WHAT DOES A LEAD PROJECT ENGINEER DO?
Published: Jan 16, 2026 - The Lead Project Engineer manages day-to-day tactical project activities, overseeing cost, schedule, and technical performance while acting as the primary liaison among engineering teams, project management, and leadership. This position tracks progress, prepares status and budget reports, and resolves issues to ensure productivity, quality, and customer satisfaction. The engineer also coordinates necessary reviews and approvals and conducts performance analyses to improve future projects and programs.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Lead Project Engineer
1. Lead Project Engineer Responsibilities
- Leadership Support: Provide leadership and technical support for Project Engineering
- Safety Management: Maintain personnel and contractor safety, ensuring process safety and environmental expectations are met, and ensure costs and schedules are achieved.
- Project Planning: Plans, prioritizes, coordinates, and aligns the work group activities to ensure that projects are delivered safely, on time, and on budget.
- Engineer Mentoring: Mentor the Project Engineers and guide them through the CPDEP process.
- Project Evaluation: Assist Project Engineers with evaluating requested projects, selecting alternatives, and defining project deliverables
- Scope Oversight: Provide oversight on the preparation and control of the project scope of work, specifications, justification, economics, schedules, and other applicable CPDEP deliverables, ensuring standards and codes are followed
- Contract Management: Assist Project Engineers with contract management for outside contractors
- Execution Oversight: Ensure Execution Project Deliverables are completed in accordance with the project plans.
- Project Reporting: Provide weekly and monthly updates on all projects, including capital spend forecasting data and other metrics
- Financial Tracking: Ensure Project Engineers execute the required SAP activities for project financial tracking
- Schedule Prioritization: Assist with setting priorities of the project execution schedule for the design contractor and the construction contractor
- Procedure Development: Develop or revise the Project Engineering department procedures
2. Lead Project Engineer Accountabilities
- Project Leadership: Be responsible for full lifecycle Project Engineering support for a range of Space-related products, Satellite, and Space Payload development programs.
- Team Leadership: Be responsible for successfully leading a project team to meet customer requirements within allocated cost and schedule commitments in a growing business area.
- Project Coordination: Develops, oversees, and coordinates the cost, schedule, and technical aspects of ongoing engineering projects within the program guidelines set by the Program Manager and customer.
- Project Reporting: Reviews the status of engineering projects and budgets, manages schedules, and prepares status reports.
- Issue Resolution: Assesses engineering issues and develops resolutions to meet productivity, quality, and customer satisfaction goals and objectives.
- Risk Management: Identifies, tracks, mitigates, manages, and dispositions program level risks.
- Resource Estimation: Estimate resource and material needs for the project or product.
- Resource Coordination: Provides the coordination between resource managers or supervisors and ensures all necessary reviews and approvals are received.
- Supply Coordination: Provides the coordination between technical and supply chain teams to ensure all necessary materials and subcontracts are received.
- Team Participation: Participate in small to medium-sized teams and perform a wide variety of tasks.
- Customer Collaboration: Work in a collaborative team environment on quick reaction projects, and will have regular contact with customers.
3. Lead Project Engineer Functions
- Program Leadership: Leads team in the execution of New Technology Introduction, New Product Introduction, New Source Introduction, and Continuous Product Improvement programs
- Stakeholder Communication: Communicate results to customers, suppliers, team members, and other business units
- Executive Representation: Acts as the spokesperson for the team in meetings with multiple levels of management and with the customer.
- Product Development: Draw upon foundational product development skills such as conceptual design, development of product or process, data analysis and extraction, failure resolution and prevention, and requirements management
- Technical Problem Solving: Solve a technical problem or create a critical component and systems or process.
- Decision Facilitation: Pull input from the whole team to formulate decisions and develop the output for the job or project.
- Financial Management: Manage the business and financial aspects of the job or project
- Team Support: Provide a supportive work environment for the team
- Talent Development: Mentor, coach, and develop others, and manage one's own development.
