Senior Process Engineer – Beverages (1st Shift, Flexible)

Wm Bolthouse Farms Inc; Bakersfield (CA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental & Vision

401(k)

Paid Time Off

Flexible Spending Accounts

Gym Membership Discounts

Job summary

Generous Brands, including Bolthouse Farms, Health-Ade, and Evolution Fresh brands, seeks a Sr. Process Engineer in Bakersfield, CA. You will lead hands-on manufacturing engineering to improve stability, throughput, yield, quality, and cost across processing systems.

You will partner with Operations, Maintenance, Quality/Safety, and Controls to identify root causes, implement sustainable actions, and drive cross-functional improvements in a fast-paced beverage environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Food Engineering, Process Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Minimum 7 years of process/manufacturing engineering experience in food, beverage, dairy, liquid nutrition, pharmaceutical, or another highly automated sanitary liquid-processing environment.
• Demonstrated experience working directly with Controls/Automation personnel on automated process systems and control-related process improvements.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and the ability to create clear technical documentation, operating standards, and engineering deliverables.

Responsibilities

• Provide daily floor-level technical support for beverage processing systems, with emphasis on thermal, aseptic, blending, transfer, homogenization, evaporation/concentration, storage, and CIP operations.
• Serve as the senior technical process owner for assigned systems, independently prioritizing high-value opportunities, establishing technical direction, and driving cross-functional actions through verified completion.
• Troubleshoot complex process problems by evaluating product flow, temperatures, pressures, flow rates, levels, valve states, pump performance, instrumentation, control sequences, and interactions between unit operations.
• Lead root-cause analysis of recurring downtime, process instability, slow cycles, startup losses, product losses, and chronic faults; drive corrective actions through implementation, verification, documentation, and sustained performance checks.
• Analyze OEE and downtime losses, process cycle times, throughput constraints, yield, giveaway, product recovery, changeovers, sanitation/CIP time, startup/shutdown losses, utility consumption, and operating variability to establish improvement priorities.
• Establish and maintain process centerlines, critical operating parameters, recipes, setpoints, control limits, startup/shutdown standards, troubleshooting guides, and other operating standards for key systems.
• Develop process flow diagrams, control narratives, functional descriptions, operating philosophies, test protocols, and technical requirements for process and automation changes.
• Work jointly with a Controls Engineer or Automation Specialist to review logic and sequence behavior; troubleshoot PLC/HMI and instrumentation-related issues; define required programming changes; support offline/online testing; and validate changes in production.
• Optimize recipes, control loops, setpoints, alarm limits, interlocks, permissives, timing, valve sequences, and equipment coordination while maintaining appropriate change control, food-safety review, and documentation.
• Own or support commissioning, startup, qualification, and performance verification of process modifications and new equipment, including punch lists, test protocols, and clear acceptance criteria.
• Develop and maintain accurate SOPs, process specifications, centerlines, troubleshooting trees, change records, and technical training materials.
• Partner with Quality/Food Safety and the appropriate process authority to ensure changes affecting critical food-safety parameters are formally reviewed, validated, approved, and documented before implementation.
• Support sanitary design and optimization of hygienic piping, pumps, valves, tanks, instrumentation, heat exchangers, aseptic systems, and CIP systems; identify conditions contributing to fouling, poor cleanability, contamination risk, or excessive cleaning time.
• Use process historian data, trends, alarms, operator observations, maintenance findings, statistical methods, and structured problem solving to identify sources of variation and verify that improvements remain stable across shifts, products, and operating conditions.
• Provide technical input to capital projects when process changes or equipment upgrades are required, including scope development, design review, vendor evaluation, FAT/SAT support, startup, and performance validation.
• Provide technical coaching and mentorship to engineers, technicians, operators, and maintenance personnel to strengthen plant troubleshooting capability and establish repeatable engineering standards and best practices.
• Support planned shutdowns, major process interventions, production trials, startups, and urgent troubleshooting as business needs require.

Job description

Generous Brands, including Bolthouse Farms, Health-Ade, and Evolution Fresh brands, seeks a Sr. Process Engineer in Bakersfield, CA. You will lead hands-on manufacturing engineering to improve stability, throughput, yield, quality, and cost across processing systems.

You will partner with Operations, Maintenance, Quality/Safety, and Controls to identify root causes, implement sustainable actions, and drive cross-functional improvements in a fast-paced beverage environment.