Process Engineer – Food Innovation & Scale-Up

Protea Recruitment Ltd | Food | Drinks | FMCG Recruitment Partner; High Wycombe; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

Protea Recruitment Ltd is seeking a Process Engineer to join a leading FMCG food manufacturer’s global R&D and Innovation function. You will contribute to process development, scale-up and manufacturing readiness.

The role intersects process engineering, product development and manufacturing, collaborating with Product Development, Engineering and Operations to identify opportunities, solve technical challenges and ensure scalable, high-quality outputs.

Qualifications

• Degree in Chemical Engineering or closely related discipline.
• Experience in applied process engineering within food, snacks or FMCG manufacturing.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing processes and process capability.
• Knowledge of food ingredients, functionality, formulation, handling and processing.
• Experience using structured engineering and problem-solving methodologies.

Responsibilities

• Support the development and implementation of new food manufacturing processes and technologies.
• Identify opportunities to improve existing processes, product quality, robustness and manufacturing capability.
• Assess process capability and use data and scientific principles to identify opportunities and recommend improvements.
• Ensure manufacturing and scalability considerations are incorporated into product development from an early stage.
• Support the development of products from bench scale through pilot plant and factory trials.
• Design and execute structured trials and experiments to understand product and process performance.
• Analyse and interpret process and product data to provide clear technical recommendations.
• Apply process engineering and problem-solving methodologies to overcome technical challenges.
• Work closely with Product Development, Engineering, Operations and other technical teams.
• Evaluate ingredient functionality, formulation, handling and processing requirements.
• Work with equipment, ingredient and technology suppliers to identify new solutions and processing opportunities.
• Support process validation, scale-up and technology transfer into manufacturing.
• Contribute to continuous improvement, productivity and sustainability initiatives.
• Ensure appropriate technical documentation and project requirements are completed throughout development.

Skills

Process engineering

Data analysis

Project collaboration

Problem solving

Lean Six Sigma

Scale-up

Communication

Education

Chemical Engineering

Food Process Engineering

Job description

Protea Recruitment Ltd is seeking a Process Engineer to join a leading FMCG food manufacturer’s global R&D and Innovation function. You will contribute to process development, scale-up and manufacturing readiness.

The role intersects process engineering, product development and manufacturing, collaborating with Product Development, Engineering and Operations to identify opportunities, solve technical challenges and ensure scalable, high-quality outputs.