Senior Scientist, Process Engineer- Research & Development (Frozen Handheld and Spreads Team)

Your Opportunity as a Senior Scientist, Process Engineer- Research & Development (Frozen Handheld and Spreads Team)

In this role you will be responsible for developing, optimizing, and implementing proprietary process technologies and equipment for our innovation roadmap. You will drive process development for innovation from concept through commercialization, resulting in the launch of new food products. You will also be responsible for the improvement of existing process, value engineering, and technology development to enable new product development or cost improvement. You must be comfortable leading functional teams or projects with high resource requirements, risk and/or complexity. You should also be comfortable coaching, mentoring, and teaching other engineers and technical partners on processing technologies and scale-up.

Location: Corporate Offices in Orrville, Ohio

Work Arrangements: Ability to work a hybrid working schedule based on Company Core Weeks and business needs – with in office presence at or above 50% regularly; start times based on work needs may be before 8 AM (~25% of work days).

In this role you will:

• Lead development of robust processes for Uncrustables R&D, innovation, renovation, and technology initiatives.
• Efficiently design, plan, coordinate and execute experiments from bench-top through manufacturing scale. Accountabilities can include, creating test plans, commissioning and qualification plans, process flow diagrams, designing equipment and tooling, data analysis & interpretation, assessing process feasibility/capability, and scale-up risks/mitigations.
• Lead a technical and cross-functional team to successfully commission & launch new innovation projects.
• Leads technical team members to develop key tasks, timelines, and project plans for timely completion of goals with the ability to delegate project responsibilities and influence deliverables.
• Robustly document technical findings and clearly articulate findings and recommendations through written and verbal summaries to the leadership team and cross-functionally.
• Apply fundamental engineering principles in combination with a creative mindset & critical thinking to develop novel process solutions.
• Be a subject matter expert on R&D equipment design, operation, and troubleshooting.
• Lead and support testing in Process Research Lab.
• Identify and investigate new process technologies.
• Identify and communicate process scale-up risks and mitigations.
• Be aware of patent landscape in technical areas with expertise. Lead patent opportunities for technologies and processes.
• Interface with equipment suppliers, service providers, manufacturing facilities and relevant business functions to achieve goals.
• Ability to work independently, guided by functional processes, with guidance only in highly complex situations (e.g., when decisions have functional or organizational impact).
• Drive decisions and recommendations based on data.
• Provide coaching and function as a resource for junior engineers and scientists.
• Assume an advisory role for process to internal teams such as innovation, operations, and technical services.
• Become fluent and participate in JM Smucker Key Element and Quality programs to support R&D.
• Embrace and actively participate in company’s Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (ID&E) initiatives.

The Right Place for You

We are bold, kind, strive to do the right thing, we play to win, and we believe in a strong community that thrives together. Our culture is rooted in our Basic Beliefs, and we believe in supporting every employee by meeting their physical, emotional, and financial needs.

What we are looking for:

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in and Engineering
• 8 + years experience in process development or operations technical support within Consumer Packaged Goods Industry required (food/beverage preferred)
• Able to function as a technical leader in process engineering in multifunctional teams. Comfortable providing leadership across multifunctional boundaries.
• Candidate must be able to confidently and clearly communicate difficult technical concepts and manage complex learning plans to convey technical information cross-functionally and to leadership.
• Strong experience with process engineering and record of leveraging this experience to develop, qualify, and launch new process innovation and technologies.
• Can plan and execute designed experiments (DOE) to generate relevant process data to identify and mitigate process and product risks.
• Strong collaborative nature across functional teams to achieve shared goals.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment, managing multiple projects simultaneously
• Solid proven equipment and process troubleshooting abilities in fast paced environment
• Initiative-taking with the ability and desire to work independently
• Strong communication, both oral and written. Can prepare presentations on projects independently and communicate results to all levels of the organization.
• Strong organizational, critical thinking, and creativity skills
• Project management experience is highly valued, as individual will collaborate cross functionally to manage costs, schedules, and resources for the work.
• Be a self-starter, have strong personal leadership, and able to work autonomously to plan, implement, monitor, and deliver objectives.
• Passion for coaching/mentoring less experienced employees
• Proven success leading projects from benchtop to scale up and commercialization
• Ability to work a hybrid working schedule based on Company Core Weeks and business needs – with in office presence at or above 50% regularly; start times based on work needs may be before 8 AM (~25% of work days).
• Approximately 20% travel; normally a minimum of 3-5 days consecutive per trip.

Additional skills and experience that we think would make someone successful in this role:

• Advanced degree (Masters/PhD) and/or degree in Chemical/Food Engineering
• Controls/PLC programming experience
• Proficy and Historian experience and training
• Proficient using statistical software (JMP, Minitab, etc.)
• Maintaining excellent documentation
• Food Safety – PCQI training

Learn more about working at Smucker:

• Our Total Rewards Benefits Program
• Our Thriving Together Philosophy Supporting All Impacted by Our Business 
• Our Continued Progress on Inclusion, Diversity and Equity 

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