RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Provide support to plant preventative maintenance program for fixed equipment (pressure vessels, piping, relief devices, tanks, critical valves, etc.) and rotating equipment to ensure that equipment continues to operate at optimum levels.
• Provides technical guidance and supervision to maintenance
  inspection personnel
• Manage reliability program improvement projects
• Works with Project Engineering group and makes recommendations to upgrades equipments, maintaining plant standards and specifications
• Maintains and improves plant reliability through identifying/correcting bad actors, conducting root cause failure analysis, meeting mechanical integrity requirements, and implementing preventative/predictive maintenance programs.
• Lead RCFA review meetings, and support risk mitigation around At Risk Equipment and Potential Business Interrupters
• Maintains and Recommends Key Process Indicators (KPIs) for Fixed Equipment. Reviews equipment history and determined capital components replacement needs based on fixed equipment expected life.
• Leads and coordinates Plant / Unit corrosion studies
• Develop Predicative Maintenance strategies and be able to facilitate root cause failure analysis of equipment and production issues.
• Develop reliability equipment strategies using Failure Modes and Effects Analysis & prioritize based on potential opportunities, etc.

REQUIREMENTS:

• BS in Mechanical Engineering
• 5+ years of experience in petrochemicals and/or refining

Summary of Position:
Provide technical guidance and improve the safety, reliability, and efficiency of plant rotating and fixed equipment through the application of reliability engineering practices to provide optimum Operating Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). This engineer will provide overall support to a 100 person chemical manufacturing plant.

Scope/Purpose

Major activities include but are not limited to the following:

• Ensure safety has top priority through clearly developed safety objectives, uniform application of safety policy and procedures, timely execution of PSR’s and MOC policy compliance
• Develop and implement Best Practices and predictive/preventive maintenance procedures for inspections on rotating and fixed equipment, issues inspection reports, and adjusts maintenance intervals
• Assist site personnel in financial justification of reliability enhancement projects.
• Assist site in specification, inspections and performance testing as needed on new and/or rebuilt rotating equipment components
• Monitor effectiveness of predictive/preventive maintenance programs at sites and drive improvement
• Develops corrective action to improve reliability and/or performance to reduce repair cost and predict life cycle
• Administers and maintains an inspection schedule for rotating equipment and ancillary components
• Performs failure analysis on rotating equipment, develops corrective action and tracks results
• Coach site personnel in the use of Reliability Tools to select and make improvements to critical equipment
• Assist and lead root cause failure analysis on rotating equipment, develop corrective action and tracks results
• Develop and promote new predictive/preventive maintenance technologies

Requirements

• BS ME
• Minimum 5 years experience in application of Plant Maintenance, Reliability Engineering and knowledge of manufacturing plant processes
• Experience with preventative and predictive techniques to improve the equipment surveillance program
• Strong computer skills especially with Microsoft and SAP applications
• Demonstrated ability to handle multiple priorities
• Demonstrated communication skills with proven ability to communicate internally and externally with all levels of the organization
• Strongly motivated individual who works independently with minimal supervision
• Ability to work in a team based environment
• Ability to lead teams toward a common goal

Reporting Relationship
Reports to Maintenance Leader

• Requires understanding of best industry practices regarding maintenance activities and work processes.
• Requires strong understanding of rotating equipment repair and general knowledge of stationary equipment repair, project execution, and construction and installation techniques.
• Must have general computer skills as well as user knowledge of SAP maintenance and project functions.
• Must have generic competencies of analytical thinking, communication and interpersonal understanding, customer focus, entrepreneurial acting/initiative, team leadership/collaboration, and coaching.
• BS degree in Mechanical Engineering and at least 8 years industrial experience regarding chemical plant mechanical design, maintenance, operations, and troubleshooting.

