Process Technology Lead
The Planet Group · theplanetgroup.com
PawtucketLead / Manager8+ yrs
Straight from the company’s own careers site.
The job in short
Process technology leadership.
Details
- Found
- 13 d ago · posted 2026-10-23
- Location
- Pawtucket, Rhode Island, US
- Pay (as listed)
- $120,000–$150,000 a year
Full description
A Process Technology Lead responsible for leading and developing the Process Technology Group, including Process Engineers, Senior Associates, and Senior R&D Process Engineers. Remaining a hands-on technical contributor on the team's highest-priority process development and continuous improvement work.
Required:
• Bachelor's degree in chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Polymer Science, Materials Science, Industrial Engineering, or related discipline; advanced degree preferred.
• 8+ years of progressive experience in process engineering, R&D, or continuous improvement within process or discrete manufacturing, including proven experience leading or supervising technical staff.
• Demonstrated experience managing a project portfolio against financial and operational value criteria.
• Plastics Compounding experience preferred
• Six Sigma Black Belt required (or commitment to obtain within one year).
• Root cause analysis certification/training.
Responsibilities:
• Lead, manage, and develop the Process Technology Group -- Process Engineers, Senior Associates, and Senior R&D Process Engineers -- providing day-to-day direction, coaching, performance management, and career development.
• Set individual and team objectives aligned to the group's continuous improvement, cost-savings, and process-capability goals.
• Serve as mentor and escalation point for complex technical and process challenges; act as a training resource for less experienced engineers and associates.
• Own project intake and prioritization for the Process Technology Group; require every proposed initiative to articulate a clear line of sight to process improvement, ease of deployment or scalability across sites, and/or quantified financial benefit before work begins.
• Establish and maintain a lightweight business-case and value-validation gate -- problem statement, expected KPI impact, deployment complexity, and financial impact -- that all team projects must pass at kickoff and demonstrate at close-out.
• Track and report the realized value of the team's project portfolio, including cost savings, yield and quality improvement, cycle-time reduction, and deployment adoption, to the Global Director of Operational Excellence, the Steering Committee, and plant and business leadership.
• Re-scope or stop projects that cannot demonstrate a credible path to value, protecting the team's capacity for high-impact work.
• Personally lead or co-lead a portfolio of high-priority process improvement, continuous improvement, and new or alternative raw material projects for selected grades and value chains, using lean, Six Sigma (DMAIC/DMADV), root cause analysis, and process modeling methods.
• Conduct hands-on process analysis and optimization: identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies, document undefined processes, establish KPIs, and drive projects from the define phase through full implementation.
• Lead Management of Change (MOC) protocols, including related software workflows, for assigned projects.
• Provide technical mentorship and quality review of process documentation, data analysis, and technical reports produced across the team.
• Partner with Manufacturing, R&D, the Digital Management Group, Reliability, and Lean/CI functions to align Process Technology work with Companies broader Operational Excellence strategy.
• Benchmark internal and industry best practices; keep the team current on new methodologies, tools, and technologies.
• Ensure all process improvements and changes comply with safety, environmental, and quality (ISO 9000) standards.
• This description is a summary of principal responsibilities and is not intended to include all duties that may be assigned.
Benefits Highlights
• Strong 401(k) plan with up to 4% company match plus an additional automatic 3% company contribution
• Company-funded HSA contributions of up to $2,000 annually for family coverage
• Preventive medical care and many preventive prescriptions covered at 100% in-network
• Earn up to $400 yearly through wellness programs and healthy activity incentives
• Company-paid life insurance, short-term disability, and long-term disability coverage
• Tuition reimbursement available for undergraduate and graduate coursework related to career growth
Salary: $120K - $150K
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