Job Title: Senior Process Engineer
Department: Maintenance / Engineering
Reports To: This position typically reports to the President of Engineering and the Vice President of Engineering and serves as a key member of the site leadership team. The role works closely with Operations, Quality Assurance, Food Safety, Sanitation, Supply Chain, Finance, Human Resources, Procurement, vendors, contractors, and external regulatory or auditing partners. This Position does not have any direct reports.
Job Summary: The Director of Engineering provides strategic and hands-on leadership for all engineering, maintenance, reliability, automation, utilities, facilities, and capital project activities within a sous vide food manufacturing environment. This role ensures that plant equipment, infrastructure, and technical systems support safe, compliant, efficient, and high-quality production of refrigerated and ready-to-eat food products. The Director partners closely with Operations, Quality Assurance, Food Safety, Sanitation, Supply Chain, Finance, and Executive Leadership to drive equipment reliability, production uptime, process improvement, regulatory compliance, and long-term manufacturing capability.
Key Responsibilities:- Develop and execute the plant engineering strategy to improve safety, quality, food safety, throughput, labor efficiency, equipment uptime, sanitation effectiveness, and cost performance.
- Assist with capital planning and execution, including project scope development, budget management, vendor selection, contractor oversight, installation, commissioning, startup, and post-project performance validation.
- Provide technical leadership for sous vide processing systems, cook tanks, chill systems, vacuum packaging equipment, boilers, refrigeration, compressed air, water systems, wastewater systems, conveyors, automation, controls, PLCs, HMIs, and facility infrastructure.
- Partner with Quality Assurance and Food Safety to ensure engineering practices support HACCP, GMP, GFSI/SQF or BRC requirements, USDA/FDA expectations as applicable, allergen controls, sanitation design, hygienic zoning, environmental monitoring, and food defense programs.
- Drive continuous improvement initiatives using root cause analysis, 5-Why, A3, Lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, standard work, and data-driven problem solving.
- Ensure all engineering and maintenance activities comply with OSHA, LOTO, electrical safety, ammonia or refrigeration safety requirements where applicable, environmental regulations, company safety standards, and local building codes.
- Lead the engineering, maintenance, reliability, facilities, utilities, and automation functions for a high-volume sous vide food manufacturing plant.
- Build, coach, and develop a high-performing technical team, including maintenance managers, engineers, supervisors, planners, technicians, controls specialists, and project resources.
- Manage engineering and maintenance budgets, capital expenditures, contractor spend, utilities usage, MRO inventory, and cost-reduction initiatives.
- Support new product introductions, line extensions, process validations, packaging changes, capacity expansions, and automation improvements.
- Establish engineering standards, project management practices, sanitation-ready equipment design expectations, documentation controls, and technical training programs.
- Serve as a key member of the plant leadership team, providing clear communication, risk assessments, project updates, and technical recommendations to senior leadership.
Qualifications:- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related technical field required; advanced degree preferred.
- 15 or more years of progressive engineering, maintenance, reliability, or technical operations experience in food manufacturing, refrigerated foods, ready-to-eat foods, protein processing, sous vide, aseptic, pharmaceutical, or another highly regulated manufacturing environment.
- 7 or more years of leadership experience managing engineering, maintenance, reliability, automation, or facilities teams in a 24/7 manufacturing operation.
- Demonstrated experience leading capital projects, plant expansions, equipment installations, automation upgrades, and commissioning activities.
- Strong knowledge of preventive and predictive maintenance, CMMS systems, maintenance planning, reliability-centered maintenance, root cause analysis, and spare parts management.
- Working knowledge of food safety and regulatory programs, including HACCP, GMPs, sanitation design, allergen control, environmental monitoring, GFSI standards such as SQF or BRC, and OSHA requirements.
- Experience with refrigeration, boilers, thermal processing, chilled water systems, vacuum packaging, cook/chill operations, PLCs, HMIs, SCADA, conveyors, utilities, and plant infrastructure required.
- Strong financial acumen, including budget preparation, capital justification, return-on-investment analysis, vendor management, and cost control.
- Excellent leadership, communication, problem-solving, project management, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
Physical Requirements:- Work is performed in both office and food manufacturing plant environments, including refrigerated, wet, hot, and high-noise production areas.
- Must be able to regularly walk production floors, access equipment areas, inspect utilities and mechanical spaces, and respond to operational issues.
- Will require availability outside normal business hours to support plant operations, critical downtime events, project installations, audits, inspections, or emergency response needs.
- Travel required: 40-60% as needed.
- Must comply with all company safety, food safety, GMP, personal protective equipment, and sanitation requirements.
Competencies:- Strategic thinker who can translate business goals into practical engineering priorities.
- Hands-on technical leader comfortable working on the plant floor and engaging directly with equipment, technicians, operators, and supervisors.
- Strong change leader with the ability to build structure, accountability, and consistency in a fast-paced production environment.
- Collaborative partner who can balance production needs, food safety requirements, capital constraints, and long-term reliability goals.
- Data-driven decision maker with a focus on measurable improvements in safety, uptime, quality, yield, labor efficiency, utilities usage, and maintenance cost.
- Experience with ROI capitol analysis, Standardized subcontractor RFQ, Technical OEM approval drawing reviews, OEM FAT & PAT.
- Subcontractor competitive bid review and analysis.
- Standardizing plant material selection and means and methods for equipment install.
- Ability to read and interrupt PFD, P&ID, ISO and DWG drawings. Working Knowledge of AutoCAD, Bluebeam, Procore, Microsoft Excell, Project and other software as required.
- Continuous improvement mindset with experience standardizing processes and developing technical talent.
