Sr Technologist - Dairy Ingredients
At Hilmar Cheese Company we improve lives around the world through wholesome dairy products. Since our founding in 1984, Hilmar Cheese Company has been committed to innovation and sustainability. Our state-of-the art production facilities convert an abundance of locally sourced high-quality milk into a variety of nutritious cheeses, whey protein and lactose. The Cheese and Ingredients that we produce create a wide variety of retail and food service products from sliced and shredded cheeses, to protein supplements and infant formula. We are a trusted partner to premier food and beverage brands in for than fifty countries helping bring their vision into reality.
Throughout our decades of success and growth we have remained committed to our mission and values and these principles unite our people and guide all that we do.
A Typical Day
The Senior Ingredients Technologist leads the business in developing ingredients recipes/processing conditions, equipment settings and monitoring process performance and making necessary adjustments. The employee through their understanding of dairy science and technology leads the continuous improvement of Hilmar Cheese products and processes, supporting day to day operation and providing direction for technical investment and optimization. The use their knowledge and skills to mentor and develop others, taking on a leadership role and stepping in to help and guide the business achieve the best possible outcome. They are part of a team responsible for monitoring and managing operational set points and targets to maximize the value Hilmar recovers from milk. They will also be responsible for leading the technical aspects for quality, yield and throughput in dairy ingredients.
Job Responsibilities
- Works cross functionally across the business to deliver an industry leading product and process. Operating as a SME is a technical leader in the company helping develop and drive the business forward in its quest for operational excellence.
- Provides leadership and develops tools and training for manufacturing group on the use of statistical process control tools for use in monitoring and adjusting real time process performance.
- Leads and develops a standardized approach to dairy ingredients recipe/processing conditions development, monitoring and control across all manufacturing sites to ensure delivery of consistent high-quality product to customers. Target areas include but are not exclusive to yield, throughput, cost of manufacturing, and product performance.
- Initiates and leads technical improvement projects, and trials relating to ingredients production/products/process and equipment optimization.
- Is the lead technical support for production and product performance. This includes providing support and feedback to Operations, QA, Sales, R&D and Engineering in establishing production procedures, improving production capacity and efficiency, and troubleshooting problems.
- Works with Operations to develop and write SOPs for new processes, looks for gaps in existing ones and works to update documentation to reflect current best practice.
- Spends time in ingredients plant reviewing and understanding opportunities to improve process performance and works with manufacturing, engineering, and maintenance groups to initiate and implement changes.
- Tracks product performance and works with customers to make changes needed to deliver on expectations
- Has well established relationships with outside technology partners to ensure Hilmar has access to most up to date knowledge of opportunities to improve product and process performance.
- Has strong technical understanding of the performance of Lab Instruments and collaborate with Quality Assurance in maintaining the accuracy of the data reported.
- Leads the technical support to operations to resolve production issues as they arise
What You Will Need
- High School Diploma and 10 years’ related experience OR Associate’s degree and 5 years’ related experience OR Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Dairy Science, Process Engineering or similar field plus 3 years’ related experience OR Master’s degree.
- Strong knowledge of process technology fundamentals, with ability to model these in both static and dynamic states.
- Experience in dairy ingredients manufacturing
- Knowledge of production operations management for quality, yield and cost
- Experience working with Microsoft Office Software such a Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.
What Will Put You Ahead
- Bachelor’s degree in in Food Science, Dairy Science Bio-Engineering or similar field and 2 years of related experience or Master’s degree
- Advanced working knowledge of design, cleaning and operation of various dairy processing technologies (membrane concentration and drying) at commercial scale
- Previous experience working in fast paced large scale dairy manufacturing and solving complex problems
- Background with process improvement programs and procedures.
- Knowledge of dairy chemistry
- SAP, JMP, and Historian experience
Physical Demands & Work Environment
The role has periods of time when the work environment is sedentary and conducted in an office environment balanced with frequent occasions that require prolonged walking or standing, lifting/ carrying/handling moderate weight objects on a regular basis. Is required to wear PPE and have a regular presence in manufacturing and warehouse environments in both temperature controlled and uncontrolled locations. Must frequently interact with people verbally. Specific details of the essential functions of the position is available in the Job Safety Analysis, made available on request.
Food safety is a companywide responsibility and each employee must know their role in the manufacture and distribution of safe, wholesome, and high quality products.
This description is a general statement and does not include other duties as assigned
Hilmar Cheese Company, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer/EEO. We participate in E-Verify.
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Nearest Major Market: Amarillo