Director Of Research Operations Jobs in Chicago, IL

Amazon created one of the most sophisticated supply chains in the world. From the introduction of Amazon Prime, to the use of advanced technology for package delivery; Amazon consistently drives change from the front of the pack.

As an Operations Engineer, you will lead and manage the lifecycle of challenging cross-functional projects, developing and delivering the next generation of sortation and distribution solutions. You are a customer obsessed leader that will play an integral part in planning and implementation of the facility network infrastructure including new builds, retrofits, expansions and program initiatives. Partnering with internal customers and internal/external stakeholders to engage as a team and ensure a timely handover will be part of your critical tasks.

As an Operations Engineer for Amazon, you will work with some of the most talented engineers in the design, development, and delivery of physical distribution systems around the globe. You are responsible for managing a technology or integration project, successfully delivering the solution to meet project goals. You may work directly with external equipment vendors, customers, or partners, and you have a solid understanding of the design approaches and industry technologies utilized in fulfillment and distribution center designs. To meet timelines and minimize disruption to support teams, you manage the overall schedule, proactively mitigate risks, and keep the scope of engineering deliverables under control.

This role requires 75% regional travel on a yearly basis. When not traveling, you must have availability to work from a corporate office. Candidates should either live near or be willing to relocate within a reasonable commuting distance of one of the corporate office locations listed. Relocation assistance may be provided.

Key job responsibilities

• Work independently with internal and external teams to successfully manage the lifecycle of challenging projects, and act as owner in delivering on project objectives and targets. Projects may span organizations or geographies in support of business objectives.
• Actively participate in firm engineering reviews, and make tangible impact on the proposed solutions on an individual system or its components, on the overall systems architecture, and on facility processes.
• Partner with internal teams, stakeholders and external vendors to set project priorities, establish milestones, and drive schedules to meet deadlines. Proactively assess stakeholders’ dependencies and milestones, problem-solve and drive solutions to mitigate the impact from the issues.
• Lead and coordinate all execution efforts in delivering systems and automated equipment designs per established standards and guidelines. Perform equipment/system installation, throughput and safety qualifications. Simplify, optimize, remove bottlenecks and provide feedback while resolving difficult system problems or technical deficiencies.
• Lead effective meetings by setting the objectives, putting the right people in the room and driving detailed business and technical discussions/alignment. Document meeting discussions, decisions and future steps, ensuring alignment on expectations with internal partner teams and outside vendors.
• Promptly and accurately communicate project status, risk analysis and risk mitigation plans. Effectively answer project questions in detail, and regularly produce clear and concise summaries for the project to leadership/management team.
• Competently articulate system and/or equipment designs, including layouts, technical specifications and functional capabilities to internal customers and partner teams.
• Efficiently manage change order controls, purchase orders, and invoice validation/approvals.
• Excel at building strong working relationships with internal and external stakeholders across multiple projects.
• Identify and lead process improvement initiatives that improve the Engineering and cross-teams’ efficiencies, optimizing the teams’ value and delivery. Through collaboration, generate high-quality, cost-effective solutions in compressed periods of time.
• Up to 75% travel domestically although travel intensity can be variable and consist of up to three weeks in a row, including weekends.

A day in the life
You are managing one or multiple projects that can vary in scope, complexity and duration.
Daily tasks may comprise of site coordination with operations teams and contractors on project execution activities or changes; deep diving project progress, schedule and resources, while identifying barriers, creating solutions and driving resolutions. You may be facilitating the planning and/or implementation meetings with projects’ stakeholders, ensuring alignment in objectives, expectations, and the next steps; you would capture and publish detailed notes after each meeting to drive ownership and follow-through on the actions and decisions. Reviewing and approving Sorter System Functional specification document is one of the essential tasks, and you may be tracking the on-time creation of the sorter configurations with the internal automation teams. You may be brainstorming and developing workaround solutions while mitigating the project delays or design issues. As a part of the acceptance testing, you may be performing systems installation quality, safety, throughput, and performance qualifications, frequently communicating the progress to internal and external stakeholders. In addition, you may be supporting/training other engineering team members, utilizing the knowledge of Amazon’s safety, mechanical, electrical and controls installation standard and guidelines.

Global Engineering Services (GES) North America (NA) Operations Engineering, or Ops Eng, works across North America to deliver Material Handling System launches, retrofits, and innovations. A day in the life can take place on a jobsite, in an active facility, or in one of Amazon’s corporate offices. GES NA Ops Eng is highly team-oriented, working daily be smarter together, be faster together, and to grow together.

About the team
The OE Execution Team is responsible for delivery of Automation Infrastructure projects related to material handling, storage, processing, and delivery of products to retrofits and newbuilds throughout First and Middle Miles across all regions within North America.

At Amazon, we are all Owners and leverage unique opportunities presented to us by owning everything
from firm engineering to project execution and final hand-off to our customers. We are a diverse,
upbeat, creative team of engineers and managers working on a daily basis to ensure that our internal
customers have capabilities to deliver on the Customer Promise.
We not only build, but we are also consistently improving our capabilities at Amazon. Continuous
improvement is the ongoing enhancement of our systems through incremental and
breakthrough developments. We are continually raising the quality bar, and are never satisfied.
We seek to improve through captured lessons learned that are incorporated back into our mechanisms
as a way to perpetually improve upon the next design and processes iterations.
We continually learn, grow, and develop throughout the organization and our Subject Matter Expertise is leveraged globally.
We are the Team! We collaborate, support, help and leverage each other in delivering on the business
objectives.

Amazon offers a full range of benefits that support you and eligible family members, including domestic partners and their children. Benefits can vary by location, the number of regularly scheduled hours you work, length of employment, and job status such as seasonal or temporary employment. The benefits that generally apply to regular, full-time employees include:
1. Medical, Dental, and Vision Coverage
2. Maternity and Parental Leave Options
3. Paid Time Off (PTO)
4. 401(k) Plan

If you are not sure that every qualification on the list describes you exactly, we'd still love to hear from you! At Amazon, we value people with unique backgrounds, experiences, and skillsets. If you’re passionate about this role and want to make an impact on a global scale, please apply!