Process Engineer

From our home in Janesville, Wisconsin
, Impact Confections has been delighting candy lovers with bold flavors and timeless favorites for generations. We’re proud to be the makers of WARHEADS®, the iconic sour candy that dares taste buds everywhere, and the classic Melster® Candies
, known for nostalgic treats like Circus Peanuts and seasonal delights that families have cherished for decades.

The Process Engineer role enables the scale-up of new products and technologies to support Impact Confection’s innovation strategy, while also driving efficiency improvements and value optimization across existing manufacturing processes. This role acts as a key link between R&D and Operations, applying scientific and engineering principles to ensure robust, capable, and scalable manufacturing processes. The position also contributes to the development and protection of intellectual property that supports long-term business growth.

• Develop, implement, and validate process specifications by translating finished product key quality attributes into process parameters and in-process quality control measures.
• Establish standard operating conditions and define Statistical Process Control (SPC) settings and control limits to ensure processes consistently meet business and quality KPIs.
• Develop and maintain sampling plans, investigate significant process deviations, and support escalation and root cause analysis as required.
• Build a deep scientific understanding of process functionality, capability, and interactions with ingredients across unit operations.

• Partner with the Innovation and R&D teams to conduct end-to-end research from bench-top through pilot plant and full-scale production.
• Plan, design, execute, and document line trials from pilot to production scale, including data collection, analysis, and reporting of results.
• Lead or support the validation and scale-up of new products, processes, and technologies in collaboration with Engineering, Supply Chain, Quality, and Operations teams.
• Assess scale-up impacts on ingredient functionality, product stability, and shelf life.

• Manage the integration of R&D-driven changes and improvements into manufacturing lines, ensuring minimal impact on current operational performance.
• Apply approved change management and validation protocols to implement process and product changes.
• Capture, document, and support the protection of company intellectual property arising from process and technology development.

• Own and manage site Bills of Materials (BOMs), ensuring accuracy and alignment with approved product recipes.
• Validate recipes on production lines and translate product formulations into business and ERP systems.
• Support accurate product costing, raw material and packaging procurement, and production planning across all product families.

• Collaborate with Operations, the site Continuous Improvement (CI) Engineer, and production teams to collect and analyze process performance data and business KPI’s.
• Identify and eliminate bottlenecks, waste, defects, and variation using CI and problem-solving methodologies.
• Apply tools such as Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, and Design of Experiments (DOE) to improve process capability and product quality.

• Support Quality & Food Safety (Q&S) programs, including internal audits, CAPAs, and S-CAPAs.
• Ensure processes comply with GMP, HACCP, regulatory, and food safety requirements.

• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Food Technology, Chemical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related discipline.
• 3–5 years of experience in a food manufacturing environment, with exposure to new product or process development, quality systems, and continuous improvement.

• Hands‑on experience in food processing and/or packaging, with a solid understanding of manufacturing processes and equipment operation.
• Proven application of structured problem‑solving and improvement tools…