R&D Process Engineer, Dressing

Overview

The R&D Process Engineer plays a role in bridging bench-top formulation with commercial manufacturing for salad dressings, sauces, and dips across retail and food service channels. This position leads process development, scale-up, equipment selection, and optimization efforts to ensure product quality, safety, cost effectiveness, and operational feasibility. The engineer partners closely with Product Development, Engineering, Operations, Quality, and Procurement to deliver successful new product launches, reformulations, and cost-savings initiatives.

This role requires strong technical expertise in food processing (emulsions, cooked sauces, refrigerated dips), an understanding of ingredient and formulation interactions under stress, and the ability to troubleshoot complex systems in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.

• Integrate process expertise & knowledge into the early product development process. Build cohesive relationships as liaison between Product Development, Quality organization, Engineering, Supply Chain, and Plant operations during the commercialization process.
• Provide process engineering knowledge to implement efficient and effective technology transfer between R&D, Engineering, manufacturing, and/or co-manufacturers.
• Actively works with product development team to understand the process/ingredient relationship and the effects on the manufacturing process.
• Drive the development of innovative processes/technologies and the commercialization of new business initiatives. Develop innovative approaches for testing and problem resolution. Support the engineering team in scale up and design of new process technologies. Determine appropriate design application.

• Perform a robust process situation assessment, document manufacturing methods, and develop new procedures. Analyze and trend data to ensure that manufacturing systems reliably deliver high-quality products as designed within specifications and at the desired cost. Document test results & conclusions, develop critical process parameters, align on critical control points, support critical quality attribute identification, and update and develop new specifications.
• Review engineering drawings, read P&’s, develop automated process sequence descriptions, and support process capital installation from a process perspective.
• Commission/Qualify/Validate & start-up new processes/equipment.

• Lead moderately complex engineering projects/investigations, and/or support complex projects with some supervision. Conduct feasibility studies, lead new process technology proof of concept research, and support the implementation of new/improved network unit operations.
• Lead productivity and Value Engineering projects working with Product Development, Engineering, Supply Chain and Procurement.

• Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, with a preference for Chemical, Mechanical, or Food Engineering
• 5+ years in the food industry experience across cold fill and thermal liquid processing technologies.

• In-depth technical expertise on processes and production equipment
• Ability to understand ingredient/formulation and the effects on processing.
• Ability to formulate complex experimental design.
• Understanding food processing
• Master's Degree in Engineering

• Based at Marzetti R&D Innovation Center
• Travel (up to 30%) is associated with feasibility and start-up at Marzetti manufacturing plants, equipment, and trials at vendor and co-manufacturing.
• Ability to walk or stand up to three-quarters of the workday. Physical ability to handle weights of approximately thirty pounds.