- Simulation Analysis: Directly conduct analytical simulation work, providing boundary conditions, load inputs, and evaluation of results.
4. Lead Project Engineer Overview
- Engineering Leadership: Lead and coordinate the engineering team for performing due diligence, feasibility studies, design for permitting, and detailed design (shop drawings and IFC drawings)
- Business Case Development: Lead and coordinate, while interfacing with the other units within the organization, the engineering team for preparing the technical part of the business case for any new opportunity to be submitted to the Project's Sponsor
- Design Planning: Perform the overall planning of the project's design activities
- Cost Estimation: Estimate the costs related to the construction
- RFP Management: Plan and execute, by managing the engineering team, all the engineering activities needed for any RFPs related to services, supply, and works (preparation of the technical package to be provided to the procurement function within the organization, bid technical evaluation, bid ranking, and contract negotiation)
- Design Review: Coordinate design review meetings, conduct technical analysis of design modifications, and non-conformities during the construction phase
- Operational Handover: Ensure the engineering support to the other units of the organization for completing the handover of the project to the operation and maintenance (O&M) function of the organization
- Project Reporting: Prepare project status reports for communicating with team members and other project stakeholders, whether they are internal (at all organizational levels) or external to the organization
- Process Improvement: Provide feedback for the continuous improvement of the design methodologies to the Head of the Design Unit
- Interface Management: Support the Project Manager in managing technical interfaces towards the local area or country O&M and other organizations
- Technical Collaboration: Collaborate with the renewable or thermal Project Engineer (mainly solar, wind, or gas) on integrated storage with renewable or thermal projects
- CapEx Estimation: Define the CapEx estimation for the main project items, in collaboration with other E&C units, Business Development, and Procurement
- Investment Reporting: Prepare investment committee technical reports in collaboration with other E&C units, Business Development, and Procurement
- Technical Specifications: Prepare and review purchasing technical specifications for equipment, materials, or services
- Contract Management: Manage external engineering service contracts, the engineering section of any EPC contracts, or any needs related to engineering activities
5. Lead Project Engineer Details and Accountabilities
- Project Engineering: Technical and project engineering responsibility for projects
- Control Systems: Design, implement, test, and commission control system projects by performing engineering applications and programming specifications.
- Site Support: Travel and work at customer sites, including industrial plants, etc.
- Status Reporting: Provides updates to the project manager and the Engineering Team Leader about the status of activities and KPIs.
- Standards Development: Develops technical standards and procedures within the project context
- Thought Leadership: Grow and develop into a thought leader within the organization
- Technical Review: Contributes to the project review process and gives technical guidance on project-related matters.
- Team Environment: Supports an environment conducive to successful team interaction
- Team Leadership: Lead a team comprising engineering staff of various levels of experience and responsibility
- Engineer Mentoring: Coaches and mentors junior engineers
- Technical Execution: Work with the project manager to lead technical execution for complex projects
- Project Accountability: Be responsible for meeting project schedule, engineering hour budgets, and customer satisfaction targets
- Customer Partnerships: Builds partnerships at a technical level with key customers.
- Sales Support: Present and develop technical aspects of sales proposals to customers.
- Policy Compliance: Be responsible for following all applicable corporate, company, governmental, and regulatory policies and procedures
- Ethics Compliance: Ensure compliance with Ethics, Standards of Business Conduct, Safety, Information Technology, and other RA policies and the relevant government regulations in the geography.
6. Lead Project Engineer Additional Details
- Program Operations: Be responsible for the day-to-day tactical duties for assigned programs.
- Project Oversight: Oversees and coordinates the cost, schedule, and technical aspects of ongoing engineering projects within the program guidelines set by the Program Manager and customer.
- Stakeholder Liaison: Serves as a single point of contact between engineering project management and planning, the engineering project team, and line management.
- Budget Review: Reviews the status of engineering projects and budgets
- Schedule Management: Manages schedules and prepares status reports.
