About the role

Job Description – Functional Lead, Engineering, Mechanical

Role Overview

The functional lead role leads a team of designers and engineers in the project delivery group, generally based in one of Hatch’s offices. This role reports to a regional manager for the discipline, and there is close collaboration with the local leadership team. Although this role primarily focuses on managing a team, allocating teams to various projects, functional leads are also expected to spend part of their time on specific projects where their expertise can be used.

The Functional Lead plays a critical leadership role within the engineering delivery group, providing technical direction, governance, and people leadership in their respective disciplines. This role is instrumental in ensuring delivery of high-quality engineering solutions on projects. Functional leads are responsible for driving continuous skills improvement and capability development within the team; this can be achieved by partnering with the global center of excellence.

Functional leads are responsible for resourcing projects with the correct skilled individuals and also ensure that the team’s utilization meets weekly target as set by the business. Work sharing coordination across Hatch offices globally is one of the critical responsibilities of a functional lead.

Mentorship, hiring and onboarding of new employees, skills training, supporting business initiatives such as visible felt leadership (VLF), and career management discussions with team members are amongst some of the key responsibilities of the functional leads.

All leadership roles are expected to contribute to the growth of the business through winning work, participating in proposals, managing client relationships for the sustainability of the business.

Hatch has a deep culture which is a common thread across all Hatch offices; functional leads are the custodians and ambassadors of the Hatch culture.

A Hatch functional lead must have the ability to make difficult decisions, work and deliver good results under pressure, be an efficient and effective communicator, and have high EQ.

Key Responsibilities:

Health & Safety:

Champion safety culture: Lead by example and embed a zero-harm mindset across the discipline; drive proactive hazard identification and risk mitigation.
Compliance & governance: Ensure adherence to relevant HSE legislation, industry standards, client requirements, and company policies (e.g., method statements, permits, safe work practices).
Incident management: Oversee incident/near-miss reporting, participate in root cause analyses, and implement corrective/preventive actions.
Training & competence: Maintain HSE competency matrices; ensure team completion of mandatory training and toolbox talks.
Continuous improvement: Track leading/lagging indicators and drive safety improvement initiatives across projects and offices.

Discipline Deliverables:

Technical leadership: Set engineering standards, templates, and best practices; ensure design integrity, robustness, and lifecycle consideration.
Quality assurance: Establish and enforce quality gates, peer reviews, and verification/validation (V&V) processes for all deliverables.
Scope management: Translate project scope into a clear discipline execution plan with deliverable lists, assumptions, and constraints.
Schedule & cost control: Own discipline schedules, progress measurement, and budget adherence; manage change control for scope creep.
Interface management: Coordinate inter-discipline interfaces (e.g., civil–mechanical–electrical) to eliminate clashes and rework.
Standards & codes: Ensure compliance with applicable codes, standards, and client specifications; drive updates when standards evolve.
Digital engineering: Promote model-based delivery (e.g., BIM/CAD standards), data consistency, and traceable configuration control.
Lessons learned: Capture, curate, and deploy lessons learned into future designs and standards.

Managing People, Resources & Performance Management:

Team leadership: Build, mentor, and motivate a high-performing team; set clear expectations and create a culture of accountability, and rewards/recognize good work.
Resource planning: Forecast resource needs; balance workloads across projects; coordinate with PMs/project leadership to allocate the right skills at the right time.
Capability development: Identify skill gaps; drive training, certification, and structured development plans for engineers and designers.
Performance reviews: Conduct goal-setting, mid-year/annual performance reviews, and calibrations; address underperformance promptly and fairly.
Talent pipeline: Support recruitment, onboarding, and succession planning; maintain bench strength for critical roles.
Vendor/partner oversight: Manage outsourced design resources and specialist consultants; ensure quality, cost, and schedule commitments are met.
Culture & inclusion: Foster psychological safety, inclusive collaboration, and cross-discipline knowledge sharing.

Proposals:

Solution shaping: Provide technical strategy, win themes, and value propositions for bids in alignment with client needs and risks.
Estimating & planning: Develop discipline estimating matrices (hours, costs), delivery schedules, and execution approaches for proposals.
Risk/Opportunity assessment: Identify key technical risks and mitigations; articulate innovation and alternative options for competitiveness.
Scope of work: Define clear deliverable lists, assumptions, exclusions, and clarifications to protect margin and delivery feasibility.
Review & governance: Lead technical reviews of proposal content; ensure compliance with RFPs/ITTs and internal bid governance.
Client presentations: Support or lead technical sections of client briefings and clarifications during tender stages.

Client Engagement:

Stakeholder management: Build trusted relationships with client technical leads and project managers; serve as the discipline point of contact.
Requirements management: Elicit, clarify, and manage client requirements; ensure traceability through design and delivery.
Status & reporting: Provide clear, timely updates on progress, risks, and changes; agree recovery plans where needed.
Issue resolution: Proactively address technical queries (RFIs), non-conformances, and interface conflicts.
Value & innovation: Propose optimizations that improve safety, performance, cost, or schedule without compromising quality.
Feedback loop: Gather client feedback and translate it into improvement actions and updated standards.

Qualifications and Experience:

BSc/BEng in Mechanical Engineering
15 years of engineering experience in consulting, mining, EPC, or EPCM environment
Experience in leading/mentoring small and large mechanical teams in multi-disciplinary projects.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
Good planning and organizational skills
Ability to function with minimal supervision
Working knowledge of industry standards, regulations, and codes pertinent to the mechanical engineering discipline, particularly hydraulic gates/stoplogs (and their guides), as well as hoists/cranes
Sound knowledge of engineering management systems, deliverable progress measurement
Ability to delegate tasks and effectively supervise engineers and designers
Experience in the use of procedures and workflows in the execution of projects