Project Engineer (Durham)
Location: Research Triangle Park, NC Reports to: Project Manager, with functional direction from the Engineering leader (Tim) Team: Small, tightly integrated facility team where operations, plant engineering, project engineering, and automation work as one unit Why this role exists right now: The project workload has outgrown the Project Managers' capacity, and RTP is where there is room to bring on and train someone earlier in their career. Tim needs a Project Engineer to own the what of execution so the PMs can keep their arms around the whole effort and the team can run more capital projects than it can today. Why This Role Matters The goal is the same: the projects on time, on budget, and to do more of them than I'm capable of doing right now. Linde is a leading global industrial gases and engineering company with 2025 sales of $34 billion, and the electronics division sits at the center of the story that matters right now. This is the group that supplies ultra-high-purity gases to the semiconductor industry, the chip fab buildout across the United States, and the memory and compute growth driving AI. Tim put it plainly: the division is connected to the biggest names in chips and there's going to be no shortage of work anytime soon. RTP is the smaller, more integrated of the two sites, and that is its advantage. Operations, plant engineering, project engineering, and automation run as one team on nearly everything, so a Project Engineer here learns the whole operation fast rather than staying boxed into one discipline. The Project Managers have more capital work than they can personally execute, and this seat is the added capacity that lets the team run more of it. This is not a maintenance hire. It is a build, at a moment when the business is growing into the next phase of what the electronics division becomes. Tim came into his own seat in January after 22 years at Linde precisely because of that upside. As he said, he is the poster child for why you do that, and the division is really at the precipice of something great. The Mission Help the Project Managers move more capital projects across the finish line, on time and on budget, by owning the execution work a PM cannot personally carry across multiple concurrent projects. At RTP you do it inside an integrated team, so you will learn across operations, plant engineering, and automation as you go. Tim described the structure this way: the Project Manager dictates who does what, and the Project Engineer does the what. Early in a project's life you help scope the work, build the budget, and lay out a preliminary schedule so a capital need can be turned into a funded, authorized project. Once funding is awarded, you execute alongside the PM: bill of materials, specifying the equipment and instruments and valves, coordinating with procurement to buy them, and managing the contractors on site through construction. You track the finances so nothing gets away from the team. When it works, the PM keeps their arms around the whole effort and RTP completes more projects than it can today. Performance Objectives The first four are what the seat produces day to day. The last two are the outcomes Tim is actually buying. Scope projects and develop budgets and preliminary schedules that convert capital needs into funded, authorized projects, working in partnership with the Project Manager and process engineers. Specify and procure the physical scope of each project: author the bill of materials, specify equipment, instruments, and valves, and coordinate with procurement to purchase them without gaps or delays. Manage onsite contractors through the construction phase, from mobilization to turnover, so work is executed to scope and to the site's safety standard. Track project finances and expenditures across multiple concurrent projects so the Project Manager always has a current, accurate picture of the whole effort. Deliver each assigned project on time and on budget, measured against the schedule and budget you helped build. Increase the site's project throughput so RTP completes more capital projects than the current Project Managers can deliver alone. This is the reason the seat exists. Fit Traits These are the human patterns Tim reads as strength. Each is anchored to what he actually said. At RTP, the integrated team gives an earlier-career hire room to grow into these. Figures It Out Without a Manual. This is the trait Tim named as the one that is missing in some people. Signal: I need people who want to figure out what to do on their own, and I can help you prioritize and guide you in the right direction. He will guide and prioritize. He will not hand you a plan every morning. At RTP there is a team around you to learn from while you build that muscle. Curious, and Not Afraid to Get It Wrong. Signal: I need someone who is curious and willing to learn and willing to just ask questions and figure things out and make mistakes and learn from them. This is the trait that matters most for the earlier-career hire RTP can take. Technical Aptitude Over Industry Pedigree. Signal: They don't necessarily have to be in that industry, but they have to have some technical aptitude. Tim is explicit that RTP does not require gases-industry experience, but the aptitude is not optional: I'm not going to take an accountant and ask them to size a globe valve. Energized by Tangible Results. Signal: If you have a personality where you'd like to see things, you like to see tangible things, you like to see results, then that's a person who's a good fit. The people who thrive here get satisfaction from turning a design into something real and on the ground. Owns Their Piece. The right fit is a self-motivated worker who does not need to lead people or own the whole project, but wants to own their slice of it and be accountable for it. Tim confirmed this is exactly right for the seat. Who You'll Work For Tim has been at Linde for 22 years and moved into this electronics engineering leadership role in January, coming up through Linde's engineering organization. He made the move himself for the same reason he is now hiring: the division is growing fast and he wanted to be at the front of it. He runs a small, hands-on team, guides and helps prioritize, and expects the people around him to drive their own work rather than wait to be told. The thing you should know about Tim is that he is honest to a fault, and he will be honest with you. He was the first to say this is not a flashy job. It is a straightforward job. It is a very important job. But it's just not super exciting. He would rather tell you exactly what the work is and let you decide than sell you into a seat you will leave. I came over here myself, so I can be the poster child for why you do that. I think it's very exciting times. It's just really at the precipice of something great here. Why Veterans Succeed Here This is the part no traditional posting can do, and it is the reason VHS matched this role. The work is attention to detail, reasoning about physical systems, coordinating with a project manager and a set of suppliers and contractors, and executing under a schedule. Strip away the industrial-gases label and those are the exact human assets a strong technical service member already carries. Tim gets this. On the call he walked straight to it himself: a senior Navy nuke or a high-speed Machinist's Mate who has worked pumps, valves, piping, and fluid systems, or a sailor who spent a dry-dock period upgrading a ship or submarine and owned a piece of that project, is doing a version of this job already. The scale is different. The discipline is the same. Kingman runs the way a good unit runs: early starts, direct communication, accountability that moves at the speed of the work, and a leader who came up through the operation and hires for aptitude and drive over pedigree. Because this is the more senior seat with less support, it fits a seasoned NCO or company-grade officer who has already run concurrent projects and does not need the plan handed to them. VHS has placed more than a thousand veterans into this industry, and the pattern is consistent: the service members who thrive here walk into an unfamiliar system, ask the right questions, and get productive fast. Requirements Minimum qualifications, with the veteran lens applied. The industry background is negotiable. The aptitude is not. Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Chemical or Mechanical preferred, or equivalent demonstrated technical capability. Military equivalent: Navy Nuclear program (MM, EM, ET), military engineering officers and NCOs, Seabees (CE, UT, SW), Army and USMC engineers. Maps to: Objectives 1 through 4. Technical aptitude to read, specify, and reason about physical systems (pumps, valves, piping, instruments, controls). Military equivalent: Machinist's Mate, submarine and ship overhaul or dry-dock project experience, ammonia and refrigeration systems, fluid and mechanical systems maintenance. Maps to: Objectives 2 and 3. Ability to manage multiple priorities and projects with attention to detail and deadlines. Military equivalent: any NCO or company-grade officer who ran concurrent maintenance, logistics, or construction taskings
