Sr. R&D Process Engineer - Dairy

at  Land OLakes

SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES

• Deep understanding of dairy chemistry and dairy processing techniques is required. Highly desired to have experience with one or more of the following dairy unit operations or make processes: spray drying, evaporators, membrane filtration, fermentation, or crystallization.
• Experience working in or with dairy manufacturing facilities
• Broad and deep range of technical knowledge of foundational engineering and scientific principles
• Experience identifying and implementing cost savings projects
• Strong written and verbal communication and collaboration skills
• Data-based analytical thinking; understanding of Statistical tools and methods
• Proficient with Microsoft Office applications and Minitab
• Strong understanding of analytical and physical characterization methods
• Innovative, inventive, creative thinking and problem solving, with agility to pivot and dive deep into technical challenges
• Ability to travel 10-25% of time

PREFERRED EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION

• BS degree in Chemical, Mechanical, or other related engineering discipline along with a minimum of 10 years relevant work experience.
• Understanding of Statistical Tools and Methods
• Experience with Dairy Processing
• Strong technical background
• Experience mentoring junior engineers
• Professional Engineer and/or Green Belt Certification would elevate a candidate but is not required
• Familiarity with engineering modeling tools, such as FEA and CFD, is desirable but not required

• Provides dairy process engineering expertise and knowledge across Dairy Foods product platforms and manufacturing sites
• Proactively identifies opportunities for cost savings, innovation, manufacturing network optimization, material yield improvements, and quality improvements to enable business topline growth
• Leads scale-up from pilot plant to manufacturing and defines process design for new, improved, or revised products and processes
• Applies engineering principles (mass & energy balances, thermodynamics, and fluid dynamics) for scale-up and process design
• Leads implementation of projects, plant trials and capital projects within plant and pilot plant
• Leads cross-functional teams in process development or improvement efforts to enhance margin and/or increase capacity
• Analyzes manufacturing data and utilizes statistical methods to troubleshoot and/or identify opportunities to ensure manufacturing systems reliably deliver high quality products
• Identifies and documents product processing requirements and selection criteria for new process equipment
• Collaborates with Operations, Manufacturing, Quality, Engineering, Marketing, Sales, Regulatory, other R&D functions, and external parties on moderately complex projects and initiatives
• Mentors and process engineers, scientists, and technologists within the organization