Fabrication & Manufacturing Manager of Projects

 

 

About Loenbro

Loenbro is a trusted, long-term construction lifecycle partner to thousands of customers across the U.S. Our market spans all industries and our service offerings include Critical Electrical, Mechanical & Structural, Soft Crafts, Inspection, Underground Maintenance and Installation, and Fabrication. Our expertise lies in simplifying the complex and establishing long-standing relationships with our partners. We have a national presence but a local approach—every customer benefits from our capabilities and our care.

At Loenbro, we don't just offer jobs—we build careers grounded in integrity, teamwork, excellence, and purpose. Join a team where your expertise is valued, your growth is supported, and your work helps expand the reach of the critical infrastructure that powers communities across the nation.

 

Job Summary

The Fabrication & Manufacturing Manager of Projects is responsible for the safe, profitable, and timely delivery of multiple projects executed across Loenbro's fabrication and manufacturing network. Reporting to the Senior Vice President of Manufacturing, this role provides portfolio-level oversight while maintaining direct accountability for the performance of assigned internal Loenbro and external third-party projects.

The Manager leads projects from pre-award planning and operational turnover through engineering, procurement, fabrication, shipment, closeout, and commercial reconciliation, coordinating shop operations, project engineers, engineering partners, supply chain, quality, safety, estimating, project controls, logistics, and customers to convert contractual requirements into executable production plans.

Success requires disciplined control of safety, quality, scope, schedule, cost, cash flow, and customer commitments. This individual will establish consistent project-management practices across the manufacturing network and provide the visibility, accountability, and leadership required to deliver reliable outcomes while supporting Loenbro's long-term strategy to operate Fabrication & Manufacturing as a scalable, centralized business unit.

 

Essential Job Responsibilities

Portfolio & Project Leadership

• Oversee a portfolio of fabrication and manufacturing projects of varying size, complexity, market, and location for internal Loenbro business units and external customers.
• Provide end-to-end accountability from contract handoff through final delivery, closeout, warranty transition, and financial reconciliation.
• Develop project execution plans defining scope, responsibilities, milestones, staffing, fabrication strategy, reporting cadence, risk controls, and success criteria.
• Lead regular project reviews and provide accurate, timely reporting on safety, quality, schedule, cost, forecast, cash, risk, change, and customer commitments, escalating material threats early and leading recovery plans when performance deviates from plan.

Project Team Leadership

• Lead, assign, coach, and develop Project Engineers and other project personnel based on workload and project requirements.
• Establish clear accountability for submittals, RFIs, document control, procurement tracking, production status, change documentation, cost reporting, and closeout.
• Set consistent project-management expectations, tools, workflows, and reporting standards across the fabrication network.
• Coordinate matrixed teams spanning estimating, engineering, operations, project controls, quality, safety, procurement, finance, logistics, and field operations, and support workforce planning to meet portfolio demand.

Safety, Quality & Operational Execution

• Own project-level safety performance and ensure planning and execution align with Loenbro requirements, customer expectations, and applicable regulations.
• Partner with shop Operations to establish executable production plans, sequencing, work packages, hold points, inspection requirements, and shipment priorities.
• Ensure contractual quality requirements, approved drawings, specifications, codes, procedures, inspection and test plans, traceability, and turnover documentation are integrated into execution.
• Monitor productivity, throughput, rework, nonconformance, equipment constraints, shop loading, and capacity, implementing corrective actions and coordinating field interface, delivery sequencing, and warranty response where included in scope.

Engineering & Technical Deliverable Management

• Identify, plan, and actively manage critical engineering deliverables required to release procurement and fabrication.
• Maintain visibility of IFC drawings, models, calculations, specifications, design clarifications, customer approvals, submittals, RFIs, spool or shop drawings, bills of material, and revision status.
• Lead engineering-readiness reviews and ensure only current, approved information is released to procurement and production, coordinating constructability, manufacturability, modularization, and DfMA reviews.
• Recognize design development, late information, revision churn, and customer decisions that threaten cost or schedule, and partner with Engineering & Productization to capture lessons learned and standardization opportunities.