Responsibilities:

• Identify, evaluate, develop, install and start up process improvements to increase production capacity, reliability, reduce manufacturing costs and energy usage, improve product yields, product quality, enhance safety and environmental performance, and provide for overall optimization of process operations.
• Provide ongoing engineering assistance to operations including daily troubleshooting of process operating problems, conducting special tests, developing monthly reports, providing process supervisor relief coverage and technical assistance, and reports of production status.
• Provides coordination among production, project engineering, maintenance engineering, and corporate engineering regarding capital projects.
• Thoroughly understand the PSM program related to MOC/TEAR system when implementing process modifications or new process additions.
• Represent and/or assist production and engineering in matters of evaluation, selection, and coordination and control of vendors supplying necessary operating services, consulting services, materials, equipment, and other needs of operations.
• Develop and maintain expertise in areas of specialization, develop new skills and technical competence, provide direction and supervision for less experienced personnel. Stay abreast of new technology and new developments, participate in and identify programs to improve personal and group wide professional development.
• Provide liaison between production dept. and various corporate and plant support functions such as purchasing, MIS, R&D, and the plant lab.
• Maintain safety awareness consistent with plant and corporate standards via attendance and participation in safety meetings, safety training, PHR’s, JO’s, etc In addition to base salary, the client also offers and annual performance bonus. Client will also purchase the candidates existing house if it does home does not sell within 90 days.

Requirements:

• BS degree in chemical engineering
• 3+ years of plant engineering experience

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Provide technical guidance and expertise to improve manufacturing reliability at multiple plant sites globally (20+ sites).
• Take a strong, proactive approach to identify and prevent occurrences of lost production across all assigned sites.
• Lead and coach site personnel in the use of reliability tools to drive measurable reliability improvement.
• Develop and implement reliability best practices to reduce lost production
• Develop Predicative Maintenance strategies and be able to facilitate root cause failure analysis of equipment and production issues.
• Develop reliability equipment strategies using Failure Modes and Effects Analysis & prioritize based on potential opportunities, etc.
• Support the reliability area teams with troubleshooting, assessment, scoping, economic analysis and recommendations that optimize the life cycle value of the equipment
• Travel estimated between 0 to 50%.

REQUIREMENTS:

• BS in Mechanical Engineering
• 5+ years of experience in chemicals, petrochemicals, or refining in reliability engineering.

The first quarter started out slow and picked up steam once March rolled along. There are more jobs this year than last year, but there are also more engineers on the market. In short, the market is extremely competitive. Our clients with job openings are being extremely selective in who they interview. Another factor that has made these market conditions difficult is the lack of urgency on the part of hiring companies. The market seems flooded with talent, but in reality the talent is still hard to find. The companies that procrastinate on making job offers are losing the best candidates as they take other offers. If you are a good reliability engineer with several years of chemical/refining industry experience and are willing to consider any geographic location in the US you should receive multiple interviews. In January and February, Mechanical Integrity was the hottest skill. Now, machinery/rotating equipment jobs are hot as well. In the last two weeks we have had many previous clients call us with new opportunities.

Jobs filled in 1Q 2010

• Turnaround Mgr – Rocky Mountains
• Machinery Engineer – Houston Refinery
• Sr. Reliability Engineer – Houston Chemical Plant

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4 Q 2009 Job Market Report
The Houston market improved and several Reliability Engineers received job offers. Overall, Houston salary offers are down almost 10% from the last two years. The market remains tight and we expect 2010 to be to be better than 2009 but still slow in terms of actual hiring. Hiring in manufacturing sector generally lags the overall economy by 6 – 9 months. We are seeing refineries close down and additional layoffs that indicate poor market conditions for that segment. We are making adjustments to find new clients and sources of business. We are encouraged that some of our established clients are telling us they plan to hire new reliability engineers in the coming year.

Jobs Filled in 4Q 2009

• Reliability Engineer in Houston Chemical Plant
• Reliability Engineer in Rocky Mountains
• Maint Supt in Rocky Mountains

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3 Q Job Market Report
Although additional job openings became available to us in the 3 Q and we had several interviews, we did not fill any positions. Many companies held off on hiring decisions or wanted to see additional candidates. The market conditions remained very challenging as companies remained extremely selective and opted to leave jobs open much longer.

Jobs Filled in 3Q 2009

• No jobs filled

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2Q 2009 Market Report
We have been actively working a respectable number of reliability engineering jobs through the second quarter and have set up many phone interviews. However, our clients remain very select and are moving forward at a slow pace in evaluating candidates. We expect the 3 Q to reflect better results as the job market began to pick up towards the end of the second quarter. We have several current needs for fixed equipment and machinery engineers across the US.

