Senior Director, Liquid Processing & Capital Projects Engineering

Job Description

Summary:

Position Overview Our vision is loved brands, done sustainably, for a better shared future. We strive to provide cutting-edge excellence in ingredients, innovation, design, and marketing.

The Senior Director, Liquid Processing & Capital Projects Engineering is a senior technical and project delivery leader responsible for developing network strategies and executing complex processing, blending, and multi-scope capital projects across company-owned and co-manufacturing facilities. This role combines deep engineering expertise with disciplined project management to deliver safe, reliable, cost-effective, and scalable manufacturing solutions.

The successful candidate will lead projects from strategy and concept development through design, procurement, construction, commissioning, startup, performance validation, and operational handoff. The role requires the ability to work independently, lead cross-functional teams, influence stakeholders across the network, and coach less-senior engineering personnel while maintaining a constructive, solutions-oriented approach.

This role requires a significant amount of travel (70-80%). Therefore, the preference is to have the incumbent reside near major airports in the Midwest or West Coast regions.

What You’ll Do for UsCreate and execute multi-year strategies for liquid processing, blending, utilities, infrastructure, and related manufacturing capabilities across the network.

Lead large, complex capital projects with multiple scopes and disciplines, including process, blending, utilities, automation, electrical, civil, building, packaging interfaces, and site infrastructure.

Own full project lifecycle delivery from business case and concept development through detailed engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, startup, stabilization, and operational handoff.

Develop and control project scope, estimates, budgets, cash flow, schedules, resource plans, risk registers, change control, and performance metrics.

Provide technical leadership for processing and blending systems, including sanitary design, batching, mixing, ingredient handling, thermal processing, CIP, utilities, controls, and process integration.

Lead multiple concurrent projects across a geographically dispersed manufacturing and co-manufacturing network, balancing priorities, resources, business continuity, and execution risk.

Develop technical specifications, basis-of-design documents, process flow diagrams, P&IDs, equipment requirements, bid packages, and acceptance criteria.

Lead cross-functional teams that include Operations, Quality, Safety, R&D, Commercialization, Supply Chain, Finance, Procurement, OEMs, engineering firms, integrators, contractors, and plant personnel.

Build strong relationships with equipment suppliers, engineering partners, and co-manufacturers; establish clear expectations for safety, quality, scope, schedule, cost, and technical performance.

Provide strong on-site leadership during design reviews, construction, installation, commissioning, startup, and ramp-up to ensure execution quality and timely issue resolution.

Establish effective project governance and provide concise, transparent reporting on status, financial performance, milestones, risks, decisions, and mitigation actions.

Identify, evaluate, and deploy new technologies that improve capacity, capability, product quality, reliability, flexibility, sustainability, and total delivered cost.

Partner with network and plant leaders to identify long-term capability, capacity, obsolescence, and infrastructure needs and translate them into prioritized capital roadmaps.

Coach and mentor less-senior engineers and project managers, strengthen technical capability, and promote common…