Production Management Engineer

Job description

Cargill is a family company committed to providing food and agricultural solutions to nourish the world in a safe, responsible, and sustainable way. We sit at the heart of the supply chain, partnering with producers and customers to source, make and deliver products that are vital for living. By providing customers with life’s essentials, we enable businesses to grow, communities to prosper, and consumers to live well. This position is in our Food Enterprise where we are committed to serving food manufacturers, food service customers, and retailers with a complete range of innovative ingredients and branded products. Our portfolio includes poultry, beef, egg, alternative protein, salt, oils, starches, sweeteners, cocoa and chocolate. Job Purpose and Impact The Production Management Engineer is a key technical resource supporting the Chocolate Refining department's manufacturing operations to improve moderately complex manufacturing processes and products. This role combines process engineering expertise, operational troubleshooting, continuous improvement methodology, and project leadership to drive performance across safety, quality, productivity, and reliability objectives. In this role, you will provide technical support, operations experience, continuous improvement techniques and project management skills and be a contributing member of a team on moderately complex issues related to the operational domain area As a critical member of the Refining team, this individual will provide technical leadership to optimize process capability, improve equipment reliability, reduce process variability, and support sustainable operational excellence in a 24/7 manufacturing environment. Working closely with production, maintenance, quality, engineering, and external equipment partners, the Process Engineer will identify and implement improvement opportunities, lead root cause investigations, and drive projects that enhance production throughput, yield, first-pass quality, and overall process stability. The successful candidate will leverage engineering principles, data analysis, and process control systems to troubleshoot complex manufacturing challenges, support capital and continuous improvement initiatives, and develop technical capability within the operations team to achieve variable and fixed cost and operating efficiency targets. This position plays an important role in advancing department KPIs while ensuring compliance with environmental, health and safety (EHS), food safety, quality, and regulatory requirements, and fostering a culture aligned with Cargill's values and behaviors. Key Accountabilities Champion and drive department KPIs (especially Refining production, Yield and First Pass Quality), lead projects that support these goals and other projects as designated Participate in operator daily production meetings, leading problem-solving activities with the operators, supervisors, and broader team Troubleshoot through major process upsets (manufacturing process runs 24-7) Support maintenance (both proactive and reactive) on refining equipment by developing Lock Outs, collaborating on maintenance work and strategies to reduce failures Become familiar with our process control software (D3 and Mercury) to support troubleshooting and optimizing production Show customer focus by supporting product trials, customer audits and reviewing production scheduling Ensure compliance with EHS and FSQR expectations Act as an influential leader on the team, exhibiting Cargill Values and Behaviors Support operator and shift supervisor technical training Partner with personnel from other departments and functions within the site or across the business to roll out initiatives, benchmark practices and assist in the creation of strategies. Other duties as assigned Qualifications MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS Bachelor’s degree in a related field or equivalent experience Minimum of two years of related work experience Other minimum qualifications may apply PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS Six sigma green belt certification Experience in Food Manufacturing Experience with operations data and design programs and applications Lean certification Experience and skills leading moderately complex projects Strong data analysis capabilities including continuous improvement experience or certifications Normal working shift is during first shift hours, with ability to support operations on nights, weekends, and holidays as needed to prevent machine downtime Equal Opportunity Employer, including Disability/Vet