Research and Process Support Engineer - Decatur, IL - Primient

Process Engineer (Global Operations Support Team)

Decatur, IL

Looking to speed the progress of your engineering career? Join a market a leader in ingredient manufacturing that is investing in people, plant, and technologies.

ABOUT PRIMIENT

Established yet entrepreneurial: Primient is an industry leader with proven products, six manufacturing plants, 1500+ employees and deep roots in corn wet milling. Yet we’re also a brand-new company that is ready to drive change and create impact.

Inspired by a meaningful purpose: we use renewable sources to produce plant-based ingredients for some of the world’s best-known brands. It feels good to produce safe, high-quality, sustainable products – that go into everything from sodas to hand cream and cardboard to clothing.

Poised for a new era of success: we’re investing in our plants to unlock our potential in the industrial and food sectors. Our Engineers will be key to leading projects and programs that help us to shape the technical future of our business – guided by our values of Safety, Excellence, Integrity, and Growth.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Role Purpose:

As a member of the Global Operation Support Team, the Process Engineer will be responsible for providing technical support across the Global Operations division and leading a portfolio of projects to support the Company and Department goals, focusing on cost reduction and operational improvement. The position will act as a change agent for process improvement implementations and improvement of capabilities of people and systems. This position will act an extension of Primient continuous improvement (CI) program and will foster a culture of continuous improvement and sustainment while facilitating projects across the organization.

The candidate will be a self-starter, a team player, and capable of productively interacting with a diverse group, ranging from technicians to plant managers to project partners. The candidate must have strong communication and interpersonal skills and be comfortable working in a fast-paced environment with a large number of processes. The candidate will lead projects and provide expertise to support and develop high quality, cost effective solutions. The incumbent will be an advocate for embedding CI tools within Primient.

Job Responsibilities:

• Placing safety as the highest priority
• Lead process improvements projects, including:
  • Setup, design, and execution of experiments at bench and pilot scale
  • Evaluation and interpretation of experimental results
  • Provide economic analysis/assessment of current and future candidate process concepts and technologies
  • Communicate frequently with key stakeholders to meet project goals and deadlines
• Train technicians and other members of project teams on equipment use, data collection, and data analysis
• Collaborate with internal partners to ensure effective technical transfer from the pilot plant to production environments, including documentation of new/updated key process indicators (KPIs)
• Analyze opportunities as well as guide and plan actions around process improvement ideas
• Foster collaborative and organizational learning
• Provide process engineering support for manufacturing operations
• Monthly project reviews, management and growth of project pipeline, including the ability to move projects through the development stages and ultimately to completion.
• Willingness to travel as required (generally <20%), primarily supporting our North America based operations

Education and Experience:

• B.S. in Chemical Engineering or related engineering field.
• 2-5 years of industrial experience, preferably within the food or other GMP environment.

• Practical hands-on expertise with equipment
• Experience in process development, experimental design, statistical analysis, process optimization, and scale-up
• Stem-to-stern project experience (i.e., process development, process scale-up, P&ID development, punch lists, commissioning, start-up, operations, etc.)
• Working knowledge of various manufacturing processes and unit operations including centrifugation, evaporation, filtration, ion exchange, chromatography/SSMB and enzyme reactors

Job Prerequisites

• Demonstrated leadership skills in collaborating and influencing cross-functional groups including strong interpersonal skills
• Demonstrates accuracy and thoroughness; looks for ways to improve and promote quality; applies feedback to improve performance; monitors own work to ensure high quality
• Demonstrated ability to recognize and evaluate new project ideas
• Applies deductive reasoning and understand complicated issues

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• No direct reports

Reports to:

• Global Operations Support Team Manager

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Rewards & benefits
Competitive salary with performance linked enhancements / 401 K matching and non-contingent matching plans / Healthcare / Medical insurance

Working with us in Decatur

Our Primient plant is the largest and most complex facility across our network, and has been part of the Decatur community for over 100 years. It has been a hub of innovation and technology and will continue to be a flagship facility for Primient. Today, more than 400 people work at our plant and administration building. We are proud of our strong union relations, our excellent safety record, and our local community outreach and service. Our promising future makes it an exciting place to be.

Relocating to Decatur (or our region)

Located c. 180 miles south of Chicago, Decatur is home to around 70,000 people. Decatur scores well for livability, cost of living and schools – this is a place to enjoy the Midwest lifestyle. Our central location means it’s easy to get to Springfield, Bloomington, and Champaign. Chicago, St Louis and Indianapolis are within a 2.5-3-hour drive.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

We are passionate believers in the power of difference. We strive to represent the communities in which we operate and to provide an inclusive, welcoming environment for all. We want Primient to be a place where every employee feels they belong and knows they are seen, heard, valued and safe to speak up. Our aspiration is to unlock the full potential in diverse perspectives, while offering everyone an equal chance to grow, thrive and progress.

Primient is an equal opportunity employer, committed to the strength of an inclusive workforce.

California Consumer Privacy Act ("CCPA")

The Company is committed to complying with the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) and all data privacy and laws in the jurisdictions in which it recruits and hires employees. We collect the following categories of personal information for the purpose of hiring the best qualified applicants and to comply with applicable employment laws: Name and contact information; Job preference and work availability; Social Security Number and/or other identification information; Education and qualifications; Employment history and experience; Military service; Reference and background check information, including relevant criminal history and credit history; Social media information; Pre-employment test results; Post-offer medical examination information and results, including drug test results; Voluntary self-disclosure information regarding minority, veteran, and disability status; and Information provided by you during the hiring process.