Project Engineer, Process Engineer

Join to apply for the Project Engineer role at Hilmar

At Hilmar Cheese Company, we improve lives around the world through wholesome dairy products. Since our founding in 1984, Hilmar has been committed to innovation and sustainability. Our state‑of‑the‑art production facilities convert an abundance of locally sourced high‑quality milk into a variety of nutritious cheeses, whey protein, and lactose. The cheeses and ingredients we produce create a wide variety of retail and food‑service products, from sliced and shredded cheeses to protein supplements and infant formula.

We are a trusted partner to premier food and beverage brands in more than fifty countries, helping bring their vision into reality.

Throughout our decades of success and growth we have remained committed to our mission and values, and these principles unite our people and guide all that we do.

The Project Engineer is simultaneously a design engineer and a technical project manager responsible for managing capital projects that execute the strategic plan of Hilmar, driven through Hilmar’s Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP) and Portfolio Management Office (PMO) to accomplish the goals of the steering team and board of directors. At the direction of the site engineering manager, the Project Engineer is the supervising engineer on short and long‑term asset management, reliability, and engineering projects.

• Manage projects end to end, leveraging internal and external resources to ensure projects deliver business outcomes. Projects deliver value from Hilmar's asset decisions and investments.
• Responsible for project scheduling, communication, costing, procurement, and budget creation, justification, and management for an average of 3–5 projects at a time and commissioning 5–10 projects annually with a total investment of up to $10 million.
• Implement capital projects, including concept development, establishment of project teams, process and design optimization, technical and economic evaluation of alternatives, scope definition and control, estimating, scheduling, funding requests, detailed engineering and design, regulatory compliance (environmental, safety, USDA, TXDHS, CDFA, FDA), and project validation.
• Maintain accurate Process and Instrumentation Diagrams and Bill of Materials. Review and track field changes and lead execution of design and construction implementation and any changes.
• Build strong relationships with project teams and collaborate with departments including R&D, manufacturing, sales, maintenance, engineering, safety, quality, environmental, and accounting to deliver business outcomes.
• Interface with cheese and/or ingredients business units to address reliability, asset, and engineering risks and issues through vendor engagement, design review against current state, performance guarantees, reliability‑focused design recommendations, and asset integrity reviews.
• Manage budget spend and forecasting within +/- 10% accuracy monthly; continually manage project schedule, risks, and quality to meet project business outcomes.
• Ensure Hilmar’s internal good engineering and project management practices are followed, including installation, operational, and performance qualification documentation, ensuring product and project quality by design.
• Apply engineering principles in thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and process controls; develop mathematical models and risk matrices for design and asset investment decisions, including whole‑life asset costing.
• Build and maintain vendor relationships, representing the company during vendor engagements, managing the RFP process, obtaining pricing, defining equipment needs, reviewing and analyzing vendor agreements, and recommending revisions to leadership.
• Facilitate effective written communication and decision‑making and risk management meetings across the business to achieve project outcomes; lead, develop, and deliver presentations to leadership at all levels for project design and risk reviews as part of strategic asset management decisions and processes.

• Demonstrates integrity in relationships and decision‑making, and a self‑starter who…