspectives, aptitudes, experiences, and backgrounds. We are Military Ready and Second Chance employers. Learn more about our hiring philosophy here.

Who We Are

As a Koch company and a leading manufacturer of bath tissue, paper towels, paper-based packaging, cellulose, specialty fibers, building products and much more, Georgia-Pacific works to meet evolving needs of customers worldwide with quality products. In addition to the products we make, we operate one of the largest recycling businesses. Our more than 30,000 employees in over 150 locations are empowered to innovate every day – to make everyday products even better.

At Koch, employees are empowered to do what they do best to make life better. Learn how our business philosophy helps employees unleash their potential while creating value for themselves and the company.

Our Benefits

Our goal is for each employee, and their families, to live fulfilling and healthy lives. We provide essential resources and support to build and maintain physical, financial, and emotional strength - focusing on overall wellbeing so you can focus on what matters most. Our benefits plan includes - medical, dental, vision, flexible spending and health savings accounts, life insurance, ADD, disability, retirement, paid vacation/time off, educational assistance, and may also include infertility assistance, paid parental leave and adoption assistance. Specific eligibility criteria is set by the applicable Summary Plan Description, policy or guideline and benefits may vary by geographic region. If you have questions on what benefits apply to you, please speak to your recruiter.

Additionally, everyone has individual work and personal needs. We seek to enable the best work environment that helps you and the business work together to produce superior results.

Equal Opportunities

Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability and protected veteran status. Except where prohibited by state law, some offers of employment are conditioned upon successfully passing a drug test. This employer uses E-Verify.