Project Governance Manager Jobs in Baton Rouge, LA

Department: Manufacturing

Travel Required: 10%

Work Type: On-site

Why Join Community Coffee?

At Community Coffee, every cup tells a story. As America’s #1 family-owned and operated retail coffee brand, we blend cherished traditions with innovative thinking to create a dynamic, fast-paced environment that’s as energizing as our coffee. Here, you’ll thrive in a setting that challenges you to grow professionally while making a meaningful impact every day. Join our family and transform your passion for coffee into a rewarding career—where every day is an opportunity to craft exceptional experiences and build lasting connections.

Position Overview

The Project Engineer is responsible for leading a major capital project initiative focused on facility consolidation, operational transformation, and long-term manufacturing and distribution capability. This role serves as the primary project lead responsible for driving coordinated execution across all assigned project workstreams, including Engineering/Construction, Technology, Operations, Finance, Procurement, Safety, Quality, Change Management, and external partners.

Reporting to the SVP, Operations & Supply Chain, this position provides direct leadership to project-based team members and workstream leaders assigned to the capital project. The Project Engineer owns the integrated project schedule, budget, milestone tracking, executive updates, risk management, vendor coordination, and overall project execution discipline. This role partners closely with Finance on budget tracking and financial alignment while maintaining accountability for project budget ownership.

The capital project is expected to span multiple years, and this role will be critical to ensuring the project is delivered on time, within approved scope and budget, and with strong operational readiness. As the project progresses and future business needs evolve, this role may also lead or support additional capital, engineering, manufacturing, distribution, facility, and operational projects across Community Coffee.

Success in this role requires an engineering degree, strong technical credibility, disciplined project leadership, sound judgment, and the ability to lead through complexity. The Project Engineer must be able to align cross-functional leaders, manage competing priorities, escalate issues appropriately, and ensure project teams remain focused on execution, accountability, and business outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

Capital Project Leadership & Governance

• Capital Project Leadership & Governance
• Serve as the primary project lead for a major capital project initiative, accountable for coordinating execution across all assigned workstreams.
• Establish, lead, and maintain the project governance structure, including meeting cadence, decision forums, escalation paths, steering updates, risk reviews, and executive reporting.
• Provide direct leadership to project-based team members and workstream leaders assigned to the capital project.
• Own the integrated project schedule, critical path, milestone tracking, dependencies, risks, issues, action items, and project documentation.
• Ensure workstreams are aligned, sequenced appropriately, and operating against agreed-upon scope, timelines, budgets, deliverables, and expectations.
• Drive accountability across project participants by clarifying roles, responsibilities, deliverables, and timing.
• Identify barriers, risks, and key decision points early; escalate appropriately with clear recommendations, options, and business impacts.
• Ensure the capital project remains aligned to approved scope, schedule, budget, safety, quality, operational readiness, and business objectives.

Cross-Functional Workstream Leadership

• Lead coordination across major project workstreams, including Engineering/Construction, Technology, Operations, Finance, Procurement, Safety, Quality, Change Management, and other assigned functional areas.
• Provide direction and oversight to workstream leaders to ensure plans are integrated, dependencies are visible, and handoffs are effectively managed.
• Partner with Technology workstreams to support project-related system requirements, integrations, testing, readiness, and implementation activities.
• Partner with Change Management as a formal project workstream to support communications, stakeholder readiness, training, workforce transition, adoption planning, and change impacts.
• Partner with Operations, Manufacturing, Distribution, Safety, and Quality leaders to ensure facility, process, equipment, and workforce readiness are addressed throughout the project lifecycle.
• Facilitate alignment between internal teams and external partners to prevent silos, resolve competing priorities, and maintain project momentum.
• Ensure workstream leaders are prepared for key milestones, executive updates, decision points, and transition activities.

Budget, Vendor & Contract Management

• Own capital project budget management in partnership with Finance, including capital tracking, cost visibility, forecasting inputs, variance review, and escalation of budget risks.
• Partner with Finance and project sponsors to ensure project financials are accurately tracked, communicated, and aligned to approved capital plans.
• Support vendor selection, proposal review, contract coordination, and vendor performance management during the capital project.
• Coordinate with engineering firms, contractors, vendors, consultants, system integrators, and other external partners to support project execution.
• Monitor vendor deliverables, timelines, risks, and performance against project requirements.
• Escalate vendor, contract, budget, or scope concerns as needed to support timely decision-making and risk mitigation.