Jobs Filled in 2Q 2009

• Machinery Engineer in a major chemical plant in the Beaumont/Port Arthur area
• I and E reliability engineer in Houston

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1Q 2009 Market Report
The first quarter of 2009 felt the impact of the financial sector meltdown. Many companies stopped hiring all together and started cutting staff. We focused our recruiting efforts on niche skill positions which companies still needed despite the slower economy. As companies tightened up their job specifications, we were also challenged to find exact matches for our client’s needs. Although the market is much slower than last year (we are running about 25 % of last year’s job volume), we have maintained a solid book of business and continue to have job openings for machinery engineers, reliability engineers, fixed equipment engineers and inspectors. We are usually able to present multiple job openings to engineers who meet our profile and who are willing to be flexible on their geographic location.

Jobs Filled in 1Q 2009

• Machinery Engineer in refinery in LA
• Machinery Engineer in refinery in Houston
• Reliability Engineer in a chemical plant in Houston

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4 Q 2008 Market Report

The job market began to soften for all engineering disciplines in 4 Q. The impact of the credit market began to effect the hiring of engineers in both the chemical and refining industries. Despite these market changes, the reliability market held its own and we filled more positions than in the third quarter. Our clients still hired, but they were very selective in hiring specific talent matched to critical business needs.

Positions filled in 4 Q

• Machinery Engineer – Major Refinery in Upper Midwest
• Senior Reliability Consultant – Asset Management – Reliability Consulting firm in Houston
• Reliability Engineer – Reliability Consulting firm in Houston
• Fixed Equipment/Corrosion Engineer – Refinery in West Texas
• Manager of Business Development – Turn Around/Vessel Services – chemical/services firm in Houston

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3Q Job Market Update

The job market began to slow over the summer but it still remains active. We experienced more demand for CHE’s in 3Q but are already seeing a switch back to Reliability job openings as is reflected by our 9 current interviews underway for a variety of reliability opportunities. The big news in 3Q was the Hurricane that hit Houston and the Economic Meltdown that hit the US economy in October. Both of these events have impacted hiring. The Hurricane effectively shut down hiring in certain geographic areas for the month of September. We had 8 interviews put on hold during the month of September due to the storm impact. The economic scene has created uncertainty in the market and a couple of companies have decided to delay any hiring until next year. How is the market outlook going into 4Q? We remain very optimistic going into the 4Q. Keep an eye on our website and you’ll stay informed! Also, see our new article on the website – Is it dangerous to change jobs in a slowing economy?

Jobs Filled in 3Q

• Global Reliability Director for a Major Chemical Company
• Reliability Engineer for a chemical plant in Houston

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2Q 2008 Job Market Update

The Mechanical and Reliability Engineering job market in chemicals and refining continues to be a strong market. There are a wide variety of openings across chemicals and refining from East Coast to West Coast in the United States. In 2 Q we noticed a dramatic increase in the number of managerial positions that came open. We have several clients seeking ME’s with leadership experience that can direct and manage a maintenance or reliability program in a plant. We are also seeing a continued need for high level machinery engineers for major oil companies in Houston. The uncertainty in the economy does not seem to be adversely affecting the job market.

Jobs filled in 2 Q (8 jobs filled)

• Senior Machinery Engineer with Refinery in Houston
• Senior Machinery Engineer in Corporate Office in Houston
• Reliability Engineer for a Chemical Plant in Mississippi
• Junior Reliability Engineer with Refinery in Houston
• Electrical Reliability Engineer with Houston Chemical
• Machinery Engineer with Houston Chemical Plant
• Electrical Reliability Engineer with a Los Angeles Refinery
• Maintenance Superintendent at a Houston Refinery

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1Q 2008 Overview

Now that we are nearing the end of the first quarter, how do the results look? As I review the trends news update I wrote in February, the same market conditions are prevailing.

1. Demand for reliability talent remains strong and we are seeking no sign of a slow down.
2. Just this week we have received 5 new Fixed Equipment jobs in a major refinery in Texas and 2 new Reliability jobs in another expanding refinery in Texas.
3. We continue to stay busy with plant and corporate level positions in chemicals and refining.

Jobs filled so far in 1Q 2008:

• 2 Senior Machinery Engineers in San Francisco in Refining
• 1 Reliability Engineer in Los Angeles in Refining
• 1 Senior Machinery Engineer in Houston in Chemicals
• 1 Machinery Engineer in Houston in Chemicals
• 1 Reliability Manager in Houston in Chemicals
• 1 Corrosion Engineer in New Orleans in Refining

Will support the maintenance and reliability efforts on fixed equipment in a large scale continuous processing environment. Experience with fixed equipment issues in the fertilizer, chemical or refining industry is required. This opportunity will focus on mechanical integrity, fitness for service, inspection and corrosion prevention. This company has continually reinvested and has a long track record as a stable employer. Requires BS ME.

