Thread regarding Honeywell International Inc. layoffs

PE can be different depending on business unit. It's a master of ceremony role and custome facing. They are the link between PM and Engineering. I've seen some really kick A PEs. They handle the project nuances, scope growth and provide engineering with what they need to design. Or...they bounce around because they don't have a clue what they are doing. It's both technical and program related. It's also a lot of nagging as mentioned before.

@uoqg Remember, a scapegoat is as good as a solution.

A PE is a scapegoat for everything that goes wrong on a project and at Honeywell, it will go very wrong! If you try and raise the flag that problems are going to happen, be it the result of material not coming in on time, not enough people to do the job, etc., you will be told to just move forward like everything is just fine. And as you might guess, when it isn’t, guess who gets blamed. If you’re looking to age yourself 20 years in 6 months, it’s the job for you!

A PE deals with everything that is wrong with this company, all project stress goes through him or her. Some thrive. I learned a lot during my time but burned out. I moved out to a place with 100% reduction in stress and 50% increase in pay.

The PE role could be a path to other roles such as PM, Eng Mgr, etc

The PE here can probably do the job of a PM at other companies, the missing piece is customer interactions, contracts, ... but thats not to master

Depends on the line of business.

• Develop specs for new product introduction
• Lead competitive tear downs of other products to compare cost
• Align design for unique features designed for global regional markets
• Brief executives from different functions on project status, milestones, release dates
• Develop best practices for HOS (operating system) bronze, silver, gold
• Realize competitors are taking share from you when reviewing market studies, but spin it for the brass
• Attend global meetings to consider lower cost rooftops to target fixed cost reduction metrics
• Try to recruit staff due to attrition of voluntary resignations and unvoluntary twice a year RIF's
• Assist with root cause product design issues, plan for new supplier's research, and learn you are slow paying them and any supplier leverage is a challenge
• Visit supplier sites in low-cost regions or some HON owned
• Report metrics and skew it to show improvement to new leadership
• Call in sick with the HIPAC donations are requested
• Remain unbiased on regional demands of APAC, EU, NA, and LATAM based on CX, UX research, and discovering this is exactly what was in the original design specs, but eliminated to reduce cost based on overhead cost allocation for executive bonus targets
• Finally, you dread every waking moment of your time after your Team becomes dysfunctional based on the toxic HON culture

more work than most Directors and up

@srr is on it. As a PE for a project I had to be a nag. Track progress, nag. Nag some more, report issues and then end up fixing them myself w/no support, ever. No perks to it that I can recall except a one-line mention on my resume.

If you are a project engineer for the conveyor / material handling business then your focus will be on the mechanical aspects of the system that has been sold to the end client. You will be handed a system layout that was developed by the concepting and estimating team during the proposal stage. You will review this layout and finalize any details necessary to produce an approval drawing set for the customer to sign off on. Once customer approval is obtained you will be responsible for ordering the equipment and then handing off these details to the electrical and controls engineers so they can do the same.

Project managers oversee the entire process as the system moves through mechanical design, electrical design, software design, installation, and commissioning so you will be expected to keep them updated with your status and issues. Expect to travel for verifying measurements onsite, factory acceptance testing, and for support during construction of the system which will span anywhere from weeks to months. The amount of projects assigned to you will depend on how big these systems are however the normal expectation is that you will be working on multiple projects concurrently as they move through various stages to completion.

Like with the greater organization there has been a mass exodus of talent while open positions are not being filled. This makes the situation unbearable for anyone who is left so the attrition is like a runaway train at this point. You don't want to be here if you value your health and sanity...

Oversee and review engineering activities on projects.
Report to program manager on status and risk of schedule, cost and technical issues.
Provide feedback on support personnel to people managers that they will use for poor reviews, poor block in the 9 square and PIP selection.

The role of a project engineer is going to vary a lot depending on which business unit you have in mind. This particular forum seems to have a lot of people from the Aerospace side of things so their responses are more tailored to Aero...

What is the business unit in your case? In other words, what are they making?

@agh post describes it well except for one thing. A project engineer can never ever admit that they don't have people, or technical skill) to do the work on schedule. And if an engineer manager dares raise those concerns, to complain to their director that they should be laid off.

I'm a retired Aero Engines Principal Project Engineer from the propulsion engines side of the business. The following is a copy/paste from Glassdoor for a current project engineer posting for the HTF7000 propulsion engine program that is pretty close to what my responsibilities were. It is completely different from the program management responsibilities but I worked closely with them. The majority of the program managers I worked with came from engineering.

Key Responsibilities

• Leading root cause investigations and implementing corrective actions
• Executing changes to designs and approved source lists for engine and powerplant components
• Creating and publishing overhaul and repair instructions for engine and powerplant components
• Schedule and milestone development/management
• Cost and budget management, including estimate development and project planning
• Technical requirements development
• Project performance and technical execution
• Risk/opportunity development and management
• Vendor interface and management of technical requirements
• Presenting project plans and status to customers, operators and internal stakeholders

Everything. PM drinks wine with customers takes them to sporting events and pretends to work all this while the PE is at work buried in problems.

Forward emails and beg for people to do work

Simply put: a program manager’s minion…

Responsible for:

• costs (NRE and recurring)
• schedule
• technical performance