Senior Mechanical Engineer – Pharma & Life Sciences Lead

SSOE; Columbus (OH); On-site; USD 150,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

SSOE is seeking a Senior Mechanical Engineer to lead complex pharma and life sciences capital projects, including facility expansions, cleanrooms, and process utilities. You will guide multidisciplinary teams to improve capacity, compliance, reliability, and speed‑to‑market in regulated environments.

The role requires 10+ years of relevant experience, strong leadership, and the ability to manage scope, schedule, and budgets while interfacing with clients and internal teams across engineering

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering required.
• PE license or progress toward licensure strongly preferred.
• 10+ years of engineering experience in pharma/biotech/life sciences facilities.
• Experience in FDA‑regulated and cGMP environments.
• Proven leadership of multidisciplinary capital projects with scope, schedule, and budget accountability.
• Experience leading projects from conceptual design through startup and qualification.

Responsibilities

• Lead mechanical engineering efforts for complex pharma, biotech, and advanced manufacturing facilities.
• Serve as Mechanical Engineering Lead on capital projects from modifications to greenfield developments.
• Drive project execution across planning, design, procurement, construction, commissioning, and startup.
• Develop solutions for process utilities, facility systems, and clean utilities in GMP settings.
• Support sterile manufacturing, biologics, fill‑finish, and other regulated operations.
• Conduct feasibility studies for expansions and capacity improvements.
• Create project scopes, schedules, budgets, and cost estimates.
• Collaborate with process, validation, quality, automation, electrical, and construction teams.
• Interface with client engineering, operations, maintenance, quality, and leadership.
• Provide technical leadership for clean utilities and process support systems.
• Ensure designs comply with FDA, cGMP, and industry standards.
• Support proposals and client relationship growth within pharma/life sciences.
• Mentor junior engineers and designers to develop technical capabilities.
• Travel approximately 25%.

Skills

Leadership

Project management

Communication

Team leadership

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering

PE license (preferred)

Tools

AutoCAD

Job description

SSOE is seeking a Senior Mechanical Engineer to lead complex pharma and life sciences capital projects, including facility expansions, cleanrooms, and process utilities. You will guide multidisciplinary teams to improve capacity, compliance, reliability, and speed‑to‑market in regulated environments.

The role requires 10+ years of relevant experience, strong leadership, and the ability to manage scope, schedule, and budgets while interfacing with clients and internal teams across engineering