Discipline Engineering and Technical Governance Senior Manager

Cabot Corporation is a leading global specialty chemicals and performance materials company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. They are seeking a Discipline Engineering and Technical Governance Senior Manager to lead the global discipline engineering capability, establish technical governance, and ensure high-quality engineering deliverables across projects and operations.

Responsibilities:

• Lead, manage, and develop a global team of discipline engineers and/or discipline leads either internal or external to Cabot
• Provide mentoring, coaching, and technical guidance to build a strong and sustainable internal capability based on the discipline gaps identified
• Define competency frameworks, career paths, and succession pipelines for discipline engineering
• Ensure the organization has access to the right expertise across projects and operating assets and frame discipline expertise to meet this requirement
• Establish, maintain, and continuously improve global engineering technical/discipline standards, specifications, and design guidelines
• Define and enforce technical governance reviews and approvals via design reviews, stage gates, approvals and others
• Act as the final authority on technical decisions, deviations, and risk acceptance
• Ensure consistent application of codes, standards, and best practices across all regions and projects
• Ensure discipline leads to delivering high-quality, consistent, and fit-for-purpose engineering deliverables across all project phases
• Define quality expectations, deliverable requirements, and review mechanisms
• Lead and participate in key technical reviews (concept, FEED, detailed design, HAZOP, constructability)
• Drive accountability for engineering quality and minimize rework, late changes, and design inefficiencies
• Define and implement the strategy for internally delivered vs. externally sourced engineering
• Ensure optimal use of external engineering partners while retaining control of critical knowledge
• Oversee contractor performance and ensure compliance with company standards and business segments expectations
• Establish clear technical boundaries on scope, responsibilities, and deliverables between internal teams and external providers
• Drive design-to-cost and value engineering practices across all projects
• Promote standardization, modularization, and replication of proven solutions
• Challenge overdesign and ensure engineering solutions are fit-for-purpose and cost-effective
• Benchmark engineering practices and solutions against industry standards to maintain competitiveness
• Collaborate with procurement, supply chain, and vendors to ensure proper definition of sourcing strategies that reduce risk, optimize cost, shorten lead times and enhance availability
• Identify, formalize, and protect critical company know-how and proprietary discipline engineering practices
• Define what engineering content and expertise must remain internal
• Establish safeguards to prevent IP leakage, especially when working with external partners
• Ensure structured capture, documentation, and reuse of technical knowledge across projects and operations
• Provide independent technical oversight and assurance across capital projects
• Support project teams in resolving complex technical challenges
• Ensure engineering consistency and quality from early concept through commissioning
• Participate in key project decision meetings and technical risk assessments
• Provide discipline engineering support to operating assets when required
• Support troubleshooting, reliability improvements, and debottlenecking initiatives
• Capture lessons learned from operations and integrate them into standards and design practices
• Ensure operational experience continuously improves future project execution
• Ensure compliance with regulatory, safety, and environmental requirements
• Identify, assess, and mitigate technical and engineering-related risks, including IP-related risks
• Govern deviations, waivers, and technical exceptions with a structured and transparent approach
• Drive continuous improvement in engineering processes, tools, and ways of working always ensuring to stay ahead vs best practices in engineering efficiencies and project costs
• Promote innovation while ensuring ownership and protection of developed solutions
• Advance digital engineering and data-driven decision-making, ensuring proper data governance and protection

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in engineering; advanced degree in engineering is a plus
• 15 or more of progressive experience in discipline engineering and/or engineering management including a combination of capital project execution, discipline engineering leadership and support to operating industrial assets
• Proven experience in large capital projects within a global environment and/or
• Demonstrated leadership of multi discipline engineering teams; management of teams geographically dispersed is a plus
• Proven and strong background in engineering design leadership, engineering standards, and discipline engineering technical governance
• Proven understanding and application of codes, standards, and regulatory requirements across regions
• Strong track record in selecting, managing, and governing engineering service providers at a regional and global level
• Experienced and strong track record in driving cost optimization, value engineering, and design-to-cost initiatives
• Demonstrated ability to challenge overdesign and improve engineering efficiency
• Familiarity with standardization, modularization, global sourcing and replication strategies
• Experience in navigating complex stakeholder environments across regions and functions
• Demonstrated skills in driving change across a global engineering organization (standards, ways of working, mindset)
• Strong knowledge of discipline engineering (piping, electrical, instruments, civil, structural, architectural) principles and practices
• Financial management skills including the ability to develop and monitor budgets, expenses, etc
• Deep understanding of multiple engineering disciplines and their integration and correlation with other parts of project execution
• Ability to challenge, validate, and guide complex technical decisions from different disciplines
• Strong capability to establish and enforce discipline engineering standards and governance frameworks
• Ability to define clear expectations and hold discipline leads accountable
• Proven ability to lead, coach, and develop high-performing engineering teams
• Ability to drive design-to-cost, standardization, and optimization strategies
• Ensures critical knowledge is retained, structured, and leveraged as a competitive advantage
• Promote innovation, digitalization, and continuous improvement in engineering practice
• Strong English language written and oral skills