Tetra Pak Equipment & Process Engr

Job Summary

We are seeking a Tetra Pak Equipment & Process Engineer for a direct hire opportunity in Bakersfield, CA, supporting a high-volume food and beverage manufacturing environment. This full-time, exempt role is ideal for a senior hands-on process engineering professional with deep experience troubleshooting, repairing, optimizing, and improving Tetra Pak processing and aseptic beverage systems.

This is a highly visible technical leadership position for an engineer who can step onto the production floor, partner with maintenance and operations, identify complex process and equipment issues, and drive long-term reliability improvements. The work environment offers strong cross-functional collaboration, supportive leadership, and the opportunity to serve as the primary subject matter expert for critical beverage processing systems.

Key Responsibilities

- Serve as the plant technical expert for Tetra Pak processing equipment, aseptic beverage systems, and related process operations.
- Troubleshoot recurring equipment failures, process deviations, downtime events, automation issues, and production inefficiencies.
- Lead root cause analysis and implement corrective actions to improve reliability, uptime, throughput, yields, and product quality.
- Support beverage processing operations including aseptic processing, UHT systems, thermal processing, blending, homogenization, CIP, product transfer, storage, and distribution systems.
- Partner with Controls Engineering and Automation teams to review PLC, HMI, recipe management, sequencing, alarms, instrumentation, and process control changes.
- Develop and maintain SOPs, troubleshooting guides, process centerlines, operating standards, and technical training documentation.

Compensation and Benefits

- Direct hire opportunity.
- Full-time, exempt position.
- Location: Bakersfield, CA.
- Salary: $110,000 to $130,000 DOE.
- Bonus potential.
- Schedule requires ability to support off-shift troubleshooting, shutdowns, startups, and critical production needs as required.

Required Qualifications and Skills

- Lead troubleshooting, repair support, and optimization of Tetra Pak aseptic processing equipment in a manufacturing environment.
- Drive root cause analysis, corrective actions, and reliability improvements for beverage processing systems.
- Support startup, commissioning, validation, and process modifications for Tetra Pak and related processing equipment.
- Collaborate with Operations, Maintenance, Quality, Food Safety, Engineering, and Leadership teams to improve plant performance.

- Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Food Engineering, Process Engineering, or a related technical field.
- Minimum 10 years of beverage manufacturing process engineering experience.
- Minimum 5 years of direct hands-on experience with Tetra Pak processing equipment and aseptic beverage systems.
- Proven ability to troubleshoot, repair, optimize, and support Tetra Pak equipment in a production environment.
- Strong understanding of aseptic beverage processing, thermal systems, UHT processing, CIP systems, blending, homogenization, and product transfer systems.
- Experience supporting high-speed automated production environments.
- Ability to read and interpret P&IDs, process flow diagrams, instrumentation drawings, control system layouts, and PLC/HMI screens.
- Strong root cause analysis, technical problem-solving, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
- Ability to work in office and manufacturing environments, including standing, walking, climbing stairs, accessing production equipment, and lifting up to 50 pounds when necessary.
- Ability to work in hot, cold, wet, and noisy production environments while wearing required PPE.

Preferred Qualifications

- 15 or more years of beverage manufacturing experience.
- Extensive hands-on experience with Tetra Therm Aseptic Systems, UHT processing, CIP systems, homogenizers, aseptic fillers, and beverage blending systems.
- Experience with Allen Bradley/Rockwell or Siemens controls environments.
- Experience leading capital projects, system installations, commissioning, validation, and equipment upgrades.
- Background in juice, dairy, nutritional beverages, protein drinks, or aseptic beverage manufacturing.

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We also consider for employment qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements, including, if applicable, the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance. Pursuant to applicable state and municipal Fair Chance Laws and Ordinances, we will consider for employment-qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, including, if applicable, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance. For Los Angeles, CA applicants: Qualified applications with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act.