Maintenance Project Engineer

Ulbrich Stainless Steels & Special Metals, Inc. • Full-time • New Bedford, MA, US • $85k - $100k / year • 1m ago

Company Description

Ulbrich was established in 1924 and is family-owned and privately held. An international corporation with subsidiaries located in the US, Mexico, Germany, and Austria. Ulbrich employs over 700 people worldwide.

At Ulbrich, we are Improving Lives with More Than Metal. We work hard for each other, our families, and the communities we live in. The respect and integrity of Ulbrich team members, dedication to their professions, collaborative participation in lean, and ensuring that safety comes first, has created a culture that has a positive impact on the lives of many. We connect with the world through our responsibility to produce critical products that benefit mankind.

The Ulbrich culture is guided by a set of shared values we call Our Core Tenets. The tenets we live by each day are Continuous Improvement, Quality Commitment, Family Values, Total Company Involvement, and Customer Responsiveness. Through practicing these shared values, we drive profitable growth and success.

Come join the Ulbrich team and become part of a greater purpose and a promising future!

Job Description

Responsibilities

Equipment Reliability & PM Optimization

Review and optimize PM procedures.
Analyze repetitive failures and engineer permanent solutions.
Evaluate bearings, seals, housings, lubrication, alignment, and wear patterns.
Monitor motors/drives, including insulation trends, commutator/brush inspection for DC motors, encoder health, SCR stack conditions.

Capital & Upgrade Projects

Scope, quote, design, and manage upgrades:
- Drive modernization (AC drives replacing DC, rectifier upgrades, SCR improvements).
- Mill rebuilds, roll changes, precision alignments.
- Hydraulics upgrades (AGC, bending cylinders, tensioning).
- Instrumentation replacements (encoders, tachometers, tension cells, thickness gauges).
- Expansion projects.
Manage fabrication, installation, commissioning, vendor coordination, and documentation.

Maintenance Outage Coordination

Plan, sequence, and coordinate mill outages.
Create work packs, job safety analyses, checklists, and acceptance criteria.
Manage contractors and ensure work meets standards.

Problem Solving & Breakdowns

Respond to unplanned downtime:
- Troubleshoot drives, transformers, encoders, PLC faults, mechanical jams, overloads, bearing failures, misalignment, and hydraulic issues.
Determine root cause and prevent recurrence.

Documentation & Compliance

Keep updated drawings, torque specs, electrical schematics, PM instructions.
Ensure compliance with company, OSHA, and industry standards.
Maintain spare parts strategies and bill of materials for critical assets.

Vendor & Contractor Management

Source parts, get quotes, coordinate repairs.
Work with OEMs (for example, Ungerer, Sendzimer, ABB, Siemens, Hitachi, Morgan, etc.).
Evaluate vendor proposals and ensure technical accuracy.

Cost Control

Track project budgets, downtime costs, maintenance expenses.
Build cost-benefit analyses for upgrades (e.g., replacing motors, transformers, drives).

Training & Knowledge Transfer

Train technicians on new systems.
Maintain "tribal knowledge" documentation.
Improve team competency in alignment, balancing, lubrication, safety, troubleshooting.

Qualifications

Qualifications

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Electromechanical, Manufacturing, or other relevant engineering discipline strongly preferred. Associate's Degree in Electrical or Mechanical Engineering, or related discipline with relevant experience considered as well.

Strong Technical Foundation

Solid understanding of mechanical, electrical, and controls systems.
Ability to read/interpret P&IDs, mechanical drawings, schematics, PLC I/O tags, power distribution diagrams, etc.
Familiar with industrial equipment: motors (AC/DC), drives (for example, Micromaster, Siemens, ABB, Rockwell), gearboxes, pumps, compressors, mechanical drives, bearings, housings, hydraulics.

Troubleshooting Mindset

Skilled at diagnosing failures: mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, or process-related.
Able to perform root cause analysis (RCA) using methodologies such as 5-Why, fishbone, FMEA.
Comfortable jumping into a mill or line under pressure and methodically isolating issues.

Project Management Discipline

Knows how to manage capital projects, maintenance outages, rebuilds, upgrades, and equipment installations.
Understands planning tools (ex. Gantt, MS Project, Excel, Monday, etc.), budgeting, vendor coordination, timelines, and risk mitigation.

Communication & Leadership

Writes clear work instructions, PMs, engineering reports, and capital request justifications.
Works well with maintenance techs, operators, management, and vendors.
Can walk into a breakdown, take lead, direct resources, document findings.

Continuous Improvement Approach

Identifies chronic issues and develops long-term fixes.
Implements reliability tools-vibration analysis, oil sampling, thermography, ultrasonic leak detection.
Comfortable applying ISO/TS/IATF standards where needed.

Safety-Driven

Knows lockout/tagout (LOTO), arc flash boundaries, confined space, crane/rigging practices.
Ensures engineered solutions eliminate hazards rather than shift them.

Ownership Mentality

Treats equipment as "their asset."
Knows uptime, MTBF, maintenance costs, downtime drivers, and takes responsibility.

Optional, But Highly Valuable Preferred Skills

PLC knowledge (Siemens S7/TIA, AB ControlLogix).
Drive parameterization conventions (Siemens Micromaster/Phoenix, ABB DCS800, Eurotherm, Sprint).
CAD or other similar experience (ex. AutoCAD, SolidWorks, etc.).
Experience with rolling mills, annealing lines, slitting lines, tension leveling, straightening, coiling systems.

Additional Information

Ulbrich offers competitive wages, benefits and a friendly, safety focused work environment. Rewarding career opportunities in a world-class business environment where employees are committed to lean thinking and continuous improvement. At Ulbrich, We Deliver Precision® thanks to our highly-skilled and dedicated workforce.

This position offers competitive salary and benefits and the opportunity to expand your skills within a company that offers both a diverse workforce and a welcoming company culture. Pay range for this role is $85,000 to $100,000 annually, dependent on relevant education/experience.

Ulbrich is an Equal Opportunity Employer

M/F/Veterans/Disabled