Manufacturing Engineer - Converting

Your Job

Georgia-Pacific's Consumer Products Division is seeking an experienced Manufacturing Engineer to support a key asset in the converting department at our Port Hudson Paper Mill in Zachary, Louisiana. This role is designed for professionals with demonstrated experience in tissue converting, paper converting, towel converting, corrugated, cellulose, fiber-based manufacturing, or similar manufacturing operations. The Manufacturing Engineer in Converting serves as a subject matter expert responsible for equipment ownership, asset strategy development, operational leadership, and continuous improvement. This position focuses on safely improving asset performance by building team capability, increasing reliability, optimizing work processes, and maximizing equipment effectiveness. Success in this role requires both strong technical expertise and the ability to influence, develop, and collaborate with teams across the organization.

Our Team

For over 50 years, the Port Hudson Paper Mill has been a major part of the economic lifeblood of the region. With more than 300 employees, Port Hudson strives to lead the tissue and towel business. Our team recently invested more than $50 million to grow our brands and continue to serve our loyal consumers with the great quality they have come to expect.

Learn more by visiting our consumer products homepage.

What You Will Do

• Lead with Principle-Based Management (PBM) and influential leadership, fostering a collaborative and values-driven environment that supports organizational goals and promotes employee engagement.
• Own the performance, reliability, and long-term asset strategy of assigned converting assets to improve safety, quality, throughput, reliability, and cost performance.
• Serve as the subject matter expert for assigned equipment and manufacturing processes, providing technical leadership and operational guidance to production teams.
• Partner closely with operations, maintenance, reliability, planning, and purchasing teams to identify equipment vulnerabilities, prioritize improvement opportunities, and implement sustainable solutions that improve asset performance.
• Lead, coach, mentor, and develop operators and production teams to establish reliable operating practices, strengthen technical capabilities, and improve ownership of equipment and process performance.
• Utilize strong communication and relationship-building skills to influence operational decisions, align stakeholders, and drive results across multiple functions without direct authority.
• Implement, sustain, and lead continuous improvement initiatives that enhance production efficiency, reduce waste, improve product quality, and create value through optimized operations.
• Utilize data analysis and partnerships with analytics teams to identify, prioritize, and close process performance gaps.
• Promptly identify and resolve production issues to minimize downtime, facilitate root cause investigations, and implement effective corrective actions.
• Work closely with quality assurance teams to ensure products consistently meet required specifications and industry standards, including leading material and process trials that improve performance and reduce cost.
• Ensure all manufacturing processes comply with health, safety, environmental regulations, and company standards while promoting a culture of safety throughout the operation.
• Provide expert technical guidance regarding equipment modifications, process improvements, installations, startups, and troubleshooting activities.
• Manage engineering projects from concept through implementation, including developing project justifications, benefits analyses, and coordinating internal and contractor resources.
• Utilize data and process analytics tools to monitor key performance indicators, generate actionable insights, and support strategic decision-making.
• Lead outage planning, downtime optimization, and equipment improvement efforts to maximize operational reliability and production availability.

Who You Are (Basic Qualifications)

• Experience supporting manufacturing operations within tissue converting, paper converting, towel converting, corrugated, cellulose, fiber-based manufacturing, or a similar industrial manufacturing environment as a manufacturing engineer.
• Experience owning, troubleshooting, optimizing, and improving manufacturing equipment and production processes.
• Experience leading continuous improvement initiatives and/or developing reliability strategies that improve operational performance.
• Experience partnering with operations and maintenance teams to improve equipment reliability and manufacturing effectiveness.
• Experience training, coaching, mentoring, and developing others directly or indirectly.

What Will Put You Ahead

• Bachelor's Degree or higher in Engineering, Paper Engineering, Bioresource Engineering, or a related technical discipline preferred.
• Direct experience supporting tissue converting, paper converting, towel converting, corrugated, cellulose, or similar fiber-based manufacturing operations.
• Experience serving as a subject matter expert for manufacturing equipment, converting processes, and asset performance strategies.
• Experience in full-cycle project management.
• Experience using data and process analytics tools such as PARCview and PI Vision.
• Experience working with CMMS systems such as SAP, Maximo, GCSS-Army, or similar platforms.
• Experience leading operator capability development, equipment ownership programs, and manufacturing performance improvement initiatives.

At Koch companies, we are entrepreneurs. This means we openly challenge the status quo, find new ways to create value and get rewarded for our individual contributions. Any compensation range provided for a role is an estimate determined by available market data. The actual amount may be higher or lower than the range provided considering each candidate's knowledge, skills, abilities, and geographic location. If you have questions, please speak to your recruiter about the flexibility and detail of our compensation philosophy.

Hiring Philosophy

All Koch companies value diversity of thought, perspectives, aptitudes, experiences, and backgrounds. We are Military Ready and Second Chance employers. Learn more about our hiring philosophy here.

Who We Are

As a Koch company and leading manufacturer of bath tissue, paper towels, paper-based packaging, cellulose, specialty fibers, building products and much more, Georgia-Pacific works to meet evolving needs of customers worldwide with quality products. In addition to the products we make, we operate one of the largest recycling businesses. Our more than 300,000 employees in over 150 locations are empowered to innovate every day - to make everyday products even better.

At Koch, employees are empowered to do what they do best to make life better. Learn how our business philosophy helps employees unleash their potential while creating value for themselves and the company.

Our Benefits

Our goal is for each employee, and their families, to live fulfilling and healthy lives. We provide essential resources and support to build and maintain physical, financial, and emotional strength - focusing on overall wellbeing so you can focus on what matters most. Our benefits plan includes - medical, dental, vision, flexible spending and health savings accounts, life insurance, ADD, disability, retirement, paid vacation/time off, educational assistance, and may also include infertility assistance, paid parental leave and adoption assistance. Specific eligibility criteria is set by the applicable Summary Plan Description, policy or guideline and benefits may vary by geographic region. If you have questions on what benefits apply to you, please speak to your recruiter.

Additionally, everyone has individual work and personal needs. We seek to enable the best work environment that helps you and the business work together to produce superior results.

Equal Opportunities

Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability and protected veteran status. Except where prohibited by state law, some offers of employment are conditioned upon successfully passing a drug test. This employer uses E-Verify. Please click here for additional information. (For Illinois E-Verify information click here, aquí, or tu).