Design & Documentation Supverisor

Why Work at Kaneka North America?
At Kaneka North America, you’ll find more than just a job—you’ll find a place to build a career. We offer a people‑first, safety‑focused environment where employees are encouraged to learn, grow, and contribute. Whether you’re early in your career or bringing years of experience, you’ll have the chance to do meaningful work, collaborate across teams, and support products and industries that make a difference every day. Your contributions are valued, and your development is supported.

Our Culture & Values
Our culture is built on respect, teamwork, and doing things the right way. We believe people do their best work when they feel supported, trusted, and empowered to speak up and share ideas. Safety, integrity & trust, quality, and innovation guide everything we do, and we invest in our employees through continuous learning, collaboration, and opportunities for growth. At Kaneka North America, you’re encouraged to take ownership of your work, grow your skills, and build a long‑term career in an environment that values both accountability and people.

JOB DETAILS

The Design & Documentation Supervisor is responsible for leading and actively participating in the development, review, checking, and management of engineering design deliverables for capital and sustaining projects. This is a working supervisory position which is accountable for engineering design packages, design checking, coordinating internal and external design resources, engineering drawing standards, document governance, and document control practices to ensure accurate, complete, and timely project documentation.

The role integrates discipline design support, CAD services, document administration, and transactional document control from project initiation through final archival. The role serves as the primary technical resource for drafting standards, design documentation quality, engineering drawing control, redline/as-built management, and project records turnover from scope development through construction and project closeout.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Design Leadership & Package Development

• Develop engineering design packages and drawing deliverables for capital projects, plant modifications, and sustaining engineering work.
• Prepare, revise, and coordinate PFDs, P&IDs, general arrangement drawings, equipment layouts, piping plans, isometrics, plot plans, tie-in drawings, line lists, and related engineering documentation.
• Perform field verification, site walkdowns, and dimensional checks to support accurate design development and constructible work packages.
• Coordinate with Engineering, Operations, Maintenance, Reliability, EHS, Procurement, Construction, and project teams to develop practical and executable design solutions.
• Support Management of Change and Process Change Authorization workflows through the preparation, review, and update of engineering documentation.
• Assist project managers with design resource loading, work sequencing, design deliverable forecasting, and schedule status reporting.

Design Review, Checking & Quality Control

• Serve as lead design checker for engineering and drafting deliverables generated internally and by external engineering contractors.
• Check drawings and design packages for technical accuracy, completeness, drawing quality, compliance with company standards, constructability, maintainability, and operability.
• Verify consistency between related deliverables such as P&IDs, line lists, equipment lists, instrument indexes, specifications, construction packages, and vendor documentation.
• Ensure review comments are properly resolved, incorporated, and closed before drawings or packages are issued for approval, construction, or record.
• Establish and maintain design checking processes, package review workflows, and quality expectations for internal and contractor-generated deliverables.
• Identify recurring design and documentation quality issues and lead corrective actions or process improvements.

Design Standards & Technical Governance

• Maintain company drafting standards, CAD procedures, drawing templates, drawing numbering conventions, and design documentation requirements.
• Develop, update, and communicate design drafting procedures to internal users, project teams, and outside engineering contractors.
• Maintain corporate piping specifications and applicable design content within isometric generation or CAD-related software, as applicable.
• Ensure consistency of engineering deliverables across projects, internal designers, and external engineering firms.
• Serve as the subject matter resource for drafting, drawing practices, design documentation, and technical document quality.

Document Control & Records Management

• Supervise document control activities associated with engineering, procurement, construction, project closeout, and permanent plant records.
• Maintain electronic and hardcopy engineering records in the company document management system.
• Ensure proper document numbering, revision control, status coding, transmittals, distribution, retention, archiving, and final records turnover.
• Maintain project document registers, drawing registers, and critical engineering data registers such as equipment lists, line lists, instrument lists, and related indexes.
• Manage the receipt, review, storage, and turnover of project documentation from external engineering firms and construction contractors.
• Coordinate redline and as-built workflows to ensure plant drawings and engineering records are updated in a timely and accurate manner.
• Ensure project data is archived and made available to Operations, Maintenance, Reliability, EHS, and other internal stakeholders.

Contractor, Project & Stakeholder Interface

• Serve as the primary interface between project teams, engineering contractors, designers, document control personnel, Operations, Maintenance, and other stakeholders on design and documentation matters.
• Review contractor deliverables for compliance with company standards, project requirements, document control procedures, and required deliverable attributes.
• Coordinate the flow of design information, drawings, correspondence, transmittals, and technical documentation between internal and external teams.
• Support project stage-gate reviews by ensuring required design and documentation deliverables are complete, accurate, and available.
• Work with project teams to arrange smooth handover of project documentation in both electronic and hardcopy formats, where applicable.

Supervision, Planning & Administration

• Coordinate team workload and resources with the Capital Projects Manager and project engineers; identify capacity, contractor support, schedule, and budget needs.
• Direct day-to-day activities of designers, drafters, and document control personnel, including work assignment, prioritization, and progress monitoring.
• Mentor designers and document control personnel through technical coaching, standards guidance, and quality feedback.
• Assist with designer and document control resource planning, staffing forecasts, and workload balancing across multiple projects.
• Maintain design deliverable schedules and support project schedule updates in Microsoft Project, P6, or other scheduling tools as required.
• Review and approve team member time entry and other administrative requirements, as applicable.
• Promote a safe, organized, collaborative, and quality-focused work environment.
• Must demonstrate the following emotional intelligence skills:
• Emotional Empathy
• Positive Attitude
• Excellent Communication Skills
• Flexibility / Adaptability
• Interpersonal Skills