Senior Project Engineer - Continuous Improvement

SHINE Technologies, LLC; Janesville (WI); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 155,000; Full time

Job summary

SHINE Technologies, LLC in Janesville, WI seeks a Senior Project Engineer - Continuous Improvement to diagnose engineering execution across the Chrysalis program and lead structured improvement projects to enhance time, quality, and predictability.

This hybrid role combines technical problem solving with organizational influence, building dashboards and partnering with Engineering, Project Controls, Construction, Quality, and HR to drive priorities to closure.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering or related technical discipline; advanced degree a plus.
• 8+ years of professional engineering execution and process/operational improvement experience.
• Experience with engineering change control processes in complex environments.
• Strong organizational instincts and executive communication skills.
• Knowledge of the engineering design and product development lifecycle.
• Experience building/managing headcount plans for engineering.
• Strong project management skills with schedules, budgets, and resources.

Responsibilities

• Assess how engineering work flows through Chrysalis program and identify bottlenecks.
• Lead structured improvement projects using Six Sigma/DMAIC-style methods to address root causes.
• Redesign processes, workflows, and tools in cross-functional collaboration.
• Build dashboards and metrics to visualize engineering health and performance.
• Represent leadership priorities in cross-functional forums and track commitments.
• Identify staffing gaps early and forecast headcount against schedules.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Executive communication

Project management

Change control processes

Autonomy

Stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering or related technical discipline

Advanced degree a plus

Job description

The Senior Project Engineer - Continuous Improvement is a hybrid technical and organizational role responsible for diagnosing engineering execution on the company projects time, quality, or predictability (particularly within configuration control and design execution) and leading the improvement projects that fix it. This role combines problem solving rigor with broad organizational influence and sound judgment, partnering across functions to drive engineering priorities to closure while engaging credibly with the engineering organization.

This role is an execution-health and process-ownership role: the person in this seat is accountable for making the engineering organization run better and for the measurable results of the improvement projects.

The base salary range for this position is $120,000 - $155,000 per year plus a comprehensive compensation package. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Assess how engineering work actually flows through the Chrysalis program, requirements development, the quality program, design, documentation, and updates affecting the license. Identify the specific points where work stalls, quality slips, or rework accumulates.
• Scope and lead structured improvement projects using a rigors problem solving process (an example is Six Sigma/DMAIC-style methodology) to resolve root causes of engineering execution pinch points, not just symptoms.
• Partner with Engineering, Project Controls, Construction, Quality, and Licensing to redesign and implement improved processes, workflows, and tools
• Build and maintain metrics and dashboards that make engineering execution health (cycle time, rework rate, configuration control backlog, design review throughput, etc.) visible to engineering leadership
• Operate as a direct extension of engineering leadership: represent leadership priorities in cross-functional forums, track follow-through on commitments, and surface emerging risks before they become critical-path issues
• Detect program execution obstacles that potentially affect performance and/or the ability to meet agreed upon deliverables and takes timely preventative or corrective action to obviate them
• Facilitate structured root-cause problem solving for recurring execution failures, and drive corrective and preventive actions to closure
• Analyzes short and long-term project and company resource needs
• Own headcount and staffing plan development for the Chrysalis engineering organization: build and maintain staffing plans that align hiring, contractor ramp-up/ramp-down, and skill-mix decisions against the project schedule and upcoming milestones
• Partner with engineering leads, Program/Project Controls, and HR/Talent Acquisition to identify staffing gaps early, forecast future headcount needs against schedule changes, and recommend build-vs-contract tradeoffs
• Build structured problem-solving capability across the engineering organization by coaching engineers and engineering leads, rather than solving every issue personally
• Prepare and deliver clear, executive-ready updates on improvement initiatives, program health, and organizational risk for project and leadership reviews

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in engineering or a related technical discipline; advanced degree a plus. Suitable work experience in a technically related field may be considered in lieu of formal education
• 8+ years of professional experience spanning engineering execution and process/operational improvement
• Experience with engineering change control processes, ideally within a complex, regulated, or highly engineered product environment
• Strong organizational instincts and executive communication skills; comfortable operating with significant autonomy, ambiguity, and shifting priorities
• Working knowledge of the engineering design and product development lifecycle (concept through delivery) sufficient to engage credibly with engineers and diagnose true root causes
• Experience building and managing headcount/staffing plans against a project schedule (e.g., staffing curves, hiring forecasts, contractor ramp planning) for an engineering or technical organization
• Strong project management skills, including knowledge of project management principles, practices, techniques, tools, and software, with demonstrated ability to develop and maintain project schedules, budgets, and resource plans.
• Excellent group facilitation, mediation, and conflict resolution skills, with strong interpersonal skills across cross-functional project teams.

Preferred:

• Experience in nuclear, aerospace, pharmaceutical, or other highly regulated hardware environments.
• Six Sigma Black Belt certification (or demonstrated equivalent structured problem-solving experience) preferred
• Prior experience in engineering program or project management, or engineering operations role supporting a senior technical leader.