Plant Engineer (pharma)

Insight Global; Sanford (NC); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Insight Global seeks a Plant Engineer for our Sanford, NC site to lead technical efforts improving equipment availability, reliability, and lifecycle cost across biopharmaceutical operations.

The role partners with Manufacturing, Maintenance, Automation, Validation, Quality, and site engineering to resolve equipment issues, execute capital projects, and ensure compliance with cGMP, safety, and environmental standards.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering with 6+ years of relevant experience, or master’s with 4+ years, or PhD with 2+ years.
• Experience supporting equipment, utilities, facilities, maintenance, reliability, or capital projects in a regulated manufacturing environment.
• Working knowledge of pharmaceutical cleanroom design, cGMP, engineering change control, and equipment lifecycle management.

Responsibilities

• Provide hands-on technical support for manufacturing equipment, facility infrastructure, and utility systems.
• Troubleshoot recurring equipment issues with Manufacturing and Maintenance to restore reliability.
• Own assigned-area infrastructure assets, including equipment condition, lifecycle planning, reliability strategy, maintenance requirements, and long-range replacement needs.
• Evaluate equipment performance, maintenance history, redundancy, compliance exposure, and operational risk to justify repair, upgrade, overhaul, or replacement decisions.
• Develop scopes, schedules, funding requests, and execution plans for capital projects involving new bioprocess equipment, equipment upgrades, installation, facility integration, commissioning, and startup.
• Support pharmaceutical cleanroom requirements and ensure engineering work aligns with SOPs, cGMPs, OSHA requirements, quality standards, good engineering practices, and good maintenance practices.
• Act as a technical liaison between Manufacturing and Maintenance for corrective work, utility support, planned outages, asset improvements, and production priorities.
• Provide subject matter expertise for preventive maintenance task lists, reliability-centered maintenance analyses, predictive maintenance strategies, spare-parts planning, and CMMS data quality.
• Analyze CMMS and equipment data to identify failure trends, maintenance opportunities, recurring losses, and measurable improvements in reliability, cost, and operational performance.
• Lead or participate in root cause analyses, change controls, risk assessments, equipment investigations, vendor evaluations, and cross-functional continuous improvement initiatives.
• Promote a strong safety culture and apply Process Safety Management principles, including mechanical integrity, quality assurance, and change-of-design controls where applicable.

Education

Bachelors +6 yrs

Masters +4 yrs

PhD +2 yrs

Job description

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or a related engineering discipline with at least 6 years of relevant experience;
• OR a master’s degree in a related engineering discipline with at least 4 years of relevant experience;
• OR a PhD in a related engineering discipline with at least 2 years of relevant experience.
• Experience supporting equipment, utilities, facilities, maintenance, reliability, or capital projects in a regulated manufacturing environment.
• Working knowledge of pharmaceutical cleanroom design, cGMP expectations, engineering change control, and equipment lifecycle management.

Position Summary:

The Plant Engineer provides technical and engineering leadership to improve equipment availability, reliability, maintainability, and lifecycle cost at the Sanford manufacturing site. The role supports biopharmaceutical and gene therapy manufacturing operations across solution preparation, fermentation or cell culture, purification, chemistry suites, utilities, and associated stainless-steel and single-use equipment. This engineer partners closely with Manufacturing, Maintenance, Automation, Validation, Quality, and site engineering teams to resolve equipment issues, strengthen preventive and predictive maintenance programs, execute capital improvements, and maintain compliance with cGMP, safety, environmental, and engineering standards.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide hands-on technical support for manufacturing equipment, facility infrastructure, and utility systems using sound engineering practices and structured problem-solving methods.
• Partner with Manufacturing and Maintenance to troubleshoot recurring equipment issues, coordinate corrective work, restore reliable operation, and implement sustainable improvements.
• Own assigned-area infrastructure assets, including equipment condition, lifecycle planning, reliability strategy, maintenance requirements, and long-range replacement needs.
• Evaluate equipment performance, maintenance history, redundancy, compliance exposure, and operational risk to justify repair, upgrade, overhaul, or replacement decisions.
• Develop scopes, schedules, funding requests, and execution plans for capital projects involving new bioprocess equipment, equipment upgrades, installation, facility integration, commissioning, and startup.
• Support pharmaceutical cleanroom requirements and ensure engineering work aligns with SOPs, cGMPs, OSHA requirements, quality standards, good engineering practices, and good maintenance practices.
• Act as a technical liaison between Manufacturing and Maintenance for corrective work, utility support, planned outages, asset improvements, and production priorities.
• Provide subject matter expertise for preventive maintenance task lists, reliability-centered maintenance analyses, predictive maintenance strategies, spare-parts planning, and CMMS data quality.
• Analyze CMMS and equipment data to identify failure trends, maintenance opportunities, recurring losses, and measurable improvements in reliability, cost, and operational performance.
• Lead or participate in root cause analyses, change controls, risk assessments, equipment investigations, vendor evaluations, and cross-functional continuous improvement initiatives.
• Promote a strong safety culture and apply Process Safety Management principles, including mechanical integrity, quality assurance, and change-of-design controls where applicable.