Process Engineer

Come Build Something Real If you're a process engineer at a giant food or CPG company — and you've quietly thought, "I could do this better if they'd just let me" — keep reading. Fit-Flavors is opening a new production facility in St. Louis, and we're looking for a sharp, hungry Process Engineer to own it. Not assist on it. Not optimize one line of it. Own it. This is the role where you finally stop waiting for six layers of approval, stop fighting your ERP just to get a spreadsheet pulled, and start driving real change that you can see hit the P&L next quarter. You will have more impact in your first six months here than you did in three years at your last job. That's the deal. About Fit-Flavors We’re not just any meal prep company—we’re the gold standard for healthy, convenient, and crave-worthy meals. We prepare and package over 4,000 meals per day in our industrial kitchen and distribute them throughout the St. Louis area, to both our storefront locations and direct-to-customer homes. We are a faith-driven organization, deeply rooted in Christian values, guiding our mission with integrity, purpose, and service. As we continue to grow, we are looking for Culinary Team Members who embody our mission, deliver exceptional service, and create meaningful connections with each and every customer. The Role You will be the #1 person responsible for how our new production facility runs — from raw ingredient in the door to finished meal out the door. You'll own the systems, the flow, the numbers, and the day-to-day problem solving. When something breaks on the line, you're the first one there. When leadership needs to know what a new menu item will cost to produce, you're the one with the answer. When yields drift, you're the one who catches it before the month closes. You are the operational brain of the plant. What You'll Own Procurement & Cost Management Manage procurement of food, packaging, and materials — quality, price, reliability, and timing. Build vendor relationships that actually serve the business, not the other way around. Understand unit economics at the ingredient level and drive continuous cost reduction without compromising quality. Yield, Spoilage & Inventory Track, analyze, and improve yield across every menu item and production run. Minimize spoilage through smarter inventory management, rotation, and production planning. Own inventory accuracy — because guessing costs money. Process Flow & Integration Design, document, and continuously improve the production flow — end to end. Build integration between processes so that changes in one area don't blow up another. Engineer product changeover systems that make menu changes painless (or at least predictable). Production Scheduling Own the production schedule: A/B runs, cross-utilization of ingredients, holiday and promotional planning. Balance throughput, labor, inventory, and demand into a schedule that actually works. Forecast the downstream effects of every scheduling decision before it becomes a problem. Equipment Reliability Keep the equipment running — through preventive maintenance, vendor relationships, and smart troubleshooting. Be the most confident person in the room on our process, mechanics, and equipment. Period. Drive uptime like your paycheck depends on it (because the business kind of does). Analytics & Reporting Build the reporting that leadership, production, and finance rely on — clean, accurate, useful. Turn production data into decisions — not just dashboards. Be the person who makes spreadsheets sing. Pivot tables, Power Query, SQL-light, whatever it takes. On-the-Floor Problem Solving Be the #1 person to resolve issues on the spot during production. When the line stops, you're moving. Build the team's trust by being fast, calm, and capable under pressure. Translate floor-level issues into permanent system improvements — no firefighting the same fire twice. Who You Are Education: Bachelor's degree in Industrial, Manufacturing, Process, Mechanical, Chemical, or Food Engineering from an accredited Engineering school. Experience: 2+ years of post-grad engineering experience, ideally at a large corporation (food, CPG, pharma, or advanced manufacturing). Plus at least 4 months of meaningful college internship time in a production or manufacturing environment. Big-corp grad looking for more: You learned the discipline at a big company — now you want autonomy, impact, and speed. You're ready to trade corporate comfort for real ownership. Process obsessed: You don't just tolerate process optimization — you chase it. Small improvements compound, and you love watching them stack up. Business thinker: You understand ROI. You can defend a capex request. You know the difference between a technically correct solution and an economically correct one — and you choose wisely. Spreadsheet master: Excel, Google Sheets — doesn't matter. You build models that actually answer questions. Pivot tables, lookups, conditional logic, light scripting: all second nature. Software fluent: You pick up new software fast. ERP, MES, scheduling tools, CAD, BI, AI, whatever — you're not intimidated by any of it. Analytics (intermediate+): You can clean data, analyze it, visualize it, and tell a clear story with it. Python/SQL/Power BI are pluses, not requirements. Masterful use of AI tools like ClaudeAI are an absolute must. Broad engineering mind: You have a working understanding of mechanical, electrical, systems, process, and physical engineering fundamentals. When equipment acts up, you don't need to wait for a vendor to tell you what's probably wrong. Bias for action: You solve problems. You don't elevate them, form a committee, or wait for permission. You own outcomes. Nice-to-Have Experience in food manufacturing, CPG, or a regulated production environment. Lean Six Sigma training (Green Belt or higher) or similar formal process improvement credentials. Exposure to FSMA, HACCP, GMP, or similar food-safety frameworks. Hands-on experience with a new facility launch, line expansion, or major process redesign. Comfort talking directly with founders and leadership — plainly, and without slideware. Why This Role Is Different Real ownership: This is not a cog role. You own an entire production facility's process performance. What you build is what gets built. Direct access: Founder-led means you work with leadership — not six reports under them. Speed: Decisions happen in days, not quarters. Good ideas get built. Bad ones get shelved. You'll see the results of your work in real time. Mission: You're helping real people eat better. Every efficiency gain lets us make healthy food more accessible. Local: Proudly St. Louis. On-site, in-person, in the thick of it. Comp: Salary, PTO, and other specifics to be finalized based on candidate experience. Availability: Monday–Friday, approximately 5:00 AM – 2:00 PM. Occasional flexibility for meetings or projects outside core hours, planned in advance whenever possible. What We Offer Competitive pay aligned with experience Growth track to unlock salaried positions in as little as 6 months 1 free shift meal every day you work 50% discount on meals (30% for immediate family) Health, Vision, and Dental Insurance 401(k) with 4% company match 2-Weeks Paid Time Off (with more offered as your tenure grows) 1 Week of additional unpaid time off 6 Paid Holidays Additional wellness benefits (e.g., free group workouts, etc.) Opportunities for professional growth in a fast-growing local business #J-18808-Ljbffr Fit Flavors