Procurement, Materials & Supply Chain

• Develop and manage procurement and material-status plans aligned with engineering releases, production need dates, and contractual milestones.
• Identify long-lead, critical, owner-furnished, customer-supplied, and high-risk materials and drive timely resolution of constraints.
• Coordinate requisitions, purchase orders, vendor data, expediting, inspection, logistics, receiving, material control, traceability, substitutions, and surplus disposition.
• Validate material availability before work is released to prevent avoidable disruption, excess inventory, premium freight, or out-of-sequence fabrication, and manage supplier performance and issue resolution.

Schedule & Project Controls

• Develop, maintain, and manage integrated project schedules covering engineering, approvals, procurement, fabrication, inspection, testing, coating, assembly, shipment, and closeout.
• Establish baseline plans, measurable milestones, look-ahead schedules, critical-path visibility, and recovery strategies.
• Integrate project schedules with shop-loading and capacity plans, communicate forecast changes to Manufacturing leadership, and measure progress using objective quantities and earned-value or equivalent methods.
• Perform variance, trend, and forecast analysis, and maintain disciplined project documentation and auditable records supporting decisions, changes, claims, and closeout.

Financial & Commercial Management

• Own project financial performance, including budget, committed cost, actual cost, forecast at completion, revenue recognition inputs, billing, cash collection support, contingency, and margin.
• Understand contract scope, commercial terms, pricing assumptions, allowances, exclusions, payment provisions, notice requirements, schedule obligations, damages, and risk allocation.
• Review cost reports and productivity data, explain variances, forecast outcomes accurately, and implement corrective actions to protect profitability.
• Support monthly project forecasting and work-in-progress reviews with Finance and Manufacturing leadership, and manage subcontractor and supplier commercial performance, commitments, invoices, accruals, and closeout.

Change, Risk & Claims Management

• Establish and maintain project risk, opportunity, issue, and change logs from turnover through closeout.
• Recognize potential change arising from scope growth, design revisions, late approvals, acceleration, resequencing, disruption, material escalation, or customer direction.
• Provide timely contractual notice, contemporaneously document cause, entitlement, cost, schedule, productivity, and cumulative impacts, and coordinate preparation, pricing, negotiation, and incorporation of change orders into budgets and schedules.
• Prevent unauthorized work, ensure approved changes are communicated across functions, and support dispute avoidance, claim development, and executive negotiations when required.

Customer & Stakeholder Management

• Serve as the primary project-delivery contact for internal business units, external customers, EPCs, general contractors, owners, engineers, and other stakeholders.
• Set clear expectations, communicate candidly, manage commitments, and maintain trust through timely issue resolution.
• Lead kickoff meetings, progress reviews, commercial discussions, readiness reviews, and closeout meetings.
• Coordinate with Business Development and Estimating during pursuits to validate execution strategy, schedule, capacity, risk, and commercial assumptions, and capture customer feedback to improve future estimates and execution.

Closeout & Continuous Improvement

• Drive timely completion of punch lists, turnover packages, as-builts, quality records, final billing, change reconciliation, lien releases, warranty documentation, and archival requirements.
• Conduct formal project closeout and lessons-learned reviews and ensure improvements are incorporated into standard processes.
• Track recurring sources of cost, schedule, quality, and commercial variance and sponsor corrective actions across the project portfolio.
• Support development of scalable project-delivery systems, templates, controls, and governance for the Fabrication & Manufacturing business.

 

Key Performance Indicators

• Safety performance and proactive risk-control execution.
• On-time achievement of engineering, material, production, shipment, and closeout milestones.
• Project gross margin and margin preservation.
• Forecast accuracy for cost, revenue, cash, schedule, and completion.
• Cost and labor productivity performance versus budget.
• Change identification, notice timeliness, recovery, and aging.
• Schedule adherence and effectiveness of recovery plans.
• Material availability and reduction of production disruption.
• Quality performance, rework, nonconformance, and customer acceptance.
• Billing timeliness, cash conversion, and project closeout cycle.
• Customer satisfaction, repeat work, and internal business-unit satisfaction.
• Project team capability, accountability, and retention.

