Sr Food Process Engineer (Bakery)

Sr. Process Engineer (Bakery SME)

Burlington, Iowa

Job Description

Shearer’s Foods, founded in 1974 and headquartered in Massillon, OH, is a leading manufacturer of salty snacks, cookies, and crackers. Specializing in private label and co-manufacturing, Shearer’s is the largest supplier of private brand salty snacks and second-largest supplier of private brand cookies and crackers.

With a strong focus on innovation, service, quality, and sustainability, Shearer’s has been awarded the food industry’s highest award for environmental sustainability, as well as multiple Supplier of the Year awards.

Operating 16 locations across North America and employing more than 5000 team members, Shearer’s is driven by its core values of People, Grow, Impact and Win. The company mission is to deliver exceptional products and services that make snacking a time to celebrate for our customers, colleagues, and community.

At Shearer’s Foods, we believe in a skills-first approach to recruitment and employment. This means focusing on what you can do and how you can grow, rather than traditional metrics alone. We are committed to adhering to anti-exclusion practices, removing barriers to access, and enhancing opportunities for all individuals based on merit and potential. Your skills, experience, and perspective are valuable—and we want to empower you to make your mark here with us.

Responsibilities

The Sr. Food Process Engineer position is responsible for the efficient production of high quality baked snack food products in a continuous, improvement-based environment, while also creating and maintaining a safe work environment. This is to be accomplished through effective leadership, coaching and development of individuals.

Your seat at the table

Serve as the company wide subject matter expert on bakery processing (Crème Cookies, Wirecut Cookies, Crackers and Wafer products). Provide technical knowledge, direction, education, and assistance in the production and processing of high-quality snack food products.

• Create, teach, train, coach and enforce all segments of the Bakery Processing Asset Control Tower to achieve best quality product repeatably and efficiently.
• Provide onsite and remote technical support and troubleshooting support to the plant teams.
• Troubleshoot new or existing product problems involving designs, materials, or processes.
• Investigate or resolve operational problems, such as material use variances or bottlenecks.
• Identify opportunities or implement changes to improve manufacturing processes or products or to reduce costs, using knowledge of manufacturing processes, tooling and production equipment, assembly methods, quality control standards, and/or product design, materials and parts.
• Apply continuous improvement methods such as lean manufacturing to enhance manufacturing quality, reliability, or cost-effectiveness.
• Conduct mass balances of complete processes.
• Determine root causes of failures or recommend changes in designs, tolerances, or processing methods, using statistical procedures.
• Prepare documentation on process control for new and existing manufacturing processes or engineering procedures to achieve product specifications.
• Evaluate manufactured products according to specifications and quality standards.
• Train production personnel in new or existing methods.
• Training and development site Subject Matter Experts and process engineers on theory of operation and practical application.
• Commercialization of new products and processes.
• Design tests of finished products or process capabilities to establish standards or validate process requirements.

Leads and Develops Team Members

• Coaches team members on a daily basis in the principles of production.
• Leads the team through an emphasis on both production and people.
• Communicates effectively with employees through both oral and written means.
• Conducts employee training to improve employees’ expertise and knowledge in equipment operations, work safety procedures, and teamwork, or assigns employee training to experienced workers.
• Provides feedback to employees on individual performance standards in a timely and efficient manner.
• Builds rapport and collaborative relationships across cross-functional teams.

What You Bring to the Table:

• Degree in engineering or science is preferred
• 5-10 years of experience in bakery processing including cookies, crackers, wafer products
• Experience with continuous improvement tools such as kaizen, 5S, six sigma, and other such associate engagement and process improvement techniques.
• Knowledge of SQF, HAACP, GMP’s and other food safety programs as it relates to snack food manufacturing.
• Great analytical skills and ability to understand manufacturing systems.
• Proven leadership experience and ability to lead cross functional teams through influence, not just in direct reporting relationships.
• Excellent organizational and communication skills.
• Travel Requirements: ~25%

We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.