Plant Engineer

DUDOK; Amsterdam; Hybrid; EUR 60,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

40-hour work week

8% holiday allowance

29 vacation days

Solid pension plan

Stock Appreciation Rights (SAR)

Job summary

ChainCraft in Amsterdam is seeking a Plant Engineer to be in the middle of the process, diagnosing failures and turning them into lasting improvements. You will lead technical projects, from initial idea to implemented solution, working closely with maintenance, operations and the Plant Manager.

You will identify where gains are and drive cost-saving and efficiency initiatives, including CAPEX/OPEX and automation upgrades, while communicating progress across suppliers and partners on the shop

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering or a comparable technical field.
• 3-5 years of experience in an industrial production environment.
• Experience in food, chemicals, fermentation or comparable process industry is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Analyze where the installation falters and translate breakdowns into structural solutions.
• Lead and execute improvement and investment projects from CAPEX to OPEX.
• Identify gains on gas/electricity savings and automation upgrades.
• Maintain dashboards and analyses to show project results to the organization.

Skills

Analytical thinking

Curious mindset

Shop floor communication

Operator collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering

Job description

ChainCraft is building an alternative to a century of fossil-based chemistry, producing chemicals through fermentation from food and agro residual streams. That process is running today in our demo plant in Amsterdam, and it is ready for its next step: more stable, more efficient, more reliable. That is why we are looking for a Plant Engineer.

Your role

You will be in the middle of the process, not behind a screen at a distance. You analyze where the installation falters, translate breakdowns into structural solutions, and set up improvement projects that genuinely matter, from savings on gas and electricity to upgrades of the automation system. There is no fixed set of projects waiting for you, instead a role in which you identify where the gains are and then make them happen.

Concretely, you will work on:

• Technical work preparation and planning:you prepare and plan the technical work that keeps the plant moving forward, scoping activities, sequencing priorities and making sure maintenance and operations have what they need before work starts. You support both teams on complex technical issues that go beyond routine troubleshooting.
• Reliability and problem solving:you analyze plant breakdowns, get to the root cause, and translate that into structural improvements rather than quick fixes. You work closely with maintenance to keep plant performance optimal day to day.
• Improvement and investment projects:you lead and execute technical improvement and investment projects, from CAPEX to OPEX. You identify and calculate cost saving and efficiency initiatives, build the financial justification behind them, and see them through from idea to implementation.
• Stakeholder and project visibility:you maintain contact with suppliers and external technical partners, and you build dashboards and analyses that make project results visible to the wider organization.

You work closely with maintenance, with operations and with the Plant Manager, to whom you report. Safety is not a separate item on the list, it runs through everything you do.

About you

You know how to get from a broken installation to a more reliable one, and you have already proven you can carry a technical project from first idea through to a working result. You think analytically: before you fix something, you want to understand why it broke in the first place. You are curious by nature, and you find your way to the shop floor easily, talking things through with operators, technicians and suppliers rather than only from behind a desk. Experience in food, chemicals, fermentation or a comparable process industry is a plus, but not a hard requirement, what matters most is how you think and how you work.

You bring:

• A bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering or a comparable technical field
• 3-5 years of experience in an industrial production environment

We offer

At ChainCraft, you contribute to a better world by making sustainable innovation a reality. We offer a stimulating and informal environment with an international team that shares a mission to replace fossil and palm-based chemicals with circular alternatives.

• 40 working hours per week.
• 8% holiday allowance, 29 vacation days and a solid pension plan.
• Participation in our Stock Appreciation Rights (SAR) program.
• Travel allowance (also for bike or walking).