Technologist - Cheese

A Typical Day

The Cheese Technologist leads the business in developing cheese recipes, equipment settings and monitoring process performance and making necessary adjustments. The employee though their understanding of cheese science and technology drives the continuous improvement of Hilmar Cheese products and processes, supporting day to day operation and providing direction for technical investment and optimization. They are part of a team responsible for monitoring and managing operational set points and targets to maximize the value Hilmar Cheese recovers from milk.  They also guide the business in the management of the technical and recipe parameters of starter culture manufacturing and performance and phage pressure of cultures in cheese.

Job Responsibilities

• Works cross functionally across the business to deliver an industry leading product and process. Operating as a technical resource, partners with other peers in the company to help drive the business forward in its quest for operational excellence.
• Supports process of building and maintaining cheese recipes to ensure the recipes are formulated to deliver consistent high quality product to customers. Monitors daily recipe set points and recipe attainment for cheese and milk.
• Analytically reviews recipes, results, and plant performance across the manufacturing sites, identifying and working on opportunities to raise the bar. Target areas include but are not exclusive to yield, throughput, cost of manufacturing, and product performance. 
• Lead technical improvement projects, and trials relating to cheese making 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 SOP’s for new processes. 
• Spends time in cheese plant reviewing and understanding opportunities to improve process performance and works with manufacturing, engineering, and maintenance groups to implement changes.  
• Maintains awareness of product performance and works with customers to make changes needed to deliver on expectations
• Connected to outside technology partners to ensure Hilmar Cheese has access to most up to date knowledge of opportunities to improve product and process performance. 
• Monitor the performance of Lab Instruments and collaborate with Quality Assurance in maintaining the accuracy of the data reported. 
• Provide technical support to operations to resolve production issues as they arise  

What You Will Need

• High School Diploma plus 5 years’ related experience OR Associate’s degree plus 3 years’ related experience OR Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Dairy Science, Process Engineering.
• Knowledge of dairy manufacturing processes. 
• 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, Process Engineering or similar field plus 3 years of related experience or Master’s degree 
• Advanced knowledge of cheese making.
• Background with process improvement programs and procedures.
• 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.