R&D Placement: Global Food Process – Compression & Extrusion

PepsiCo; Leicester; On-site; GBP 24,000 - 29,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Vibrant culture

Development and mentoring

25 days annual leave plus 8 days bank/

Discounted PepsiCo products

Competitive pension scheme

Health and wellbeing benefits: Virtual

Discounted gym membership

Job summary

PepsiCo invites undergraduates to join our 12-month R&D placement programme starting July 2027. You’ll contribute to the Compression Popping and Extrusion team, designing experiments, evaluating new technologies and prototyping ideas in a fast-paced environment.

Based in the UK, you’ll gain hands-on experience across bench and pilot-scale work, project ownership, and collaboration with global teams. Salary £26,600 and benefits accompany this challenging placement.

Qualifications

• Following path to a degree level qualification in Mechanical or Chemical Engineering, or closely related disciplines such as Manufacturing Engineering, Food Engineering, Natural Sciences
• Students currently in their penultimate year of university studies, where the course includes the option of completing a sandwich placement before returning to study after the placement
• Concise and persuasive communicator with first class written and verbal presentation skills, especially to non-technical audiences. Also, with good interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate to a diverse audience
• Strong and broad range of digital skills; highly computer literate. Preferably including competent programming skills, ideally a working knowledge of Python, and knowledge of Modelling & Simulation tools
• Solid fundamental scientific understanding of fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, rheology and heat and mass transfer. Sound knowledge of statistical methods
• Strong analytical skills to interpret complex data and distil into meaningful information e.g. modelling output, experimental design, statistical inference etc.
• High degree of self-motivation combined with good organisational skills
• Initiative and drive to deliver results of trials and activities and able to be pro-active and multi-task

Responsibilities

• Leading and executing your own experimental studies at both bench and pilot scale to build insights to support the development of new technologies
• Owning and managing project activity, program and budget and connections with external and internal stakeholders
• Sustain an organized environment in the pilot plant during periods of high activity, including working with pilot plant team to ensure a seamless supply of raw materials and services
• Participate in safety and risk assessment aspects of projects
• Analyse and interpret key data from existing operation plants to understand current performance and potential for improvements
• Support plant testing of new technology developments working with the team to evaluate or validate performance
• Support the knowledge capture and transfer of best practice between the full scale production lines across the business globally

Skills

Communication

Interpersonal skills

Analytical skills

Self-motivation

Multi-tasking

Programming (Python)

Modelling & Simulation tools

Education

Mechanical or Chemical Engineering degree path

Penultimate year with sandwich placement option

Tools

Python

Modelling & Simulation tools

Job description

PepsiCo invites undergraduates to join our 12-month R&D placement programme starting July 2027. You’ll contribute to the Compression Popping and Extrusion team, designing experiments, evaluating new technologies and prototyping ideas in a fast-paced environment.

Based in the UK, you’ll gain hands-on experience across bench and pilot-scale work, project ownership, and collaboration with global teams. Salary £26,600 and benefits accompany this challenging placement.