Director of Dairy Process Technology

Agropur; Minnesota; On-site; USD 154,000 - 231,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, Vision

Life insurance

Short and long-term disability

401(k) with company contributions

3 weeks paid time off

Paid holidays and floating holidays

Paid parental leave

Advancement opportunities

Job summary

Agropur seeks a Director, Process Technology at the Protein Research Center in Le Sueur, Minnesota. You will define and drive the technology strategy for our dairy ingredient portfolio, leading a distributed team across R&D, technology transfer and process optimization.

You will collaborate with Commercial Strategy, Operations, Engineering, Quality, Sales and Finance to translate priorities into scalable processes and stronger manufacturing capabilities. Travel ~30% is expected.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in food science, dairy science, chemical engineering or related field.
• 10+ years in process technology, manufacturing or R&D in dairy ingredients or related field.
• Deep knowledge of dairy ingredient manufacturing, process design and scale-up.
• Experience with membrane separation, ion exchange, protein fractionation, evaporation, drying, crystallization, lactose processing.
• Proven success leading complex product/process commercialization across multiple sites.
• Strong executive communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Willingness to travel ~30%.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute the process technology roadmap supporting Agropur’s ingredient portfolio and long-term business priorities.
• Advise senior leaders on technical feasibility, capital requirements, resources and risk.
• Lead evaluation, development, scale-up, commercialization and transfer of new dairy ingredient products and processes.
• Serve as technical authority in dairy ingredient processing including membrane separation, ion exchange, protein fractionation, evaporation, drying, crystallization and lactose processing.
• Partner with Operations, Engineering and Quality to improve process control, product quality, yield, throughput and economics.
• Lead resolution of complex manufacturing and product-quality challenges across facilities.
• Establish standards and governance for process development, scale-up, technology transfer, documentation and optimization.
• Build strategic partnerships with customers, universities, suppliers and industry orgs.
• Lead and develop a geographically distributed technical team and strengthen dairy-processing expertise.

Skills

Process technology leadership

Manufacturing engineering

Applied R&D

Dairy ingredients expertise

Scale-up & tech transfer

Cross-functional leadership

Executive communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in food science, dairy science, chemical engineering or related

Master’s degree preferred

Job description

Agropur seeks a Director, Process Technology at the Protein Research Center in Le Sueur, Minnesota. You will define and drive the technology strategy for our dairy ingredient portfolio, leading a distributed team across R&D, technology transfer and process optimization.

You will collaborate with Commercial Strategy, Operations, Engineering, Quality, Sales and Finance to translate priorities into scalable processes and stronger manufacturing capabilities. Travel ~30% is expected.