Industrial Engineering Project Manager
Location: Brussels, BelgiumContract Type: Annually Renewable Assignment
Start Date: ASAP
Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, Full-time, with 2 days remote per week
Key Responsibilities
- Full end-to-end ownership of industrial CAPEX projects, from concept and feasibility through commissioning and handover
- Steer external engineering partners by making their work transparent (scope, progress, quality, and cost of deliverables), challenging their designs, estimates, and schedules, and holding them to commitments
- Define and own project scope, deliverables, and battery limits
- Personally prepare and defend business cases and investment requests, including CAPEX estimates and contingency, through investment approval
- Manage project budget: commitments, forecast-to-complete, variance analysis, contingency, and change control
- Build and own integrated baseline planning in MS Project, including shutdown and tie-in windows
- Lead and coordinate all project phases: pre-study and concept selection, basic and detailed engineering, procurement and contractor selection, construction and site execution, commissioning, and handover to operations
- Resource planning: secure internal and external capacity across disciplines and anticipate bottlenecks
- Lead multidisciplinary teams (internal and external) across process, mechanical, piping, electrical, automation, civil, and EHS
- Contract and steer EPCM/EPC partners and contractors, including handling deviations, change orders, and claims
- Manage risks and deviations on scope, budget, and schedule, with timely escalation and proposed solutions
- Act as single point of accountability towards site management, operations, EHS, and senior stakeholders; report to steering committees
- Drive a strong safety culture during engineering and execution in an operating plant
Requirements
- At least 15 years of industrial experience, with at least 10 years as owner-side Project Manager with personal end-to-end accountability
- Personally prepared business cases and investment requests, and owned the resulting budget
- Proven direct steering of at least one EPCM or EPC contractor
- Experience leading multidisciplinary teams, including resource planning
- Demonstrated experience in pre-feasibility and concept studies, CAPEX budgeting and investment approval, and commissioning and handover of industrial installations
- Engineering background (mechanical, electrical, piping, civil, etc.), ideally with 5+ years as project engineer as part of the 15 years above
- Strong hands-on experience with MS Project (planning ownership)
- Master's degree in engineering, or equivalent level through experience
- Not considered equivalent: experience solely as PM at an engineering firm or EPC contractor, as project engineer or project coordinator, as portfolio manager without delivery accountability, or on small or standard projects
Non-Technical Profile Requirements
- Acts autonomously with a full accountability mindset
- Strong leadership: challenges senior stakeholders and contractors with facts
- Excellent communicator at all organisational levels, from shopfloor to steering committee
- Natural authority in complex industrial environments
- Combines helicopter view with analytical depth to test a contractor's estimate or schedule
- Committed to long-term continuity within the projects
- Proven knowledge of MS Project
Methodology / Certification Requirements
- VCA-VOL (mandatory)
- PMP, Prince2 or IPMA is a plus
Language Proficiencies
- Dutch: Native / Fluent
- English: Fluent