Senior Project Engineer/ Project Engineer

Proliant Health & Biologicals

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Ankeny, Iowa Until 8/22/2026 5+ years exp H-1B sponsor history First posted June 3, 2026 Last posted June 3, 2026
Job description
Develop, troubleshoot, and optimize key manufacturing processes utilized in APC plants. Deliver cost savings, quality improvements, and robust control of these processes. Be the go-to technical process expert for dryers, membranes, separation, and fractionation of APC products.

JOB QUALIFICATIONS:

Education

Bachelor of Science in Engineering, Food Science, Food Technology, Chemistry, or related field.

Experience

Bachelor’s degree with 5 or more years of experience in a manufacturing environment with an understanding of process control and development is required, or 5 to 8 years of relevant professional experience.  

Working knowledge of food or feed industry, food safety, and GMP is preferred.

Process troubleshooting, designing and implementing new processes.

Experience in Food, Agriculture, Dairy, BioProcessing or other process intensive industries.

Previous Project Management or leadership experience.

Experience with controls (PLC’s, DCS integration) at the very least control narrative documentation.

JOB DUTIES:

  • Identify opportunities for quality, cost, and delivery improvement. Develop solutions to mitigate issues and optimize Operations performance metrics.
  • Utilize tools such as 8D problem solving, design of experiments, to understand critical input variables that affect process performance and identify viable changes, modifications, and improvements to reduce variation.
  • Work with supervisors, managers, and employees to deploy improvement solutions, including procedural changes, line and equipment modifications, and SOP revisions, that are sustainable and consistent throughout all manufacturing facilities.
  • Serve as a technical resource for applied statistics, process assessment techniques, cost determination, project planning, and control plan implementation and assist with engineering savings impact calculations.
  • Lead plant and supplier trials in cooperation with Operations, Quality and R&D to access new technologies and processes. 
  • Design and implement methods for process control, process improvement, testing, and inspection.
  • Develop a deep technical knowledge of key APC processes such as drying, membranes, separation, and fractionation.  Document and share this knowledge in a sustainable way. 
  • Understand APC processes globally and assist as needed in unifying best in class processes. 
  • Assist Engineering Manager in special projects as assigned.
  • Willingness to travel and spend time in the processes at our manufacturing plants, on both day, weekends, and off-shifts as required.
  • Coordinate with R&D personnel for use of the lab and pilot plant as needed.
  • Write Capital expense requests, coordinate equipment ordering and supervise project work to ensure approved requests are completed within budget.

JOB REQUIREMENTS:

  • Comprehensive knowledge of process development tools and capability to statistically analyze complex manufacturing processes.  Ability to design new processes and optimize existing manufacturing processes.
  • Strong analytical skills to interpret data to make decisions.
  • Above average skills in Microsoft Excel.
  • Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
  • Approximately 25% domestic travel.

Participates in E-Verify

#SAPC

About this role

Summary

Develop and optimize manufacturing processes; lead projects; improve quality and costs in APC plants.

Job title

Senior Project Engineer/ Project Engineer

Experience level

5+ years

Minimum experience

5+ years exp

Industry

manufacturing

Location requirements

Ankeny, Iowa; remote work not indicated, likely on-site

Salary

Not specified

Visa sponsorship

H-1B sponsor history

Management role

No

Skills & keywords

Required skills

process developmentstatistical analysisExcelcontrol narrativeproject management

Preferred skills

food safetyGMPlab and pilot plant workcontrol systems (PLC, DCS)

Specializations

process controlmanufacturingfood industryproject managementcontrols
Locations

Structured locations inferred from the posting.

Ankeny, IA, USA

On-site City