Project Engineer; Undergraduate Placement

The Placement Project Engineer will support the project engineering team and manufacturing to deliver improvements to equipment and operations. You will be working on a variety of projects that add value to the business and can make a huge difference in every aspect of it, being given real responsibility to drive business improvement. Throughout the year, you will predominantly be working on leading and managing Capital Expenditure projects, such as introducing or upgrading equipment on site.

As well as this, you will be involved in energy saving projects, and data analysis of key factory process operations. This role involves a balance of spending time in the factory – speaking to the team and evaluating current operations – and working in the office – holding discussions across departments, developing project specifications and business cases. From this placement you will develop skills in Excel, data analysis, project management, equipment installation, and leading a team.

You will have exposure to wider business functions including product development, manufacturing, distribution, and marketing and learn a lot about how a business operates.

apetito is the UK’s leading food supplier to the health and social care sectors serving more than 1,300 care homes, health care and education settings. Our meals are expertly crafted by our dieticians and chefs, and then frozen to lock in the goodness. Wiltshire Farm Foods, our sister company, is the UK’s largest ready meal supplier cooking and delivering over 330 different delicious frozen ready meals across the UK.

Many of our placement students have gone on to join the company as Graduates on completing their degrees. Full details on the programme can be found on our careers pages at apetito Graduates.

On this placement you will work in a range of environments and gain experience in equipment specification and operation, managing contractors, leading meetings across departments with exposure to senior management, identifying and executing energy saving opportunities. You will have the opportunity to learn and develop skills in project management, contractor control and Excel. Previous placement students have done PUWER training courses and Advanced Excel Courses.

• Capital investment in new equipment in excess of £100k
• Writing detailed project scopes and business cases
• Researching potential suppliers & equipment available on the market
• Managing structured tendering processes and evaluating quotations
• Organizing installation of new equipment and training for staff
• Food Waste Reduction Equipment Upgrade
• Analysing quantity of food waste from inefficient equipment
• Researching alternative designs that minimise waste
• Developing equipment specifications and supplier selection
• Leading and coordinating the project for new equipment installation
• Freezer Temperature Optimisation
• Identify areas for energy savings
• Conducting trials to compare temperature of food and surroundings
• Research available technologies
• Installation of ‘food mimicking’ temperature probe covers to optimise freezer temperatures
• Finger Food Bites
• Developed the process for manufacturing a new range of products aimed at patients with dementia
• Understanding cycle times for each stage of the process to understand how to optimise this
• Develop innovative engineering solutions to improve Health & Safety, Quality, Efficiency
• Turned vision of Product Development team into a reality

• You will be studying towards a degree in Engineering/Mathematics/Sciences related discipline with the expectation that you will receive a 21 or above and are looking to complete a year-long placement as part of your degree after you have completed your first 2 years in university.
• You must have excellent organisational, people management and decision making skills.
• As this is a placement role, both formal and informal training will be available to develop technical skills. What is most important is to be keen to get involved in a dynamic factory environment, to be excited to learn about the manufacture and distribution of food, and to gain new skills and techniques ranging from project…