Engineering, Construction & Operational Execution

• Lead engineering and project execution activities related to facility consolidation, construction coordination, equipment installation, utilities, commissioning, manufacturing readiness, distribution readiness, and operational start-up.
• Ensure technical plans, facility requirements, equipment needs, and operational impacts are reviewed and aligned with business and manufacturing objectives.
• Monitor construction, engineering, equipment, and operational readiness activities to identify timing conflicts, safety concerns, execution risks, or resource gaps.
• Support project decisions by evaluating technical, operational, financial, timing, and risk implications.
• Ensure project activities are planned and executed in alignment with applicable safety, quality, compliance, manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, and facility readiness requirements.
• Support transition from project execution to operational ownership, including start-up planning, handoffs, unresolved item tracking, and closeout documentation.

Project Controls, Reporting & Risk Management

• Develop and maintain project reporting tools, dashboards, action trackers, risk logs, meeting notes, and other documentation needed to manage project execution.
• Prepare and deliver clear project updates, executive summaries, risk reviews, decision points, and escalation items for the SVP, Operations & Supply Chain and other senior leaders.
• Track project performance against scope, schedule, budget, milestones, workstream deliverables, and readiness expectations.
• Lead risk identification, mitigation planning, issue resolution, and follow-up across all project phases.
• Monitor interdependencies across workstreams and proactively address gaps, delays, resource constraints, or competing priorities.
• Maintain a disciplined approach to project closeout, including documentation, lessons learned, outstanding items, transition support, and post-implementation follow-up

Future Project Support

• Following the capital project, lead or support additional capital, engineering, manufacturing, distribution, facility, and operational projects based on business needs.
• Apply lessons learned to strengthen future project governance, execution discipline, stakeholder alignment, and operational readiness.
• Support continuous improvement by identifying opportunities to improve project planning, execution, communication, and cross-functional coordination.

*May be asked to perform additional duties, as necessary.

Position Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering required; Mechanical, Chemical, Industrial, Electrical, Civil, Construction Engineering, or related engineering discipline preferred.
• 10+ years of experience in project engineering, capital project execution, engineering project leadership, construction project management, manufacturing engineering, industrial operations, or related project execution roles.
• Demonstrated experience leading large-scale, complex, cross-functional projects with accountability for scope, schedule, budget, risk management, issue resolution, stakeholder alignment, and project delivery.
• Experience leading project teams, project-based direct reports, or cross-functional workstream leaders.
• Experience supporting vendor selection, contract coordination, vendor management, and external partner oversight.
• Strong working knowledge of manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, supply chain operations, utilities, equipment installation, commissioning, facility readiness, and operational start-up processes.
• Strong project leadership and project management skills, including integrated schedule management, milestone tracking, dependency management, risk mitigation, executive reporting, documentation, and stakeholder follow-up.
• Demonstrated ability to lead through influence, manage competing priorities, drive accountability, and make sound recommendations across multiple stakeholder groups.
• Ability to assess project risks, connect technical and business implications, and escalate issues with clear options and recommendations.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to translate complex project information for technical teams, functional leaders, external partners, and senior leadership.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office tools required.
• Experience supporting major capital projects, facility expansions, facility consolidations, manufacturing start-ups, distribution projects, technology-enabled operational projects, or operational transformation initiatives preferred.
• Experience working with external engineering firms, contractors, vendors, consultants, or system integrators preferred.
• Experience with Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, SAP, WMS, or other project management platforms preferred.
• PMP, CAPM, Lean Six Sigma, or related project management certification preferred.

• Internal Only: Experience with Community Coffee, even if unrelated, may fulfill this requirement at the discretion of the hiring manager with approval from Human Resources

Foundational Competencies

• Builds Trust
• Continuous Learner
• Customer Centric
• Effective Communication
• Integrity
• Results Oriented

Additional Competencies

• Provide Guidance
• Navigates Complexity
• Decision Making
• Business Acumen
• Conflict Management

Physical Demands/Work Environment

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to do the following:

• Frequently required to sit.
• Occasionally required to stand; walk; use hands to finger, handle or feel objects, tools or controls and reach with hands and arms; and talk or hear.
• Regularly required to lift and/or move up to 25 pounds.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and the ability to adjust focus.

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