Project Engineer

Project Engineer

Location

Remote - Minneapolis, Minnesota

Salary Range

$130,000 - $160,000

Overview

Stelic is seeking a Project Engineer to own schedule, cost, change, and risk controls on a biopharmaceutical manufacturing project. The project spans engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, qualification and validation (CQV), automation, technical transfer, regulatory, and operational ramp-up activities.

The Project Engineer maintains the integrated project schedule in Microsoft Project, manages the cost baseline and change control process, runs the project risk management process, and produces the monthly performance reporting package for the project Steering Committee. The role reports to the client Project Manager and has no direct reports.

The role is remote-first position with approximately monthly to quarterly travel to our client site in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop the integrated project schedule (IPS) in Microsoft Project aligned to the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), with activity durations, logic relationships, constraints, and resource and cost loading across all workstreams.
• Establish and maintain the approved baseline schedule, administer baseline change control, and document all revisions.
• Collect weekly progress across engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, automation, CQV, technical transfer, and operational readiness, using deliverable and milestone based progress measurement agreed with the client, general contractor, automation supplier, and CQV providers.
• Perform critical path and total float analysis, produce 3-week and 6-week look-ahead schedules, and run what-if and recovery scenarios to support decisions and mitigate delays.
• Integrate contractor and vendor schedules into the master schedule, verify their logic and progress, and maintain the schedule basis document.
• Develop and manage the project cost baseline and control budget aligned with the approved capital appropriation, structured by WBS and Cost Breakdown Structure (CBS) Levels 1 through 3, including main equipment.
• Track and reconcile commitments, actuals, and accruals against budget, and coordinate purchase requisitions, purchase orders, and invoice review with procurement and finance.
• Serve as gatekeeper for purchase orders, driving timely approval from SOW submission through PO approval.
• Prepare monthly cost reports covering budget, committed cost, incurred cost, forecast, ETC, and EAC, and maintain the project cash flow forecast and spend curve by CBS category.
• Apply Earned Value Management where required (CPI, SPI, CV, SV, VAC) integrated with schedule status, and analyze cost variances with recommended corrective actions to the Project Manager.
• Manage contingency and reserve, maintain the contingency log, and reconcile remaining contingency to residual risk exposure.
• Maintain the change log, author Project Change Notices (PCNs) with cost and schedule impact, track contingency spend against each change, and route PCNs for approval by financial threshold.
• Maintain the project risk register and issues log, facilitate recurring risk identification workshops, score probability and impact, and assign risk owners and mitigation actions with due dates.
• Perform quantitative schedule and cost risk analysis (Monte Carlo or QSRA) where required to inform contingency and schedule reserve at P50 and P80 confidence levels.
• Produce the monthly reporting package for the project Steering Committee, covering executive summary, CAPEX phasing, change control status, the Level 2 master schedule, milestone tracking, progress measurement, risk status, action tracking, and procurement status.

Requirements

• 5+ years of project controls experience on capital projects, including responsibility for both schedule and cost.
• Pharmaceutical / Life Sciences experience
• Has owned a resource and cost loaded integrated schedule in Microsoft Project, including baselining, baseline change control, and integration of contractor and vendor schedules. Primavera P6 experience alone does not meet this requirement.
• Can produce and explain Earned Value metrics, including CPI, SPI, CV, SV, ETC, EAC, and VAC.
• Has built and maintained a cost baseline structured by WBS and CBS, including commitments, actuals, accruals, and cash flow forecasting.
• Has run a change control process, including authoring change notices and routing approvals against financial thresholds.
• Has owned a risk register, facilitated risk workshops, and reported risk status to a governance forum.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel for cost tracking, earned value, cash flow, and register maintenance.
• Pharmaceutical, biotechnology, or other regulated manufacturing capital project experience, including CQV, technical transfer, and operational ramp-up, preferred.
• Monte Carlo schedule and cost risk analysis experience preferred.
• Power BI experience preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, construction management, or a related field preferred.

Benefits

• Competitive salary.
• Health, dental, and vision coverage.
• 401(k) program.
• PTO and paid holidays.
• Professional development and training support.

Work Environment

• Remote-first with up to 25% travel to the client site in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• Direct collaboration with the client project team, general contractor, automation supplier, and CQV partners.
• Weekly schedule update cycle and monthly reporting cycle, including Steering Committee reporting.

Equal Opportunity

Stelic is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. Stelic complies with all applicable federal, state, and local laws.

ADA Accommodation

Stelic is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities.

At Will Employment

Employment at Stelic is at will. Nothing in this job description creates a contract or guarantees employment for a specific duration.