Lead mechanical & piping project engineer

To support a longterm project at one of our clients in the region Kempen we are searching for a senior lead mechanical & piping project engineer.

Project Description
As Lead Project Engineer, you are the technical leader of multidisciplinary CAPEX projects. You safeguard the coherence and quality of the technical solution, steer design decisions and interfaces, and represent Umicore in dealings with engineering partners, suppliers, and contractors. You are the Project Manager's technical counterpart and help deliver installations that are safe, reliable, maintainable, and technically feasible.

You bring a strong technical foundation in Mechanical & Piping. From this core discipline, you assess and challenge equipment and piping concepts, among other things, without losing sight of the multidisciplinary overview or your role as technical leader of the entire project. In doing so, you consider the technical impact on the other disciplines (civil and E&I), as well as the impact on the schedule, costs, and project risks.

This is not a traditional Project Manager role. Throughout the entire project lifecycle, you remain closely involved in technical choices, engineering quality, and their translation into execution.

• Technical impact:
o You directly influence design choices that determine safety, reliability, maintenance, and long-term performance.
• Owner-side responsibility:
o You represent the client and provide technical direction to internal and external engineering teams.
• Mechanical & Piping as a technical foundation:
o You use your expertise in equipment and piping as your strong core discipline.
• From concept to realization:
o You remain involved as ideas evolve into designs, construction, and operational installations.
• Complex industrial environment:
o You work on multidisciplinary projects within an operational site where engineering, production, and project execution come together.

Tasks & Responsibilities
• You develop and safeguard the project's technical basis, design philosophy, scope, and battery limits.
• You lead and integrate engineering across disciplines, with a focus on M&P. The other disciplines include process, E&I, automation, civil, safety, and infrastructure.
• You organize design reviews and assess designs for safety, compliance, functionality, reliability, maintainability, constructability, and lifecycle value from a TCO perspective.
• You translate process and project requirements into robust Mechanical & Piping concepts and safeguard the quality of layouts, P&IDs, equipment specifications, piping classifications, piping routes, and isometrics.
• You assess various technical solutions for feasibility, safety, reliability, and cost-effectiveness.
• You direct and challenge EPCm partners, suppliers, and contractors on technical content, quality, schedule, and completeness of deliverables.
• You organize technical decision-making, make assumptions and deviations visible, and ensure traceable decisions and actions.
• You identify technical and project risks and assess the impact of choices and changes on scope, schedule, costs, execution, and business continuity.
• You support technical specifications, tender packages, bid evaluations, supplier selections, and contractual technical clarifications.
• For Mechanical & Piping, where relevant, you follow up fabrication, inspections, FAT, delivery, installation, SAT, and punch lists through to mechanical completion.
• You provide engineering support during construction, pre-commissioning, commissioning, start-up, and handover.
• You support the Project Manager with clear technical recommendations and transparent reporting to stakeholders.
• You coach engineers and contribute to standards, methods, lessons learned, and knowledge sharing within Project Engineering.

Technical profile requirements
• You hold a master's degree in a technical field, or have an equivalent level through demonstrable experience. A degree in electromechanics or chemical technology.
• You have extensive experience in technical design and engineering in an industrial or process environment. You also have demonstrable specialist knowledge of Mechanical & Piping engineering within the process industry or a heavy industrial environment.
• You have experience with multidisciplinary CAPEX projects from concept through execution and completion.
• You can provide technical direction to engineering partners, suppliers, and contractors and critically assess their deliverables.
• You are familiar with relevant standards and good engineering practices for Mechanical & Piping, such as PED, ATEX, and EN 13480.
• A VCA-VOL certificate is required, or you must be willing to obtain it before the assignment starts.
• Knowledge of AutoCAD Plant 3D is an asset.
• You can work with project controls: scope, schedule, costs, risks, changes, and stakeholder management.

Non-technical profile requirements
• You combine technical depth with a broad overview, decisiveness, and pragmatic problem-solving skills—consistently across all disciplines.
• You can explain complex technical topics clearly.
• You work in a structured, independent, and results-oriented manner and demonstrate clear ownership.
• You communicate fluently in Dutch and professionally in English.

Language skills
• Fluent in Dutch
• Fluent in English
• Other languages are an asset

Location
• region Kempen
• 100% onsite presence

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