Staff Lead Process Engineer

Toledo Refining Co.LLC; Oregon (OH); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

PBF Energy's Toledo Refinery in Oregon, OH is seeking a Staff Lead Process Engineer to provide technical leadership for unit process engineers and direct support during upsets, startups, outages, and turnarounds. The role emphasizes process optimization, safety, and cross‑functional collaboration with Operations, Maintenance, Reliability, and Business Teams.

Ideal candidates hold a Bachelor's in Chemical Engineering with substantial refinery experience, strong leadership, and a proven track

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from an accredited university.
• Minimum of 8 years of relevant refinery or oil & gas engineering experience, 10 years preferred.
• Demonstrated experience troubleshooting refinery process and operational issues.
• Demonstrated leadership and mentoring ability.
• Experience working across multiple refinery process units.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively interact with Operations, Maintenance, Reliability, Business Teams, and other refinery functions.
• Ability to balance hands-on technical involvement with effective delegation and development of Unit Process Engineers.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced refinery environment and respond to changing operational priorities.
• Strong commitment to safety, process safety, environmental compliance, and operational excellence.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical direction and support to assigned unit process engineers and ensure they are effectively supporting their assigned refinery Business Teams.
• Lead troubleshooting and technical support during significant unit upsets, outages, startups, shutdowns, and other abnormal operating conditions.
• Support development and implementation of process improvements, optimization opportunities, and best practices.
• Provide technical review and guidance for process engineering work performed by unit process engineers.
• Ensure appropriate technical rigor is applied to engineering recommendations, calculations, studies, and projects.
• Establish priorities with unit process engineers and regularly review progress, workload, and competing priorities.
• Ensure unit monitoring programs, material balances, long-term monitoring, catalyst health programs, and other critical technical programs are maintained and effectively utilized.
• Understand refinery operating constraints and use available business and economic information to support sound process optimization decisions.
• Review and approve appropriate process engineering calculations and documentation, including emissions and release calculations prepared by Unit Process Engineers.
• Understand key refinery environmental requirements and support efforts to maintain compliance with applicable limits.
• Participate in turnaround planning, scope development, execution, and post-turnaround follow-up.
• Provide technical leadership during turnarounds, including unit preparation, startup, shutdown, equipment inspection, catalyst loading/unloading, and evaluation of as-found equipment conditions.
• Be available to provide engineering leadership and technical support outside normal working hours when required by refinery operations, significant events, or turnaround activities.
• Cover assigned units and act as a backup engineer when resources are unavailable.

Skills

Leadership

Troubleshooting

Communication

Team coordination

Safety compliance

Education

Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering

Job description

Staff Lead Process Engineer

PBF Energy Inc. (NYSE:PBF) is one of the largest independent refiners in North America, operating through its subsidiaries, oil refineries and related facilities. We are seeking a talented Process Engineer to join our team. This role is located in our Toledo Refinery in Oregon OH. The Process Lead Engineer provides technical leadership to assigned refinery areas and directly supervises unit process engineers. The Process Lead Engineer ensures unit process engineers have the direction, resources, training, and support necessary to effectively serve the refinery Business Teams.

Responsibilities

The Process Lead Engineer is expected to be a hands-on technical resource who can step into challenging situations, organize multidisciplinary teams, and provide sound engineering direction.

The Process Lead Engineer should be comfortable taking ownership of difficult problems, challenging assumptions when appropriate, bringing the right people together, and driving issues to resolution.

Technical Leadership

• Provide technical direction and support to assigned unit process engineers and ensure they are effectively supporting their assigned refinery Business Teams.
• Lead troubleshooting and technical support during significant unit upsets, outages, startups, shutdowns, and other abnormal operating conditions.
• Support development and implementation of process improvements, optimization opportunities, and best practices.
• Provide technical review and guidance for process engineering work performed by unit process engineers.
• Ensure appropriate technical rigor is applied to engineering recommendations, calculations, studies, and projects.
• Establish priorities with unit process engineers and regularly review progress, workload, and competing priorities.
• Ensure unit monitoring programs, material balances, long-term monitoring, catalyst health programs, and other critical technical programs are maintained and effectively utilized.
• Understand refinery operating constraints and use available business and economic information to support sound process optimization decisions.
• Review and approve appropriate process engineering calculations and documentation, including emissions and release calculations prepared by Unit Process Engineers.
• Understand key refinery environmental requirements and support efforts to maintain compliance with applicable limits.
• Participate in turnaround planning, scope development, execution, and post-turnaround follow-up.
• Provide technical leadership during turnarounds, including unit preparation, startup, shutdown, equipment inspection, catalyst loading/unloading, and evaluation of as-found equipment conditions.
• Be available to provide engineering leadership and technical support outside normal working hours when required by refinery operations, significant events, or turnaround activities.
• Cover assigned units and act as a backup engineer when resources are unavailable.

Leadership and Employee Development

Directly supervise up to five Unit Process Engineers and up to two Co-op students.

Provide day-to-day leadership, coaching, mentoring, and technical development for assigned employees.

Establish clear priorities and expectations for unit process engineers and routinely review workload and performance.

Help develop engineers capable of progressing into broader refinery leadership and technical roles.

Co-op Program

Share responsibility with the other Process Lead Engineer for management of the Toledo process engineering Co-op program.

Directly supervise assigned Co-op students.

Develop and maintain meaningful technical work assignments and priorities for Co-op students.

Provide regular coaching, feedback, and performance evaluations for assigned Co-op students.

Support recruitment, interviewing, selection, onboarding, and development of Co-op students.

Qualifications

• Required Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from an accredited university.
• Minimum of 8 years of relevant refinery or oil & gas engineering experience, 10 years preferred.
• Demonstrated experience troubleshooting refinery process and operational issues.
• Demonstrated leadership and mentoring ability.
• Experience working across multiple refinery process units.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively interact with Operations, Maintenance, Reliability, Business Teams, and other refinery functions.
• Ability to balance hands-on technical involvement with effective delegation and development of Unit Process Engineers.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced refinery environment and respond to changing operational priorities.
• Strong commitment to safety, process safety, environmental compliance, and operational excellence.

PBF Energy is an equal opportunity employer.

We are committed to creating a diverse, inclusive environment.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religious creed, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, reproductive health decision making, national origin, ancestry, genetic information, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, age, veteran and military status, or any other status protected by applicable law.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations as required by law.

About Us

Welcome to PBF Energy (NYSE: PBF), one of the largest independent petroleum refiners and suppliers of unbranded transportation fuels, heating oil, petrochemical feedstocks, lubricants and other petroleum products in the United States. Our subsidiaries own and operate refineries located in California, Delaware, Louisiana, New Jersey, and Ohio. For more information on our companies, please visit our website at http://www.pbfenergy.com/.