REPORTING: Director Maintenance & Engineering
FSLA: Exempt
HOURS: Full-time
JOB OBJECTIVE: The Capital Projects Manager supports capital and operational projects in a food manufacturing environment, including equipment procurement, installation, commissioning, process improvement, and project handoff. This role creates structure around project scope, schedule, budget, communication, documentation, risk management, and cross-functional coordination. The Capital Projects Manager leads through influence without direct authority, ensuring stakeholders are aligned, decisions are made, risks are raised early, and commitments are followed through to completion.
ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS
Capital Projects & Equipment Installation
- Lead projects involving the selection, procurement, installation, and startup of new equipment.
- Develop scopes of work, manage RFQs, and coordinate vendor activities including site access, utilities, and commissioning.
- Ensure new equipment meets design, safety, and performance specifications and integrates seamlessly with existing operations.
Process Support & Validation
- Define and document production processes, equipment parameters, and operating requirements.
- Support process review, testing, validation, and data analysis needed to confirm project readiness and performance.
Product & Process Project Support
- Partner with R&D, Quality, and Operations on new product, process change, or equipment-related project work.
- Assist in the design and setup of manufacturing lines to accommodate new product requirements.
- Ensure manufacturability, regulatory compliance (GMP, HACCP), and process control considerations are addressed during project planning and execution.
Project Management & Documentation
- Establish and maintain project plans that define scope, schedule, budget, responsibilities, risks, dependencies, action items, and decisions.
- Create an effective communication cadence and proactively share status, risks, decisions, changes, and next steps with stakeholders and leadership.
- Lead cross-functional project teams by clarifying owners, responsibilities, commitments, due dates, and follow-through expectations.
- Identify project risks, conflicts, and resource constraints early and drive timely resolution or escalation.
- Maintain organized project documentation, including drawings, specifications, RFQs, purchase documentation, meeting notes, approvals, commissioning records, training materials, and turnover packages.
- Develop repeatable project-management processes and improve standards for capital project execution.
Cross-Functional Leadership & Coordination
- Coordinate and influence Maintenance, Quality, Safety, Production, R&D, Supply Chain, contractors, vendors, and other stakeholders to keep project work aligned and moving forward.
- Drive accountability without direct authority by aligning stakeholders, resolving barriers, and ensuring commitments are completed.
Compliance & Safety
- Ensure all projects adhere to safety, environmental, and food regulatory standards (e.g., OSHA, FDA, USDA, NOP)
- Conduct risk assessments and implement corrective actions as needed during project execution.
- Participate in equipment safety validations and operator training before handover to production.
JOB REQUIREMENTS
Education & Experience
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Industrial, Chemical Engineering or a related discipline.
- 5-10 years’ experience in manufacturing environment, preferably in food, beverage, or consumer packaged goods (CPG).
- Experience managing capital projects from conception through commissioning.
- Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite and project management tools.
- Ability to review and interpret engineering drawings and technical documentation required. Experience with AutoCAD or SolidWorks, preferred.
- Knowledge of food safety standards (GMP, HACCP), sanitary equipment design, and regulatory compliance, preferred.
- Ability to communicate in Spanish, preferred
- Passion for organics industry, sustainability, and responsible business, preferred
Competencies
- Project Management: Manages scope, schedule, budget, risks, dependencies, decisions, and resources across multiple projects.
- Communication: Communicates clearly, consistently, and proactively. Tailors communication to operators, technical staff, vendors, and senior leadership; raises issues early and ensures decisions, expectations, and next steps are understood.
- Collaboration: Builds effective working relationships across functions and leads teams by influence, coordination, and accountability without direct authority.
- Problem-Solving: Strong troubleshooting skills to identify and resolve process issues.
- Technical Expertise: In-depth understanding of process engineering principles and methodologies.
- Organization and Follow-Through: Manages multiple concurrent projects, priorities, commitments, and documentation without losing details or allowing action items to stall.
- Process Orientation: Creates structure around ambiguous work and develops repeatable processes for planning, execution, change control, commissioning and handoff.
- Change Management & Handover: Manages change through the full project lifecycle, including front-end review, scope or design changes, stakeholder alignment, and formal turnover to Operations, Maintenance, Quality, and other affected departments.
Physical & Mental
- Ability to handle high-pressure situations, calmly and effectively.
- Primarily based in a manufacturing facility with routine time spent on the production floor.
- Ability to communicate via speech, writing and hearing with employees, regulatory agencies or members of the business community.
- Ability to work on a computer and look at a computer screen for extended periods of time.
- Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and the ability to focus.
- Ability to work in confined spaces.
- Ability to withstand temperatures ranging from -20° to 100° Fahrenheit.
- Working in cold, wet, humid environments and in high allergen environments is essential.
Work Location
- This position is based in Rohnert Park, CA.
- Hours are typically Monday through Friday, 8:30 - 5:00 pm but may vary. Flexibility to work different shifts when required, to be on call after hours, and to work weekends and all holidays is required.
- This role is not eligible for remote work. Remote candidates will not be considered for this role.
- This is a key leadership position. Work on weekends and holidays and schedule flexibility to support a 24/7 operation and to respond to issues as they arise is required.
- Ability to travel to different work locations and meeting sites, up to 10% of time.
Above description is intended to describe the general nature and level of work to be performed and not construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required for the position.
Straus is an equal opportunity employer. We strictly prohibit and do not tolerate discrimination against employees, applicants or any other covered persons because of race, color, religion, national origin or ancestry, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, marital status, gender identity or expression, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any legally protected characteristic.
You do not need to match every listed expectation to apply for this position. Here at Straus Family Creamery, we know that diverse perspectives foster the innovation we need to be successful, and we are committed to building a team that encompasses a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and skills.
Benefits
- Health insurance
- Dental insurance
- Vision insurance
- Life insurance
- 401(k) matching
- Paid time off
- Employee discount
- Paid training
- Profit sharing