VP Engineering North America (Potato & Support Services)
McCain
Chicago, IL
Shift: Regular - Full-Time
Position Title: VP Engineering North America (Potato & Support Services) Position Type: Regular - Full-Time Grade: Grade 08 Requisition ID: 44726 In every role, McCainers are ambitious, curious, and passionate about creating exceptional work experiences - together. With a customer-first mindset, we make doing business with McCain easy. About the role . Our vision is to Create the New McCain by doubling our business through breakthrough transformation. Our integrated strategy focuses on building global platforms with high local market shares, expanding in emerging markets, growing through acquisitions and improving margins through structural cost reductions. Innovation is the foundation of our growth plan, and our commitment to Bringing the Goodness of McCain Potatoes to All drives the development of products that meet customer and consumer needs in new and exciting ways. Our McCain. Be Good. Do Good. philosophy means we are Good People making Good Food and Doing Good Things. We are committed to making food that meets specific nutritional and ingredient criteria while considering our environmental and social impacts. Our people are our greatest strength. We invest in ongoing development, creating opportunities for personal and professional growth while building the capabilities needed to achieve our vision. Our ACT values – authentic, committed, trusted – are the foundation of our culture. We are fun and entrepreneurial, empowering our people to solve problems and bring forth new ideas. The North America VP of Engineering is part of the Global Engineering organization and reports to the Global VP of Engineering, with a strong dotted line into the North America Operations VP. This role offers the opportunity to shape engineering strategy, lead a significant capital portfolio and build the reliability and resource efficiency needed to support McCain’s growth across North America. The Position. This role works closely with the North American Operations Team, the 10 Potato manufacturing facilities, and other elements of the overall McCain North America network. Primary responsibilities for this role cover the delivery of both Base and Transformational Capital Projects (Potato), Reliability Engineering (Potato), as well as all North America Environmental Engineering, Resource Efficient Operations, and Utilities. Relationships: Reports to: Global VP of Engineering Direct Reports: Director CapEx Potato, Director of Reliability & Utilities; Director Large Projects, Director Environmental and REO, and Director Business Engineering Peers: GEM VP of Engineering, LATAM &
APACSA VP
of Engineering, NA VP of FSQ, NA VP of H&S, NA VP of Agriculture There are roughly 45-50 direct engineering staff in this organization. What you’ll be doing . Develop and execute the engineering function’s strategic plan, aligning capital and resources with near-term operational needs and long-term growth. Manage the engineering organization’s operating and capital budgets, ensuring spending discipline, accurate forecasting and return on investment. Establish engineering standards and specifications that support consistency, quality and safety across facilities. Champion continuous improvement and the adoption of lean principles and industry best practices across engineering, maintenance and operations. Build strong partnerships with Manufacturing, Technical Execution, H&S, FSQ, Procurement, Supply Chain and Finance to align engineering priorities with broader business goals. Keep senior leadership informed of engineering performance, capital project status and key risks. Attract, develop and retain top engineering talent, building organizational depth and succession plans for critical roles. Ensure robust risk management across engineering, maintenance and utility systems to protect people, assets and continuity of operations. Capital Project Delivery Lead a Capital Project Delivery Portfolio of more than 400 active projects and $200M - $600M CAD in annual spending across McCain’s North America manufacturing, agricultural, fertilizer, produce and other sites, ensuring delivery safely, on time, on budget and to specification. Coach and mentor Project Managers through Front End Loading for strategic and complex projects to strengthen predictability in Safety, Cost and Schedule. Champion plant and project safety initiatives, engineering standardization and the sustained use of project and portfolio management tools. Resolve project scope and design decisions for large-scale food manufacturing facilities, balancing people safety, food safety, food quality and cost competitiveness. Act as the primary Technical Sponsor for large and strategic engineering projects presented to Senior Leadership and Board Members. Contribute to early ideation for new plant builds, expansions, plant closures, new product development, technology adoption, mergers and acquisitions. Build and maintain strategic relationships with external engineering, services and