Additional duties include:

• Design and specification of equipment
• Problem solving and troubleshooting of fixed equipment
• Recommend changes in equipment
• Review drawings, design and project proposals
• Apply industry codes and company standards
• Experience with API 510, 570, 653 and ASME Codes a plus

Our client offers the opportunity to work on with a wide variety of large rotating equipment in petrochemical/refinery environment in the Baton Rouge/New Orleans area.

In this position, you:

• Provide engineering support to the operating areas at the refinery ensuring the integrity, reliability and sustainability of all the machinery assets.
• Identify long-term mechanical reliability problems and solutions that solve and eliminate failures
• Are accountable for overall machinery reliability of specific production units and play a role in plant-wide reliability.
• Balance cost and risks achieving optimum run length and life of machinery.
• Develop key performance metrics including: machinery related production losses, environmental events, pump meantime between repair, and successful vital equipment repair.
• Identify, develop, and apply successful practices in machinery design and maintenance.
• Support TA activity and maintenance work on the units and make reports to management

Requirements

• BS or MS, Mechanical Engineering
• Approximately 5+ years of machinery/mechanical equipment/project experience, with a wide variety of Rotating Equipment experience.
• Knowledge or experience in the following areas is desirable: machinery condition monitoring including: vibration analysis, stress analysis, hydraulic evaluations, machinery troubleshooting, and performance monitoring of equipment.

Our client has a wide variety of large Rotating Equipment and is seeking an engineer who can lead reliability engineering efforts on this equipment. This role will include building reliability programs and conducting RCFA’s across a wide variety of rotating equipment.

Qualifications:
BS ME

Be Open Geographically - Be willing to consider smaller towns and new locations that are farther from home. A particular city may not have an abundance of jobs, but if you are willing to consider a broader geographic area you will hear about many more job opportunities. Also, if your personal finances are in order and you can move with less relocation assistance from the hiring company, this can also help you get more interviews and be able to seize opportunities that others may have to pass by. Discover the good things about an area that you have never considered before!

Be willing to listen and investigate – When you hear of a new opportunity outside of your career comfort zone, be sure to listen and gather facts on the job, the company, and the area before you say “No thanks”. You may find some compelling reasons to consider the job such as – the city has an almost zero crime rate, the company is willing to buy your house on the relocation, the job has excellent promotion potential, etc.

Don’t wait - many people target a specific city and then open up their geographic parameters after spinning their wheels for several months. Instead of this approach, consider points 1 and 2 above while you are focusing on the local market. The interview cycles are taking months now instead of weeks like in 2008, so if you don’t put your name in the hat immediately when the job first becomes open it may be too late to try later. Also, if you are targeting a specific city such as Houston, be aware that companies are receiving over 100 qualified engineering candidates. You may find yourself waiting a long time to get an interview and then competing against 10 All Stars candidates for the same job. Put your resume in on the jobs you are qualified for immediately and seriously consider any interest from the market! Do not turn down plant visit interviews while you are waiting for a job to come open in your ideal city! Once you cancel a site visit they will NOT consider you again.

Know your niche – Keep your resume current with industry buzzwords and make sure your resume clearly communicates your technical abilities to reduce cost and make money for your employer. Give examples. Consider customizing your resumes for different jobs to fully highlight your abilities in the key skill areas. You must be clear in your resume as more often resumes are being read by digital image processors or human resources personnel who are searching only for a few key words! Your resume needs to stand out based on solid technical content. It is no longer good enough to be “qualified” for a job, you now must be competitive for the job. In other words, it is a given that companies can take their pick of qualified candidates – to get hired you must be more competitive than the other candidates. You must be a better technical match, have a better track record of success, and be a better interviewer than the rest of the qualified candidates. You are most competitive when you interview on jobs that require your exact skills in terms of equipment you have worked on and the type of processes you have worked in. If you know the company’s maintenance management software or the ASME or API codes that affect their plant, these insights will make you more competitive. Look for anything that gives you an edge to help the company that other candidates won’t have.

References – If you know people in common with your prospective employer try contacting those people and ask them if they would be willing to be a reference. It can be a small world out there and a good word from an in-house reference can give you an edge in a competitive job market.