Sr. Equipment Process Engineer- Upstream

About the Role

The Sr. Equipment Process Engineer- Upstream is the technical owner for an assigned portfolio of manufacturing, utility, facility, or laboratory equipment. This role improves equipment safety, compliance, availability, and lifecycle performance by combining hands-on troubleshooting with effective maintenance strategies, equipment changes, technical documentation, and cross-functional leadership.

Main Responsibilities

• Own equipment performance and lifecycle: maintain asset health, design basis, operating limits, criticality, failure history, documentation, maintenance strategy, obsolescence risks, and improvement priorities.
• Lead troubleshooting and field support: diagnose complex mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, and control-interface issues; partner with mechanics and technicians through repair, testing, and return to service.
• Build executable maintenance plans: develop and technically approve complete work packages including scope, sequence, labor, parts, tools, permits, LOTO, acceptance criteria, post-maintenance testing, and restoration requirements.
• Optimize preventive maintenance and spares: create risk-based PM strategies, equipment BOMs, critical-spares lists, stocking recommendations, and obsolescence mitigation plans.
• Lead equipment changes and projects: define technical requirements and lead design reviews, vendor selection, FAT/SAT, commissioning, qualification, turnover, training, maintenance readiness, and documentation.
• Own technical quality actions: lead equipment-specific change controls and CAPAs, provide deviation assessments, and ensure approved hardware changes are implemented, tested, documented, and closed.
• Drive reliability improvement: use downtime, repeat work, deviations, maintenance findings, and condition data to eliminate bad actors and improve reliability, maintainability, safety, and compliance.
• Coordinate vendors and stakeholders: develop technical scopes, assess vendor capability and performance, and collaborate with Operations, Quality, Validation, Metrology, HSE, Automation, Engineering, Procurement, Stores, and Finance.

Key Deliverables

• Technically complete, schedule-ready work packages and maintenance master data.
• Risk-based PM programs, accurate equipment BOMs, and critical-spares strategies.
• Timely, technically sound closure of deviations, CAPAs, change controls, and engineering actions.
• Reduced repeat failures, emergency work, avoidable downtime, and obsolete-component exposure.
• Complete maintenance readiness and technical turnover for equipment changes and new assets.
• Accurate, traceable, and inspection-ready drawings, specifications, manuals, and records.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in mechanical, electrical, chemical, biomedical, or related engineering discipline, with at least 3 years of relevant engineering experience in manufacturing, facilities, utilities, laboratories, or complex process equipment in a regulated or high-reliability environment.
• Candidates without a bachelor's degree must have at least 8 years of such experience.
• Demonstrated equipment troubleshooting capability using drawings, manuals, data, failure history, and structured root-cause methods.
• Experience developing job plans, PM tasks, technical specifications, spare-parts recommendations, or maintenance strategies.
• Experience supporting equipment modifications, commissioning, qualification, change control, deviations, or CAPAs.
• Ability to work effectively in the field and communicate technical risk and recommendations to technical teams and leaders.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in biopharmaceutical, pharmaceutical, medical-device, SUT, or other cGMP manufacturing.
• Working knowledge of CMMS/EAM systems, equipment BOMs, work-order controls, and maintenance master data.
• Knowledge of reliability methods, including criticality, FMEA, root cause analysis, condition monitoring, bad-actor elimination, and lifecycle planning.
• Experience with P&IDs, electrical and mechanical drawings, instrumentation, controls interfaces, and OEM technical packages.
• PE, CMRP/CRL, Lean/Six Sigma, project-management training, or related professional certification.