 

Key Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive project management, project engineering, operations, or commercial experience in industrial fabrication, manufacturing, modular construction, mechanical or electrical construction, EPC, or a related environment.
• Demonstrated experience concurrently managing multiple projects with direct accountability for safety, quality, schedule, cost, commercial performance, and customer delivery.
• Strong understanding of fabrication and manufacturing workflows, engineering deliverables, procurement, material controls, shop production, inspection, logistics, and turnover.
• Demonstrated financial acumen, including budgeting, cost reporting, forecasting, cash flow, revenue, margin, contingency, and work-in-progress analysis.
• Experience identifying, documenting, pricing, negotiating, and administering contract changes and claims.
• Ability to read and understand contracts, drawings, models, specifications, schedules, bills of material, and technical requirements.
• Experience leading project engineers and cross-functional teams in a matrixed environment.
• Strong leadership, negotiation, problem-solving, planning, and written and verbal communication skills.
• Proficiency with project-management, scheduling, cost-control, document-management, and collaboration systems.
• Ability and willingness to travel regularly to fabrication facilities, project sites, vendors, and customer locations.
• Professional Engineer (PE), Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified Construction Manager (CCM), or relevant project-controls credential preferred.
• Experience with pipe fabrication, structural steel, electrical prefabrication, skids, modules, pressure equipment, high-purity systems, or integrated mechanical/electrical assemblies preferred.
• Experience serving both internal operating-company customers and external third-party clients within a centralized fabrication or manufacturing organization preferred.
• Experience with mission critical/data centers, power generation, semiconductor, advanced manufacturing, mining, water/wastewater, energy, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, or other complex industrial markets preferred.
• Working knowledge of Primavera P6 or comparable scheduling software, ERP/cost systems, Procore or equivalent platforms, BIM/VDC workflows, and dashboard/reporting tools preferred.
• Knowledge of applicable AWS, ASME, API, NEC, UL, or other fabrication and manufacturing codes and standards relevant to the assigned work preferred.
• Experience with Lean manufacturing, modularization, off-site construction, DfMA, and continuous improvement preferred.

Core Competencies: Multi-Project Leadership | Safety Leadership | Financial Acumen | Commercial Management | Change Management | Engineering Readiness | Material Management | Scheduling & Project Controls | Risk Management | Fabrication Operations | Customer Leadership | Team Development | Forecasting | Contract Administration | Cross-Functional Execution

 

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Construction Management, Engineering, Business, Manufacturing, or a related discipline required; equivalent relevant experience may be considered.

 

Physical Demands and Work Environment

The physical demands and work environment 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.

Work Environment:

• Combination of office/remote work and frequent travel to fabrication shops, project sites, vendor facilities, and customer locations; travel of approximately 30–50%, based on project needs.
• Regular visits to manufacturing shop floors and industrial job sites to support production planning, progress reviews, inspections, and delivery coordination.
• Potential exposure to noise, dust, chemicals, or other environmental factors typical of fabrication and manufacturing environments.
• Periodic attendance at customer meetings, kickoff and closeout reviews, and project-site visits, which may require regional and national travel by air and ground transportation.

This role requires compliance with all applicable safety regulations, personal protective equipment (PPE) requirements, and Loenbro's Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) policies.

 

Benefits

Loenbro offers a competitive salary, comprehensive benefits package, and rewards to those who join our team:

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) retirement plan with company match
• Performance-based bonus plan
• Long-term Incentives
• Paid time off (PTO) and holiday pay
• Life and disability insurance
• Professional development and training opportunities
• Employee assistance program (EAP)

Benefits eligibility may vary based on employment classification and hours worked.

 

Guided by Core Values (LEAD), grounded in grit and a commitment to excellence, Loenbro betters our families, customers, and local communities. If you're ready to be part of a company that LEADS by:

• Living with Integrity
• Exceeding Expectations
• Acting with Urgency
• Delivering Excellence

...we want to hear from you.

Loenbro is an Equal Opportunity Employer