Director Civil & Constructions Engineering Capital Projects (m/f/d)

In this role you will lead civil and construction engineering for Abbott’s GMP facilities, driving safe, compliant, on-time delivery of capital projects across a 20-site network. You’ll set divisional standards, improve constructability, and partner with Quality, EHS, and site operations to enhance capital efficiency. The position emphasizes leadership, cross-site coordination, and achieving predictable execution in a fast-paced pharma environment. This is an opportunity to shape civil and building readiness for large-scale manufacturing.

• Provide technical leadership across complex capital projects to improve execution predictability
• Define and deploy enterprise standards, design criteria, and delivery expectations for site development and construction
• Lead early-stage civil input into feasibility, site master planning, plot plans, and logistics strategy
• Challenge concepts to optimize cost, schedule, and constructability before sanction
• Ensure mature detailed design packages with clear work packs and interfaces
• Lead constructability reviews with cross-functional teams
• Verify design aligns with field conditions, shutdown constraints, brownfield tie-ins, and GMP boundaries
• Coordinate Commissioning, Qualification, and Validation to ensure controlled handover for safe starts
• Coach project managers and engineers, develop standard playbooks, and capture lessons learned across 20 sites
• Identify recurring risk factors (late drawings, rework, permit delays, etc.) and mitigate them
• Represent EPD in the Global Engineering Services network

• 15+ years of experience in large industrial/manufacturing capital projects, preferably pharma/biotech/Life Sciences/GMP environments
• Strong safety and environmental guideline knowledge
• Excellent English communication; German/Dutch/Spanish a plus
• Ability to work with minimal supervision and manage stakeholders including Procurement, Legal, Engineering, and site leadership
• Proven track record in improving constructability, field productivity, and schedule recovery
• Influence across Engineering Procurement Construction firms and design teams
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in civil/structural/construction engineering or related field

• strong interpersonal and presentation skills
• cross-cultural collaboration
• problem-solving and troubleshooting
• civil engineering for complex capital projects
• design criteria and construction execution for pharmaceutical manufacturing
• constructability reviews and site master planning