Process Development Engineer - Pet R&D

Business Unit Overview

Headquartered in Lakeville, Minn., Post Consumer Brands, a business unit of Post Holdings, Inc., is dedicated to providing people and their pets with delicious food choices for every taste and budget. The company's portfolio includes beloved brands such as Honey Bunches of Oats, PEBBLES, Grape-Nuts and Malt-O-Meal cereal and Peter Pan peanut butter, as well as Rachael Ray Nutrish, Kibbles 'n Bits and 9Lives dog and cat food. Post also provides private label solutions to customers in pet food, cereal, nut butters and granola. As a company committed to high standards of quality and to our values, we are driven by one idea: To make lives better by making delicious food accessible for all. For more information about our brands, visit www.postconsumerbrands.com and follow us on LinkedIn or Facebook for the latest news.

Location Description

Post Consumer Brands corporate headquarters in Lakeville, Minnesota, is about 20 miles south of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Lakeville has all the benefits of smaller town living with access to everything a large metropolitan area has to offer. Join more than 400 team members collaborating on the two-building campus to help put breakfast on the tables of millions of consumers in North America.

Responsibilities

Process Development Engineer - Pet R&D

Lakeville, Minnesota | Hybrid

Big Company Opportunity. Small Company Attitude.

At Post Consumer Brands, you'll have the resources to do big things and the close-knit culture to see your handprint on the work.

Our pet portfolio is an exciting part of how we make delicious, high-quality food accessible for all. We're looking for a Process Development Engineer - Pet R&D who is passionate about food science, food processing, pet food development, and turning innovative ideas into scalable manufacturing solutions.

This is an opportunity for an engineer who wants to do more than maintain existing processes. You'll help develop, optimize, scale and commercialize food and pet food processes, working at the intersection of R&D, engineering and manufacturing. From pilot trials and experimentation to equipment commissioning and plant-scale production, you'll help turn ideas into products families trust and pets love.

If you have experience developing food products or processes and enjoy solving complex manufacturing challenges, we want to hear from you.

What You'll Do

Develop & Scale Food and Pet Food Innovation

• Lead and support process development, scale-up and commercialization for new pet food and snack products, renovations, value engineering and productivity initiatives.
• Translate product concepts into reliable, commercially scalable manufacturing processes.
• Design and execute plant and supplier trials, analyze results, troubleshoot challenges and validate solutions.
• Apply food-processing and engineering principles to optimize quality, cost, capacity, manufacturability and product performance.

Build Better Processes & Technologies

• Develop, optimize and implement proprietary processing technologies and equipment that support our pet innovation roadmap.
• Lead commissioning activities and partner with Operations to qualify new products, equipment and process technologies.
• Improve existing manufacturing processes through value engineering, experimentation, data analysis and technology development.
• Apply mass and energy balances, heat transfer principles, designed experiments, process flow diagrams and analytical methods to solve complex process challenges.

Turn R&D Into Commercial Reality

• Move ideas from concept and experimentation through scale-up and commercialization.
• Create manufacturing specifications, standard operating procedures and technical documentation that enable consistent execution across manufacturing facilities and co-packers.
• Partner with equipment manufacturers, suppliers and service providers to evaluate and implement new capabilities.
• Identify potential patent opportunities as well as legal and environmental considerations associated with new technologies and processes.

Collaborate Across the Business

• Work side by side with R&D, Operations, Supply Chain, Marketing, manufacturing facilities, suppliers and external partners.
• Collect and analyze information from plant operations, suppliers, customers and consumers to identify opportunities and solve problems.
• Communicate technical findings clearly and turn complex engineering data into actionable recommendations.

Qualifications

What You Bring

We're particularly interested in candidates who combine strong engineering fundamentals with hands-on food or pet food product and process development experience.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, with Chemical Engineering preferred.
• 5+ years of relevant R&D, process development, product development, food engineering or manufacturing experience.
• Experience developing or improving food, pet food, snacks or other closely related food manufacturing processes.
• Demonstrated experience taking products or processes through development, scale-up, plant trials and/or commercialization.
• Strong understanding of engineering fundamentals and their application in a manufacturing environment.
• Demonstrated ability to use data, experimentation and structured problem solving to develop practical solutions.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to collaborate effectively across R&D, Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain, suppliers and other cross-functional partners.
• Ability to manage multiple technical projects in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to lift up to 50 pounds.

Experience That Will Help You Stand Out

• Pet food R&D or process development experience.
• Experience with extrusion and/or retorted food products.
• Food industry experience involving process development, product scale-up, thermal processing or commercialization.
• Experience conducting manufacturing trials and transferring products or processes from bench or pilot scale into commercial production.
• Experience partnering directly with food manufacturing facilities, co-manufacturers, ingredient suppliers or equipment manufacturers.
• Hands-on experience commissioning or qualifying new food-processing equipment and technologies.

Why You'll Love This Role

See your work become real.

Your projects won't stop at the lab. You'll help take technology and products through trials, scale-up and commercial manufacturing.

Build the future of pet food.

Use your food-processing and engineering expertise to help develop the processes behind innovative pet food and snack products.

Solve interesting technical problems.

Bring together experimentation, data, engineering fundamentals and creative thinking to solve challenges involving product quality, processing, cost and manufacturing capability.

Make a visible impact.

You'll have the resources and reach of a larger organization while working in an environment where your ideas, technical expertise and individual contributions can make a noticeable difference.

Location & Travel

Lakeville, Minnesota | Hybrid

Hybrid and on-site expectations may vary based on project and manufacturing needs.

Because this is a hands-on process development role, travel is an important part of the position. Travel is expected at approximately 40-50% during onboarding and up to 30% at steady state to support manufacturing facilities, suppliers, equipment partners and project trials.

What Success Looks Like

You'll thrive in this role if you:

• Are energized by food and pet food product and process development.
• Enjoy moving between R&D experimentation and real-world manufacturing.
• Use engineering fundamentals and data to turn complex technical questions into practical solutions.
• Can take an idea from concept through trials, scale-up and commercialization.
• Build strong partnerships with operators, scientists, engineers, suppliers and business teams.
• Balance product quality, food-processing requirements, cost, capacity and manufacturing realities.
• Want to build, test, improve and commercialize, not simply maintain the status quo.

Ready to Put Your Handprint on What's Next?

If you're an engineer with a passion for food development, pet food innovation and manufacturing technology, this is an opportunity to help shape how great pet food gets made.

Bring your curiosity, engineering expertise and hands-on approach to Post Consumer Brands and help us turn promising ideas into scalable processes and products that make it all the way to the shelf.

Big company opportunity. Small company attitude. Come make your mark.

The pay range for this position is $70,386 - $98,541 per year.