Senior Process Engineer

Location: Sterling, VA
Salary: $83,000 per year
Employment Type: Full-Time
 

About the Organization

Our client is a leading food manufacturing organization specializing in prepared and refrigerated foods, with a strong focus on quality, food safety, operational excellence, and innovative food-processing solutions. The organization operates sophisticated manufacturing facilities and is committed to maintaining high standards across engineering, automation, reliability, sanitation, and production operations.

The Sterling, Virginia facility operates within a highly regulated food manufacturing environment, where engineering teams support advanced processing, cooking, chilling, packaging, refrigeration, utilities, automation, and facility infrastructure.

Position Overview

We are seeking a Senior Process Engineer to provide strategic and hands-on engineering leadership across engineering, maintenance, reliability, automation, utilities, facilities, and capital projects within a food manufacturing environment.

The individual will work closely with Operations, Quality Assurance, Food Safety, Sanitation, Supply Chain, Finance, HR, Procurement, vendors, contractors, and regulatory/auditing partners to improve safety, quality, productivity, reliability, and overall plant performance.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and execute plant engineering strategies focused on safety, quality, food safety, throughput, labor efficiency, equipment uptime, sanitation, and cost performance.

• Lead and support capital projects, including project scope development, budgeting, vendor selection, contractor management, installation, commissioning, startup, and validation.

• Provide technical leadership for food-processing systems, cook tanks, chilling systems, vacuum packaging, boilers, refrigeration, compressed air, water/wastewater systems, conveyors, PLCs, HMIs, automation, and facility infrastructure.

• Partner with QA and Food Safety teams to support HACCP, GMP, GFSI/SQF or BRC requirements, USDA/FDA expectations, allergen controls, sanitation design, hygienic zoning, environmental monitoring, and food defense.

• Drive continuous improvement using Root Cause Analysis, 5-Why, A3, Lean, Six Sigma, standard work, and data-driven problem solving.

• Ensure compliance with OSHA, LOTO, electrical safety, refrigeration/ammonia safety, environmental regulations, building codes, and company standards.

• Provide leadership across engineering, maintenance, reliability, facilities, utilities, and automation functions.

• Manage engineering budgets, capital expenditures, contractors, utilities, MRO inventory, and cost-reduction initiatives.

• Support new product introductions, process validation, packaging changes, capacity expansions, and automation improvements.

• Establish engineering standards, project management practices, sanitation-ready equipment design, documentation controls, and technical training programs.

• Provide technical recommendations, risk assessments, project updates, and engineering support to senior leadership.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related technical field.

• 15+ years of progressive engineering, maintenance, reliability, or technical operations experience.

• Experience in food manufacturing, refrigerated foods, ready-to-eat foods, protein processing, sous vide, aseptic, pharmaceutical, or another highly regulated manufacturing environment.

• 7+ years of leadership experience managing engineering, maintenance, reliability, automation, or facilities teams in a 24/7 manufacturing environment.

• Strong experience with capital projects, plant expansions, equipment installation, automation upgrades, commissioning, and startup.

• Knowledge of preventive/predictive maintenance, CMMS, maintenance planning, RCM, RCA, and spare parts management.

• Working knowledge of HACCP, GMPs, sanitation design, allergen control, environmental monitoring, GFSI/SQF/BRC, and OSHA requirements.

• Experience with refrigeration, boilers, thermal processing, chilled water, vacuum packaging, cook/chill operations, PLCs, HMIs, SCADA, conveyors, utilities, and plant infrastructure.

• Strong financial and project management skills, including CAPEX, ROI analysis, vendor management, and cost control.

Additional Technical Requirements

• ROI-based capital analysis and project justification.

• Standardized subcontractor RFQ development.

• Technical OEM approval and drawing reviews.

• OEM FAT and PAT experience.

• Subcontractor competitive bid review and analysis.

• Plant material selection and equipment installation standards.

• Ability to read and interpret PFD, P&ID, ISO, and DWG drawings.

• Working knowledge of AutoCAD, Bluebeam, Procore, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Project, and related engineering/project management software.

• Strong continuous improvement and process-standardization experience.

Physical & Work Requirements

• Ability to work in both office and food manufacturing environments, including refrigerated, wet, hot, and high-noise areas.

• Must be able to regularly walk production floors and access equipment, utility, and mechanical areas.

• Availability outside normal business hours may be required for downtime events, installations, audits, inspections, or emergencies.

• Travel: 40–60% as needed.

• Must follow all company safety, GMP, food safety, PPE, and sanitation requirements.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate will bring a strong combination of:

Food Manufacturing + Engineering Leadership + Capital Projects + Refrigeration/Utilities + Automation/PLC + Food Safety/Regulatory Compliance + Continuous Improvement.

Candidates with hands-on experience leading engineering functions within a 24/7 food or highly regulated manufacturing facility are strongly preferred.

Please submit only candidates who closely match the required education, years of experience, industry background, leadership experience, and technical requirements.