Senior Process Engineer

Generous Brands is seeking a Senior Process Engineer to support and advance the performance of its Bakersfield processing systems. This is a hands-on manufacturing engineering role with senior technical leadership responsibilities focused on improving stability, repeatability, throughput, yield, quality, and cost outcomes across critical beverage processing operations.

Based onsite in Bakersfield, this position partners across Operations, Maintenance, Quality/Food Safety, Engineering, Continuous Improvement, and OEM/vendor resources. The role also translates process needs into automation and control solutions, driving sustainable change from root-cause analysis through validation and sustained verification.

Key Responsibilities

• Improve stability, repeatability, throughput, yield, quality, and cost performance of Bakersfield processing systems.
• Identify chronic process losses, determine root causes, set technical direction, and implement sustainable corrective actions.
• Translate process requirements into effective automation and control solutions.
• Partner with a Controls Engineer or Automation Specialist to develop functional requirements, troubleshoot control-related process issues, and support/validate changes to PLC/HMI, sequences, recipes, setpoints, interlocks, instrumentation, and alarms.
• Provide daily floor-level technical support for beverage processing systems, emphasizing thermal, aseptic, blending, transfer, homogenization, evaporation/concentration, storage, and CIP operations.
• Act as the senior technical process owner for assigned systems by prioritizing high-value opportunities, setting technical direction, and driving cross-functional actions to verified completion.
• Troubleshoot complex process problems using data and equipment/process interactions, including product flow, temperatures, pressures, flow rates, levels, valve states, pump performance, instrumentation, and control sequences.
• Lead root-cause analysis for recurring downtime, process instability, slow cycles, startup losses, product losses, and chronic faults; implement, verify, document, and sustain performance improvements.
• Analyze OEE and downtime losses, process cycle times, throughput constraints, yield, giveaway, product recovery, changeovers, sanitation/CIP time, startup/shutdown losses, utility consumption, and operating variability to set improvement priorities.
• Establish and maintain process centerlines, critical operating parameters, recipes, setpoints, control limits, startup/shutdown standards, troubleshooting guides, and related operating standards.
• Develop process flow diagrams, control narratives, functional descriptions, operating philosophies, test protocols, and technical requirements for process and automation changes.
• Own or support commissioning, startup, qualification, and performance verification of process modifications and new equipment, including punch lists, test protocols, and clear acceptance criteria.
• Maintain accurate SOPs, process specifications, centerlines, troubleshooting trees, change records, and technical training materials.
• Partner with Quality/Food Safety and the appropriate process authority to ensure changes affecting critical food-safety parameters are reviewed, validated, approved, and documented prior to implementation.
• Support sanitary design and optimization of hygienic piping, pumps, valves, tanks, instrumentation, heat exchangers, aseptic systems, and CIP systems, identifying drivers of fouling, poor cleanability, contamination risk, or excessive cleaning time.
• Use process historian data, trends, alarms, operator observations, maintenance findings, statistical methods, and structured problem solving to confirm improvements remain stable across shifts, products, and operating conditions.
• Provide technical input to capital projects when process changes or equipment upgrades are required, including scope development, design review, vendor evaluation, FAT/SAT support, startup, and performance validation.
• Provide technical coaching and mentorship to engineers, technicians, operators, and maintenance personnel to strengthen plant troubleshooting capability and establish repeatable engineering standards and best practices.
• Support planned shutdowns, major process interventions, production trials, startups, and urgent troubleshooting as business needs require.

Required Qualifications

• Strong working knowledge of sanitary liquid processing, including sanitary piping, pumps, valves, tanks, heat exchangers, instrumentation, CIP, thermal processing, and automated process systems.
• Demonstrated ability to solve recurring manufacturing process problems and convert data and analysis into sustained operational improvements.
• Ability to read and interpret P&IDs, process flow diagrams, process trends, electrical/control drawings, HMI screens, I/O information, and PLC logic to diagnose process-control interactions.
• Ability to partner effectively with Controls/Automation personnel to translate process requirements into PLC/HMI, sequence, recipe, setpoint, instrumentation, interlock, permissive, and control-logic changes.
• Working knowledge of thermal processing fundamentals, including heat transfer, holding time/temperature relationships, regeneration, flash/vacuum cooling, homogenization, aseptic tanks, sterile boundaries, and product recovery.
• Experience troubleshooting automated pre-sterilization, production, intermediate cleaning, CIP, startup, shutdown, diversion/reject, and aseptic sequence conditions.
• Ability to use process historians, trend data, downtime/OEE information, and structured root-cause analysis tools to identify, prioritize, and verify improvement opportunities.
• Strong cross-functional leadership, communication, organization, facilitation, and technical documentation skills, with the ability to influence execution without relying solely on formal authority.
• Ability to manage multiple changing priorities, respond effectively to urgent production issues, and maintain disciplined follow-through on corrective actions.
• Commitment to plant safety, lockout/tagout, PPE, management-of-change practices, engineering standards, and protection of critical food-safety and quality controls.
• Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Food Engineering, Process Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Minimum 7 years of process/manufacturing engineering experience in food, beverage, dairy, liquid nutrition, pharmaceutical, or another highly automated sanitary liquid-processing environment.
• Demonstrated experience working directly with Controls/Automation personnel on automated process systems and control-related process improvements.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and ability to create clear technical documentation, operating standards, and engineering deliverables.

Technologies

• PLC/HMI, PLC, HMI
• Microsoft Office
• Rockwell/Allen-Bradley, Siemens
• AutoCAD
• Historian/SCADA tools

Travel

• 15%

Compensation

• $110,000 - $130,000 per year D.O.E

Benefits

• Medical, Dental & Vision
• Group Life and AD&D
• Voluntary Life and AD&D
• Group Short & Long-Term Disability
• 401(k)
• Paid Time Off
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Employee Assistance Program
• Gym Membership Discounts
• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Parental leave
• Relocation assistance

Location and Work Details

• Bakersfield, CA (in person, onsite)
• Employment category: Full Time - Regular
• FLSA status: Exempt
• Hours & workdays: Full-time with schedule aligned to plant and business needs; availability to support planned shutdowns, startups, production trials, major process interventions, and urgent production issues outside normal business hours, including overtime or weekends when required.

Physical Demands & Environmental Hazards

• Regular work in both office and manufacturing environments, including extended periods of standing and walking on the plant floor.
• Ability to climb stairs/ladders as required and work around moving equipment and in hot, cold, humid, wet, and noisy manufacturing areas while using required PPE.
• Ability to lift or handle items up to 50 pounds when necessary.
• Exposure to normal food and beverage manufacturing hazards; comply with all applicable plant safety, sanitation, and PPE requirements.

Preferred Qualifications

• 10+ years of relevant process/manufacturing engineering experience in highly automated sanitary liquid processing.
• Hands-on experience with Tetra Pak Tetra Therm Aseptic VTIS systems or comparable direct/indirect UHT and aseptic thermal processing systems.
• Experience with low-acid and/or high-acid beverage processing, pasteurization, UHT/aseptic systems, evaporation/concentration, and sanitary liquid processing.
• Experience with Rockwell/Allen-Bradley, Siemens, or comparable PLC/HMI platforms; ability to read and troubleshoot control logic is strongly preferred, and hands-on programming capability is a plus.
• Experience with equipment commissioning, FAT/SAT, production startup, AutoCAD, historian/SCADA tools, statistical analysis, process simulation, or project-management tools.