What does a plant engineering manager do?
Plant Engineering Managers are responsible for the engineering and maintenance of a plant in meeting the safety and operational effectiveness requirements. Their duties include overseeing engineering project development, managing plant outages, establishing agreements with contractors and key service providers, assist in expense and capital budgeting, and conducting internal, technical, and cross-site root cause analysis to understand plant incidents. A Plant Engineering Manager sets key performance targets and contributes to employee training and recruitment.
Plant engineering manager responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real plant engineering manager resumes:
- Manage QA for research orient development efforts and for high visibility, production focuse development efforts tie to revenue generation.
- Maintain all records for SQF and to make sure the plant meet all OSHA and USDA requirements.
- Supervise aerial, land, and underground installations, ensure appropriate management of resources and compliance with OSHA.
- Correct environmental issues throughout plants including flooring issues, compress air, water supply systems and HVAC systems.
- Improve plant energy efficiency by optimizing HVAC, electric, steam, water, hydraulic and compress air systems.
- Develop procedures incorporating ISO standards.
- Lead design and manage development of voice-processing system's SNMP device agent and Java management application.
- Create several production monitoring mechanisms for the operations team, such as SPC charts and shift-hourly performance tracking tools.
- Implement industry standards for manage service provisioning and delivery across carrier-class fiber-optic network.
Plant engineering manager skills and personality traits
We calculated that 10% of Plant Engineering Managers are proficient in Continuous Improvement, Capital Projects, and Project Management. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Communication skills, and Detail oriented.
We break down the percentage of Plant Engineering Managers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Continuous Improvement, 10%
Led company turnaround efforts by developing world class maintenance systems, implementing professional project engineering functions and leading Continuous Improvement efforts.
- Capital Projects, 7%
Develop annual capital projects list and reviewed plans and specifications for compliance with appropriate codes and corporate requirements.
- Project Management, 7%
Created, developed and implemented a new project management and justification system for the SOS Manufacturing facility.
- Lean Manufacturing, 5%
Trimmed staffing by 40% without sacrificing equipment availability or a reduction in measured metrics by utilizing Lean Manufacturing techniques.
- Plant Operations, 4%
Plant operations had steadily improved including areas of total plant output, labor and equipment utilization, quality and customer satisfaction.
- Plant Safety, 4%
Improved plant safety record through the addition of bulk handling equipment to reduce repetitive motion fatigue and instituted corrective action processes.
Common skills that a plant engineering manager uses to do their job include "continuous improvement," "capital projects," and "project management." You can find details on the most important plant engineering manager responsibilities below.
Analytical skills. The most essential soft skill for a plant engineering manager to carry out their responsibilities is analytical skills. This skill is important for the role because "architectural and engineering managers evaluate information to solve problems." Additionally, a plant engineering manager resume shows how their duties depend on analytical skills: "analyzed and revised production standards for raw materials, colorants, virgin material & additives to maximize efficiency and product quality. "
Communication skills. Another essential skill to perform plant engineering manager duties is communication skills. Plant engineering managers responsibilities require that "architectural and engineering managers must effectively convey information and expectations related to projects." Plant engineering managers also use communication skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "streamlined the communication between production, logistics, sales, and management, which improved plant operations and efficiency. "
Math skills. For certain plant engineering manager responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "math skills." The day-to-day duties of a plant engineering manager rely on this skill, as "architectural and engineering managers use calculus and other mathematics to develop new products and processes." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what plant engineering managers do: "identified key areas of improvement by tracking oee statistics on a shift by shift basis. "
Organizational skills. A commonly-found skill in plant engineering manager job descriptions, "organizational skills" is essential to what plant engineering managers do. Plant engineering manager responsibilities rely on this skill because "architectural and engineering managers keep track of many workers, schedules, and budgets simultaneously." You can also see how plant engineering manager duties rely on organizational skills in this resume example: "managed, trained and directed 93 personnel providing budget/cost control, program/project management oversight, personnel management, and organizational leadership. "
Leadership skills. Another skill commonly found on plant engineering manager job descriptions is "leadership skills." It can come up quite often in plant engineering manager duties, since "architectural and engineering managers lead teams, which requires an ability to organize, direct, and motivate others." Here's an example from a resume of how this skill fits into day-to-day plant engineering manager responsibilities: "provided technical leadership and direction to plant operations. "
The three companies that hire the most plant engineering managers are:
Choose from 10+ customizable plant engineering manager resume templates
Build a professional plant engineering manager resume in minutes. Our AI resume writing assistant will guide you through every step of the process, and you can choose from 10+ resume templates to create your plant engineering manager resume.
