Senior Process Engineer

Senior Process Engineer


A leading global food manufacturer specializing in sous vide, refrigerated, and ready-to-eat products is seeking a Senior Process Engineer for its Sterling, Virginia operation. This is an onsite direct-hire opportunity offering an annual salary

The Senior Process Engineer provides strategic and hands-on leadership for engineering, maintenance, reliability, automation, utilities, facilities, and capital project activities within a high-volume food manufacturing environment. The role partners with Operations, Quality Assurance, Food Safety, Sanitation, Supply Chain, Finance, Procurement, and executive leadership to improve equipment reliability, production uptime, regulatory compliance, and long-term manufacturing capability.


Key Responsibilities
• Develop and execute plant engineering strategies that improve safety, quality, food safety, throughput, labor efficiency, sanitation effectiveness, equipment uptime, and cost performance.
• Support capital planning and execution, including scope development, budgeting, vendor selection, contractor oversight, installation, commissioning, startup, and post-project validation.
• Provide technical leadership for sous vide processing systems, cook tanks, chill systems, vacuum packaging equipment, boilers, refrigeration, compressed air, water and wastewater systems, conveyors, automation, PLCs, HMIs, and facility infrastructure.
• Partner with Quality Assurance and Food Safety to support HACCP, GMP, SQF or BRC, USDA and FDA expectations, allergen controls, hygienic zoning, sanitation design, environmental monitoring, and food defense.
• Drive continuous improvement using root cause analysis, 5-Why, A3, Lean, Six Sigma, standard work, and data-driven problem solving.
• Ensure compliance with OSHA, LOTO, electrical safety, refrigeration safety requirements, environmental regulations, company safety standards, and local building codes.
• Manage engineering and maintenance budgets, capital expenditures, contractor spend, utilities usage, MRO inventory, and cost-reduction initiatives.
• Support new product introductions, line extensions, process validations, packaging changes, capacity expansions, and automation improvements.
• Establish engineering standards, project management practices, documentation controls, sanitation-ready equipment design expectations, and technical training programs.
• Review subcontractor RFQs and competitive bids, OEM approval drawings, FAT and PAT activities, and installation means and methods.


Qualifications
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related technical field required; advanced degree preferred.
• 15 or more years of progressive engineering, maintenance, reliability, or technical operations experience in food manufacturing, refrigerated foods, ready-to-eat foods, protein processing, sous vide, aseptic, pharmaceutical, or another highly regulated manufacturing environment.
• 7 or more years of leadership experience managing engineering, maintenance, reliability, automation, or facilities teams in a 24/7 manufacturing operation.
• Demonstrated experience leading capital projects, plant expansions, equipment installations, automation upgrades, and commissioning.
• Strong knowledge of preventive and predictive maintenance, CMMS systems, maintenance planning, reliability-centered maintenance, root cause analysis, and spare-parts management.
• Working knowledge of HACCP, GMPs, sanitation design, allergen control, environmental monitoring, SQF or BRC, and OSHA requirements.
• Experience with refrigeration, boilers, thermal processing, chilled-water systems, vacuum packaging, cook/chill operations, PLCs, HMIs, SCADA, conveyors, utilities, and plant infrastructure.
• Strong financial acumen, including budget preparation, capital justification, ROI analysis, vendor management, and cost control.
• Ability to read and interpret PFD, P&ID, ISO, and DWG drawings.
• Working knowledge of AutoCAD, Bluebeam, Procore, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Project, and related software.
• Excellent leadership, communication, problem-solving, project-management, and cross-functional collaboration skills.


Work Environment and Travel


Work is performed in office and food manufacturing environments, including refrigerated, wet, hot, and high-noise production areas. The position requires regular plant-floor activity and availability outside normal business hours for critical downtime, project installations, audits, inspections, or emergencies. Travel of approximately 40% to 60% may be required.


Metro Associates is conducting this search on behalf of its client. The client company name is confidential in this public posting.