Project Manager Engineer

CHRISTOPHER K. HIGGINS

**** ******* ***** ****, ********, GA 30144 • 770-***-**** • gnjk38@r.postjobfree.com

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT / PROJECT MANAGEMENT / PROJECT ENGINEERING

Conceptualization & Design … Prototyping, Testing & Fabrication … Industrialization & Market Launch

Innovative, results-driven, and business-savvy mechanical design engineer with a winning track record of driving the development, commercialization, and sale of standard and custom-engineered solutions for a diverse customer base. Proven history of visualizing the concept, engineering the design, fabricating and testing the prototype, and facilitating technical support for go-to-market activities. Excel at re-envisioning products to increase manufacturability, lower costs, and derive greater commercial success on a global scale. Hold multiple patents for cutting-edge technologies.

Leadership acumen directing the planning, management, and delivery of design projects, managing all phases of the project lifecycle scope definition and budget development (<$2M) to final handoff to customer.

Effective at parachuting into new environments and acclimating quickly. Adept at taking over at-risk projects and introducing rigorous processes/tools to get them back on track for successful and expedited deployment.

Expert at discerning customer needs/requirements and bridging the gap between the company, customer, R&D, and engineering teams to devise robust, value-based solutions that achieve/exceed market performance goals.

Polished communicator/presenter skilled at devising and presenting sound presentations, business cases, and cost/benefit analyses, influencing and winning approval/sponsorship from key decision-makers.

Solving problems and breaking sophisticated technical, operational, and people challenges down to their simplest forms, discerning underlying root causes, and crafting plans to eliminate obstacles and facilitate forward progress.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

ACI / AIR LIQUIDE ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES US LLC – 2004-Present

Project Manager, Mechanical & Process Control Engineer

Drive development, commercialization, and sale of customized combustion systems solutions for the metals markets. Emerged as the team lead over 10-13 others, validating the work of others while concurrently managing multiple high-impact/high-reward projects, defining scope, requirements, budgets, schedules, milestone, and objectives for customers in a niche market (six viable competitors globally for core market of combustion systems for EAF steel furnaces).

• Positioned ACI to post 3X the profitability of the parent company’s other business units and deliver its fourth-highest year of revenue performance in 2011. Annual revenue capture averages $8M to $10M+.

• Innovated singular products that have delivered upwards of $5M in cumulative product sales worldwide.

• Drove design of a new product/technology to replace one that suffered consistent failures. Product directely generates 15% and drives 35% of division sales, holds a 55% profit margin, and is recognized industry-wide as the “gold standard.”

• Led cost-optimization initiatives on several products, simplifying complex fabrications and design layouts to cut manufacturing costs as much as 75% while preserving functionality.

• Routinely requested to redesign/reengineer products developed by R&D in order to pare down the costs, maximize impact to the marketplace, and deliver maximum profitability and return on investment.

• Built strong working relationships with key equipment fabrication vendors.

EARLY EXPERIENCE: Advanced beyond ground-floor project/engineering positions with Applied Engineering & Science, Blue Circle North America, and Southern Polytechnic State University. Key projects include optimization of industrial wastewater systems for food manufacturers, design of groundsoil remediation processing system/subsystems, and design improvements for a railroad fuel transfer system and an auto-lot transfer yard and subsystems.

EDUCATION & CREDENTIALS

• BSME, 2001, SOUTHERN POLYTECHNIC STATE UNIVERSITY

Ranked #1 for “Best Design Proposal” in both the 2000 and 2001 SAE Collegiate Design Series High

Mileage Vehicle Competitions. Earned award from the Georgia Department of Transportation in 2000.

Affiliations: American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)

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