Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. KoBold Metals is a scientific mineral exploration, mine development, and technology development company that integrates artificial intelligence, human intelligence, and new technology to discover critical minerals. The Senior Engineering & Integration Manager will serve as the primary technical authority for the Mingomba copper project in Zambia, overseeing engineering quality, integration, governance, EPCM performance, technical risk, and construction handover to operations.
Responsibilities
- Hold and exercise design authority on behalf of KoBold. Making and recording binding technical decisions across all disciplines, with a clear escalation path to the Project Director for issues that affect schedule, cost, or safety
- Establish the basis of design, engineering standards, and design criteria for the project, and enforce them with both the owner's team and the EPCM
- Own the technical risk register: identify, quantify, and drive the resolution of engineering risks before they become scope changes or construction rework
- Approve key engineering deliverables including P&IDs, design criteria, equipment datasheets, and technical specifications
- Direct the scope freeze process: define what decisions must be made to freeze design at each stage, own the timeline for those decisions, and prevent scope growth after sanction
- Act as KoBolds senior technical interface to the EPCM as an active director of engineering scope, priorities, and performance
- Monitor engineering service provider progress against the engineering management plan using earned value metrics and escalate deviations in quality, schedule, or cost before they compound
- Direct EPCM and specialist contractor technical performance by challenging design solutions, enforcing design and lifecycle cost requirements, and proactively mitigating interface risks to ensure scope alignment
- Lead formal constructability reviews at FEL 2 and FEL 3, ensuring construction knowledge is embedded in the design before it is frozen
- Drive operability and maintainability reviews with the operations and maintenance readiness team at each design milestone, ensuring the facility can be safely operated and maintained as designed
- Lead structured value engineering sessions; ensure cost optimisation decisions are evidence-based, preserve safety and operability margins, and are captured in the design basis
- Benchmark key design parameters and cost drivers against comparable copper projects and IPA / industry data; identify outliers and resolve them with the EPCM and design leads
- Own the engineering integration across all disciplines and resolve inter-discipline conflicts, managing shared interfaces, and ensuring the project design is coherent end-to-end
- Prepare and present the engineering case for each stage-gate review; ensure the technical content is decision-ready, the assumptions are explicit, and the residual risks are quantified
- Oversee and enforce the project change control process, ensuring EPCM compliance and managing the technical, cost, and schedule impacts of scope changes
- Lead lessons-learned integration from comparable projects into the Mingomba design; establish a formal mechanism for capturing and applying lessons during execution
- Direct engineering interface management with external stakeholders, regulators, power counterparties, infrastructure providers, and the Zambian technical authorities
- Own the engineering dimension of process safety for the project and be accountable that HAZOPs, HAZIDs, SIL assessments, and process safety reviews are completed, actioned, and closed out
- Act as design authority for safety-critical systems (including isolation philosophies, shutdown logic, and structural integrity), ensuring all decisions are documented, traceable, and preserved throughout project design and construction
- Provide engineering input to the project's safety case and regulatory submissions; represent the KoBold engineering position in interactions with regulators
- Establish and oversee the engineering data management framework, including version control and handover protocols, while maintaining the deliverables register to ensure a current, complete, auditable technical record
- Direct the engineering quality plan: define hold points, witness points, and independent review requirements across the design and construction phases
- Implement KoBold engineering and business standards; provide technical governance through a structured review and audit programme across the owner's team and EPCM
- Build and lead a high-performing KoBold engineering team, setting clear accountabilities, developing capability, and creating a culture of technical rigour and challenge
- Define the engineering resourcing plan through each project phase; identify gaps and direct recruitment or secondment to fill them ahead of demand
- Ensure the operational readiness team is embedded in the design process from the outset, and that design decisions reflect operability and maintenance requirements
- Mentor senior engineers; establish a structured technical development pathway within the project organisation
Skills
- 18+ years of professional engineering experience in major capital projects in mining, minerals processing, oil and gas, or equivalent heavy industry, with a significant portion as the lead engineering authority on the owner's side
- Demonstrated track record of delivering projects through full lifecycle from FEED to mechanical completion, including at least one project above $700M total capital cost
- Deep experience managing and directing EPCM contractors with the ability to distinguish between EPCM advisory and owner technical authority, and to hold that line under schedule pressure
- Strong multi-discipline technical foundation with the ability to assess and challenge designs across civil/structural, mechanical, process, electrical, and instrumentation disciplines
- Capability in constructability reviews, operability reviews, value engineering, and HAZOP/HAZID facilitation on complex facilities
- Experience developing and executing engineering management plans, technical risk registers, design basis documents, and stage-gate technical submissions
- Exposure to earned value management, engineering progress measurement, and performance reporting in an owner's team context
- Strong communication and influencing skills: able to present technical positions to project leadership, boards, regulators, and external technical stakeholders with equal clarity
- Bachelor's degree (or higher) in an engineering discipline
- Experience in African or similarly complex operating environments is an advantage
- Ability and willingness to travel internationally to Zambia, with anticipated travel of 90+ days per year
- Chartered Engineer status or equivalent professional registration strongly preferred
- Experience with Mine Processing and Infrastructure is an advantage
Company Overview
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