Compare different plant engineering managers
Plant engineering manager vs. Research and development director
A research and development director spearheads and oversees the research and development initiatives and projects in a company. It is their duty to set goals and guidelines, establish timelines and budgets, direct and manage different departments, liaise with internal and external parties, gather and analyze data to implement solutions against problem areas, and utilize expertise in developing strategies to optimize company operations. Moreover, as a director, it is essential to lead and encourage the workforce to reach goals, all while promoting the company's policies and regulations, creating new ones as needed.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a plant engineering manager are more likely to require skills like "continuous improvement," "capital projects," "lean manufacturing," and "plant operations." On the other hand, a job as a research and development director requires skills like "product development," "oversight," "business development," and "strategic direction." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Research and development directors tend to make the most money working in the finance industry, where they earn an average salary of $167,250. In contrast, plant engineering managers make the biggest average salary, $95,515, in the manufacturing industry.research and development directors tend to reach higher levels of education than plant engineering managers. In fact, research and development directors are 7.6% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 11.4% more likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Plant engineering manager vs. Research and development manager
A research and development manager is responsible for supervising project development procedures to support business operations and identify business opportunities that would pave the way for more revenue resources and profits. Research and development managers monitor the production plans from the conceptualization to the final outputs, inspecting inconsistencies and flaws in every phase and revising strategies as needed to achieve the required specifications and requirements. They delegate tasks to the staff, oversee progress, and conduct research and development programs to maximize productivity and team efforts.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that plant engineering manager responsibilities requires skills like "continuous improvement," "capital projects," "lean manufacturing," and "plant operations." But a research and development manager might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "customer service," "patients," "product development," and "c++."
On average, research and development managers earn a higher salary than plant engineering managers. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, research and development managers earn the most pay in the professional industry with an average salary of $143,083. Whereas plant engineering managers have higher pay in the manufacturing industry, with an average salary of $95,515.In general, research and development managers achieve higher levels of education than plant engineering managers. They're 7.1% more likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 11.4% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for plant engineering managers in the next 3-5 years?
Irene Thomas Johnson
Executive Director, Solutions Development
Plant engineering manager vs. Facilities maintenance manager
A facilities maintenance manager is in charge of performing regular inspections and maintenance repairs within an establishment's machines and facilities. Their responsibilities revolve around responding to issues and concerns, identifying the root of problems, installing and repairing machines and devices, and even maintaining the cleanliness of different areas. They may also produce progress reports, assess the performance of the maintenance team, and manage everyone's schedules. Furthermore, as a manager, it is essential to coordinate and lead the team, all while implementing the company's policies and regulations.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, plant engineering managers are more likely to have skills like "plant operations," "plant safety," "cad," and "employee development." But a facilities maintenance manager is more likely to have skills like "customer service," "plumbing," "perform routine maintenance," and "facility operations."
Most facilities maintenance managers achieve a similar degree level compared to plant engineering managers. For example, they're 3.1% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.4% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Plant engineering manager vs. Design manager
A design manager is responsible for creating graphic and digital designs, following clients' specifications, and managing project deliverables efficiently. Design managers work closely with the marketing and public relations department, developing strategies to promote the brand to the target audience. They coordinate with the creative team and present the design ideas to the management, ask for final approval, perform revisions as needed, and follow the budget goals. A design manager must have excellent communication and leadership skills to handle the design team's concerns and needs.
Types of plant engineering manager
Updated January 8, 2025
