Sr Manager Engineering- Refrigeration, HVAC, Plant Systems Design

The Kraft Heinz Company; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

The Kraft Heinz Company is seeking a Refrigeration, HVAC, Plant System Design Engineer to lead ammonia refrigeration system design, operation, and optimization across food processing, cold storage, and manufacturing facilities in the Chicago area.

You will develop standards, conduct feasibility studies, and create detailed equipment designs while collaborating with cross-functional teams to ensure safety, regulatory compliance, and high plant reliability.

Qualifications

• Strong engineering background with ammonia refrigeration systems knowledge.
• Experience with safety and regulatory standards (PSM, NEC, ASHRAE, OSHA, EPA).

Responsibilities

• Develop initial scope of work, block flow diagrams, equipment selections for ammonia refrigeration systems.
• Perform sizing and selection of refrigeration equipment and mass/energy balance calculations.
• Maintain engineering standards and ensure compliance with NEC, ASHRAE, OSHA, EPA and PSM.
• Create standard engineering project designs and Capex estimates for major capital initiatives.
• Provide engineering support to address operational/compliance issues and maximize equipment life.
• Lead cross-functional reviews to standardize processes and ensure project timelines and capital controls.
• Develop equipment standards to enable procurement pricing with suppliers.
• Support post-project reviews to identify improvements and refine standards.

Job description

Job Description

Job Purpose

The Refrigeration, HVAC, Plant System Design Engineer is a subject matter expert that will lead their discipline as part of the Design and Technical Capabilities team to define standards, consistent processes, and formulate projects that can be used and issued to suppliers for initial budget and final pricing and order placement. The design engineer is responsible for the design, operation, maintenance, and optimization of ammonia-based refrigeration systems used in industries such as food processing, cold storage, and manufacturing. This role requires a strong engineering background, deep technical knowledge of ammonia systems, and strict adherence to safety and regulatory standards.

The specialized professional focus will be on ammonia/refrigeration but their responsible will includes oversight of design, engineering, safety and quality support in the following utility equipment systems: Clean steam, RO systems, HVAC systems, plant steam systems, process chillers, compressed/process air, nitrogen, ammonia chillers, refrigeration process, and cooling towers.

This individual will work closely with a cross-functional team to meet the needs of the groups they support. This position supports the team on completing capital engineering feasibility studies, develop initial and detailed equipment designs, and creating engineering standards that complement the equipment design and can be utilized for project feasibility and execution phases of projects to improve speed of execution.

This individual will require both the project management and technical knowledge to develop the scope for complex utilities projects. While this role will be focused on refrigeration/ammonia expertise, team members are expected to have general knowledge of infrastructure, utilities, wastewater treatment and food and beverages process technologies.

Essential Functions & Responsibilities

• Develop initial scope of work, block flow diagrams, equipment selections, and technical reports for ammonia refrigeration systems, including compressors, condensers, evaporators, and associated components.

• Perform sizing and selection of refrigeration equipment, control group design, final line sizing, and mass/energy balance calculations.

• Maintain engineering standards, stay current with code changes (e.g., NEC, ASHRAE, OSHA, EPA), and ensure compliance with Process Safety Management (PSM) requirements.

• Ensure PSM program is compliant. Review PSM audits and provide solutions and alternative options.

• Create standard engineering project designs and Capex estimates for major capital initiatives working together with supply development, project leads and their teams.

• Provide engineering support to address operational / compliance issues and to ensure equipment is maintained at a level required to provide high reliability maximizing useful life

• Provide technical expertise and industry best practices

• Lead engineering efforts to resolve equipment and operational problems and ensure problem solving techniques are appropriately utilized

• Participate & lead cross functional reviews to define and agree standard process flows ensure all major Capital projects (>$1MM) within the Zone are designed to maintain business continuity, maximize operating income and factory efficiency, including the formulation of: standard designs, cost estimation and challenging timelines together with BU Engineering, ORM, R&D and FSQ.

• Develop equipment standards and designs to enable Procurement to obtain standard pricing structures for particular/preferred suppliers.

• Establish benchmarking of common equipment or processes and Capital projects across the Zone to understand key advantages of each the various installed lines and standardize where these bring competitive advantage.

• Identify and evaluate Best Available Technologies and engineering practices for their discipline, sharing them across the zone, and globally where appropriate. With the aim of delivering projects in a more consistent and expedient manner.

• Provide technical support to project engineers as requested during equipment build, acceptance testing and commissioning.

• Participate in Post Project Implementation Reviews to understand areas for improvement and revision versus the established standards and approach.

• Research and refine technical solutions to reduce labor reliance across multiple product categories.

• Create preliminary budgetary estimates across multiple disciplines (refrigeration, HVAC, infrastructure, and utilities) to guide the business towards the best ROI capital investments.

• Develop project design, detailed scopes of work, cost estimates, timelines