Principal Fermentation Engineer

The Role: 
Meati Foods is a fast-growing food company with fermentation and food manufacturing at the core of our business. We are hiring a Principal Fermentation Engineer to support our growth in food manufacturing with equipment engineering, process optimization, capital project support, and project management. The successful candidate will leverage their deep knowledge of commercial scale fermentation (100,000 liters or more) as a lead technical subject matter expert supporting capacity expansion and other cross-functional projects requiring creative solutions to drive the rapid growth of the company. 

 
Responsibilities: 

• Provide technical fermentation expertise, innovation, and leadership. 
• Specify and design production equipment, instrumentation & controls and provide training to operators on new and existing processes and equipment.
• Identify and promote system improvement opportunities. 
• Provide guidance and development on best practices with a productivity focus. 
• Develop cost justifications, scope, schedule, and budget estimates for new process systems and process upgrades. 
• Lead food manufacturing startup and commissioning activities, including onsite field engineering at new production facilities, new system validation and checkout, and the development of standard operating procedures. 
• Develop food processing and CIP standards including SOP development. 
• Prepare Best Value Option Analysis (BVOA) to compare solutions and cost for best value and provide recommendations to project teams. 
• Interface with Project Managers and/or contractors, vendors, and maintenance to ensure installation and completion of capital projects. 
• Review, mark up, and approve drawings and other technical documentation for process systems. 
• Develop Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) planning and executes successful FAT. 
• Provide field installation supervision, leads commissioning, and field troubleshooting during startup phase. 
• Identify and resolve technical problems. 
• Proactively communicate project status throughout the organization. 
• Develop and execute IQ, OQ, PQ with project team during installation, commissioning,  
  qualification, and verification project phases. 
• Identify, develop, and implement process improvement projects to increase productivity, reliability, sustainability, and cost reduction. 
• Support a High-Performance Organization (HPO) environment by utilizing a total team approach to process improvements. 

 
Qualifications: 

• BS engineering or life sciences 
• 10+ years’ experience in industrial fermentation process engineering with deep knowledge of commercial scales (100,000 liters and above) 
• 10+ years’ experience construction oversight and commissioning experience 
• 10+ years of experience designing, installing, operating, and optimizing of systems 
• Demonstrated experience as a technical SME 
• Must be open to 20% - 25% travel 

Nice-to-Have (but not required): 

• Experience with major CPGs and/or a combination of start-up and large CPG experience 
• Expertise with multi-step food processing procedures 
• Experience with quick to launch/fast to market projects
• Understanding of PLC programming and process control fundamentals
• Experience with AutoCAD or Visio
• Lean Six Sigma Certified (Green Belt)
• Statistical Process Control 

**Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of color are less 
likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Meati™ we are dedicated to 
building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role, but your 
previous experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage 
you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles. **
 

Compensation:  
The base salary range for this role is $120K- $165K annually, which is just one aspect of our total compensation package. In addition to the salary, this position is eligible for a potential annual bonus and equity! Actual compensation may vary based on skills, experience, and location.