- Issue Resolution: Assesses engineering project issues and develops resolutions to meet productivity, quality, and customer satisfaction goals and objectives.
- Progress Monitoring: Develops mechanisms for monitoring engineering project progress and for intervention and problem-solving with engineering project managers, line managers, and customers.
- Resource Coordination: Provides the coordination between resource managers or supervisors and ensures all necessary reviews and approvals are received.
- Performance Analysis: Conduct performance or project analyses during the phase down to benefit future or other engineering projects, missions, and programs.
7. Lead Project Engineer General Responsibilities
- Project Knowledge: Develop in-depth knowledge and understanding of projects or work orders
- Drawing Development: Identify all required details to be produced for the project and condense details into drawings
- Resource Coordination: Work with the Project Executive and the Project Scheduler to manage and allocate resources for the production of all engineering
- Engineering Definition: Clearly define all details for a complete engineering solution
- Client Coordination: Work directly with the client, architects, and GC to ensure cost-effective solutions to meet client requirements
- Engineering Planning: Work with the Project Executive to develop the project engineering plan
- Financial Evaluation: Evaluate financial impacts to project in the design and execution approach
- Value Engineering: Apply value engineering methods and techniques to deploy economic solutions
- Issue Tracking: Ensure the open items list (OIL) is maintained throughout the course of the project
8. Lead Project Engineer Roles and Details
- Requirements Translation: Translate the project contractual technical requirements into deliverables and tasks for the engineering teams (including design or layout, emulation, order entry, drawings, and commissioning)
- Resource Allocation: Identify needed resources across engineering teams and with external suppliers, and assign tasks across the project team
- Quality Assurance: Ensure a high degree of quality of output for all deliverables and the entire solution via adherence to established standards for processes, engineering quality, and standard work
- Issue Resolution: Identify and resolve issues that affect engineering tasks to avoid a negative impact on the project
- Performance Management: Monitor and manage project or team performance and ensure KPIs are met
- Work Package Delivery: Deliver the work package assigned by the Project Manager on time and within budget
- Stakeholder Interface: Act as the main point of contact for project management, installation, procurement, external suppliers, manufacturing, etc., regarding all engineering deliverables
- Specification Management: Ensure completion of all necessary specifications for third-party components, resale, etc., is accurate and complete
- Technical Coordination: Liaise with CE Leads or ME to ensure completion
- Resource Alignment: Align with line managers about performance, skill set, and availability of project engineering resources
- Progress Tracking: Track engineering progress and ensure the project is pacing to schedule
- Progress Reporting: Align with ME or CE Leads and SAE to report progress
- Project Reporting: Create project status reports, financial forecasts, and schedule updates
- Risk Support: Support the project manager in risk management and risk mitigation actions by documenting, escalating, and managing project risk, preparing PSR or PVRs
- Technical Review: Lead technical reviews and conduct post-mortem with PM to feed continuous improvement
9. Lead Project Engineer Responsibilities and Key Tasks
- Systems Direction: Providing technical direction in the use of Systems Development methodologies and processes
- Proposal Development: Leading and participating in Technical and Cost Proposal development
- Technical Advisory: Acting as an advisor to top management and customers on advanced technical studies and applications
- Performance Control: Using metrics, earned value, and other techniques to measure and control system development efforts, and recommending organizational process improvements
- Task Coordination: Interfacing with other activities to direct and perform tasks
- Architecture Assurance: Ensuring system architecture and related documentation are developed according to project standards
- Effort Estimation: Estimating personal and team efforts for assigned tasks
- Risk Management: Identifying and managing program technical risks
- Project Planning: Establishing schedule, resource, budget, and tool requirements for tasks
- Change Assessment: Assessing the impact of modification requests
- Staffing Alignment: Working with skill centers to ensure assigned staffing aligns with project needs
- Process Compliance: Ensuring that applicable Engineering processes are followed and suggesting process improvements on assigned projects