Sanitation Engineer

Description

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At Lactalis in the USA, we’re committed to providing meaningful opportunities for our people to learn, grow, and thrive—whether you’re just starting your journey with us or looking to take the next step in your career. From day one, we offer the tools and support to help you succeed.

As the world leader in dairy, Lactalis is a family-owned company with over 85,000 pragmatic and ambitious professionals across the globe. Each day, we’re proud to produce award-winning dairy products that bring people together.

In the US, we proudly offer an unrivaled house of beloved brands, including Galbani® Italian cheeses and ricotta, Président® specialty cheeses and butters, Kraft® natural and grated cheeses, Breakstone’s® cottage cheese, Cracker Barrel®, Black Diamond® cheddar, and Parmalat® milk. Our yogurt portfolio includes siggi’s®, Stonyfield Organic®, Brown Cow™, Oui®, Yoplait®, Go-Gurt®, :ratio®, Green Mountain Creamery®, and Mountain High®, along with a growing family of ethnic favorites like Karoun®, Gopi®, and Arz®.

At Lactalis, we live by our core values—Ambition, Engagement, and Simplicity. We foster a workplace where innovation thrives, diverse perspectives are celebrated, and everyone’s unique background and ideas are valued.

Even if you don’t meet every qualification, we encourage you to apply. We want to hear about your PASSION, your STORY, and how your EXPERTISE can help us shape the future of dairy. 

From your PASSION to ours

Midwest Yogurt, part of the Lactalis family of companies, is currently hiring a Sanitation Engineer based in Murfreesboro, TN.

Murfreesboro is a high performing, multi-platform non-union facility with over 300 employees leading the safe, high-quality production of a wide range of dairy products. This site supports the Midwest Yogurt business across over 10 production lines. 

This Sanitation Engineer position will be responsible for supporting Food Safety, Quality, Sanitation and Regulatory work at this facility. This position is designed to support all plant sanitation, clean-in-place (CIP) system programs, and validation processes. This role bridges the gap between engineering, quality assurance, and operations—supporting the validation of new equipment, optimizing chemical and utility consumption, and driving corrective actions based on system analytics.

From your EXPERTISE to our

Key responsibilities for this position include:

• Food Safety & Quality Department Collaboration: Provide FSQ (Food Safety & Quality) support and direction through technical understanding in the areas of sanitation and environmental cleaning, including but not limited Clean-in-Place (CIP) Systems, Environmental Monitoring, etc.
• CIP System Validation: Assist with the development and implementation of sanitation validation schedules and procedures, ensuring adherence to all relevant regulations. 
• CIP System Verification: Assist in the routine auditing of critical sanitation parameters, including all TACT parameters, to guarantee absolute compliance with validation standards.
• System Performance Tracking: Analyze daily microbiological test results for semi-finished products, finished goods, and environmental monitors (air, water, surfaces), supporting initiation of cross-functional action plans upon deviation.
• Sanitation Program Compliance: Conduct regular sanitation inspections and audits, identifying areas for improvement and implementing corrective actions to ensure consistent, premium hygienic outcomes before production start-up.
• Continuous Improvement & Optimization: Using Quality Engineering principles, collect, analyze, and interpret in-process and analytical data for the evaluation of adjustments to cleaning processes, balancing cost savings with absolute conformance to corporate specifications and food safety regulations.
• Sanitary Design & Innovation Support: Support R&D, cost-savings, reformulations, new product start-ups and new production equipment installations by leveraging their technical knowledge of plant sanitation systems and ensuring safe, seamless, and hygienic CIP integration at the physical interfaces between existing processes and newly installed systems.
• System Interface Safety: Collaborate with Operations, Maintenance, and Engineering teams to ensure a clean and safe working environment.

Requirements

From your STORY to ours

Qualified applicants will contribute the following:

Education

• A bachelor's degree is required.
• Majors in food science,  chemical engineering, microbiology, or a related technical discipline is preferred.

Experience

• 1 years progressive engineering or technical experience within a food/beverage manufacturing  facility (highly automated dairy, liquid processing, or wet plant environments  preferred). 3 years of experience highly preferred.

Certifications and specific knowledge

• Technical Expertise: General understanding of automated Clean-in-Place (CIP) systems, fluid dynamics, chemical titrations, and sanitary equipment design.
• Food Safety Standards: Working knowledge of microbiology, environmental monitoring programs (EMP), GMPs, and FSSC 22000/SQF food safety management systems.
• Certifications: PCQI (Preventive Controls for Human Food) or HACCP certification is highly preferred.
• Analytical Competence: Strong data-driven approach to troubleshooting, with the ability to interpret data, generate variance reports, and communicate technical updates effectively.

At Lactalis, we offer a comprehensive Total Rewards Program with a variety of affordable benefits and coverage options. We support insurance costs significantly, contribute generously to retirement plans, and offer Paid Time Off from day one. We are committed to your professional growth, providing training and development opportunities, including Education Reimbursement. Join us and grow your career.

Lactalis is an equal employment opportunity employer. We will not discriminate against applicants with regard to any legally-recognized basis including, but not limited to: veteran status, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, sexual orientation, and physical or mental disabilities. Further, any division of the Company that is an Affirmative Action Employer will comply with all related legal obligations.