Technologist - Dairy Ingredients

A Typical Day

The 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 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 recovers from milk.  They will also be responsible for managing 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 technical resource, partners with other peers in the company to help drive the business forward in its quest for operational excellence.
• Provides leadership, tools and training to manufacturing group on the use of statistical process control tools for use in monitoring and adjusting real time process performance.
• Leads 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. 
• Lead 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 SOP’s for new processes. 
• Spends time in ingredients 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 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 5 years’ related experience OR Bachelor’s degree in Chemical/Process Engineering, Food Science, Dairy Science
• 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 Chemical/Process Engineering, Food Science, Dairy Science or similar field plus 3 years of related experience or Master’s degree 
• Advanced knowledge of Whey protein and Lactose manufacturing 
• 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.