The posting
Create a Better Future:
As Precious Metals Engineering Manager product line, you will lead the team behind our conventional electrowinning cells, carbon ADR plants, carbon regeneration kilns, mercury retort and abatement systems, Merrill Crowe and precious metals refining equipment. This is the equipment that decides how much of a mine’s gold and silver actually reaches a doré bar, and how safely the people in the gold room get it there. You will partner with Product Line Management on where the technology goes next, set the technical standard the team designs to, and stay close enough to the field to know how your cells actually behave on site.
You will not do it in isolation. You will work across our Capital and Service businesses, with the Salt Lake City process team, with colleagues in Operations, Sourcing and the regional teams, and with customers who will tell you plainly what is and is not working. If you enjoy building a team’s capability as much as solving the engineering problem in front of you, this role will use both.
The Team:
The SummitPro Engineering team sits within the Capital business line and is responsible for the full technical lifecycle of the product: new product development and product improvement, process and application engineering, sizing and proposal support, project execution engineering, and the technical governance of installed equipment in the field. It is a multidisciplinary team – process, mechanical, electrical, structural and automation engineers and designers – working toward a clear ambition: to be the leading equipment provider in the precious metals recovery market. Our downstream gold equipment has more than 200 precious metals electrowinning cells installed worldwide. The team works in close partnership with the Service Business Line (SBL), Operations, Sourcing and the regional sales organizations to make sure our equipment performs as promised.
Role Purpose:
The Precious Metals Engineering Manager will provide technical leadership to the SummitPro™ engineering team that drives the development, application and execution of engineering solutions across the precious metals recovery product line. The Engineering Manager leads a multidisciplinary team of process, mechanical, electrical, structural and automation engineers and designers, and owns the quality, schedule and budget of engineering deliverables across new product development, product improvement, proposals and capital project execution; product line strategy and marketing direction remain the responsibility of Product Line Management, with the Engineering Manager as the primary technical partner translating that strategy into engineering execution. The role leads the coordination between the Capital engineering team and the Service Business Line (SBL) – including upgrades, retrofits, rebuilds, spares, electrodes and consumables – ensuring a single, consistent technical position on our equipment across its full lifecycle. The role will focus on delivering quality engineering solutions within agreed timelines and in line with FLSmidth engineering standards and best practices.
Your Responsibilities:
- Provide leadership to the SummitPro™ Engineering team where solutions have a high level of technical complexity and require input from numerous contributors.
- Have technical oversight over the engineering team, establish priorities and manage deadlines across new product development, product improvement, proposals and project execution.
- Own the engineering execution plan for capital projects: staff and schedule engineering resources across concurrent projects, review and approve engineering deliverables for technical quality and standards compliance, and manage engineering scope, schedule and budget performance across the project portfolio.
- Partner with Product Line Management to translate SummitPro product line strategy into engineering execution plans, balancing engineering resources across continued development of the SummitPro™ self-cleaning cell, improvement of the conventional electrowinning range, carbon ADR plants, regeneration kilns, mercury retort and abatement systems, Merrill Crowe and refinery equipment.
- Develop precious metals recovery engineering solutions, creating scalability, engineering design standards, calculation and drawing templates, and scoping definition tools across process, mechanical, electrical, structural and automation disciplines, while minimizing costs and mitigating risks.
- Lead the interface with the Service Business Line (SBL), ensuring Capital and Service Business Line are aligned on design changes, brownfield retrofit and rebuild scopes, spare part, electrode and consumable configurations.
- Own technical governance of site support for installed equipment: act as the escalation point for field performance, commissioning and troubleshooting issues, direct root cause investigations, approve corrective actions, and feed field learnings back into the product design.
- Ensure the safety case for the product line is engineered in, not added on: operator exposure to cyanide solutions, mercury and hydrogen evolution is designed out through automation, containment and ventilation.
- Travel to customer sites as required for critical technical issues, commissioning support, performance audits and customer technical reviews.
- Actively promote collaboration within the engineering team and with SBL, Product Management, Operations, Sourcing and the Salt Lake City process team.
- Provide engineering support and governance to the proposal and execution teams of the product line, including review of customer specifications, process design reviews, HAZOPs and optimization of technical solutions.
- Provide technical support to the leadership team and regional sales teams as required, and serve as the primary engineering point of contact to Project Management for staffing, scheduling and technical risk on capital projects.
- Manage, plan and prioritize resources across area of responsibility to meet functional business objectives.
- Manage utilization and target full absorption of resources.
- Identify risks, opportunities and weaknesses and develop appropriate risk mitigation plans and strategies to address them.
- Set department budgets and ensure that agreed targets are met and that all activities are carried out within set budgets.
- Monitor team performance and deliverables. Follow up with team members on a regular basis to promote engagement.
- Drive employees’ performance by conducting Performance and Development Reviews and design individual development programs to ensure that employees are able and capable to perform and in future to grow in the organization.
- Lead recruitment, onboarding and succession planning for the engineering team, ensuring depth of technical capability across all disciplines.
What You Bring:
- A degree in mechanical, chemical or metallurgical engineering and working experience in mineral processing equipment design, with specific experience in hydrometallurgy and precious metals recovery – electrowinning, carbon adsorption, desorption and recovery (ADR), elution, refining, or a combination of these.
- A minimum of 10 years’ experience, with minimum 3 years supervisory experience with demonstrated leadership ability.
- Demonstrated experience supporting installed equipment in the field – commissioning, performance troubleshooting and root cause analysis on operating sites – and the willingness to travel to customer sites when critical issues require it.
- Experience working across capital and service/aftermarket organizations, with an appreciation of how design decisions affect serviceability, spares, electrode and consumable consumption and retrofit potential over the equipment lifecycle.
- Working knowledge of electrowinning and gold room fundamentals and how they translate into machine design – current density and current efficiency, cathode design and loading, Zadra and AARL elution circuits, intensive leach from gravity concentration, and mercury and hydrogen management.
- Familiarity with the design and integration of modular and packaged plants, including P&IDs, PFDs, mass and energy balances, control philosophies and PLC/HMI-driven automation.
- A qualification or formal training in engineering management or project management will be an advantage.
- Registered as Professional Engineer.
- Deliver high quality results under pressure and against tight deadlines.
- Sound understanding of relevant codes and regulations as they apply to electrowinning, cyanide handling, pressure and electrical equipment, and mercury abatement.
- Ability to collaborate globally across organizational boundaries.
- Strong problem solving skills and creative thinking skills.
- Ability and skill to analyze, evaluate and report on technical and departmental information and data at a global level.
As a person, you have a high degree of drive and a can-do mindset, and you can critically assess the existing way of doing things with a view of bringing efficiency to the process.
Your energy, pro-activity, and willingness to make a difference and optimize processes shows in your daily work. You communicate and collaborate with respect across cultures and functions, and your leadership behavior fosters positive relationships with team members and stakeholders in the team and the global organization.
This role is based in Salt Lake City, Utah.
FLSmidth is the leading supplier of engineering, equipment and service solutions to customers in the mining and minerals industries – for more information please visit FLSmidth.com/careers
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