Short Intro and About the Job
The Sr Manager Process Engineer leads process design, scale-up, validation, and commercialization across dairy, plant-based, cultured, and adjacent food platforms. The role delivers safe, cost-effective, scalable consumer-preferred solutions and provides technical leadership across R&I, Operations, Quality & Food Safety, Engineering, Procurement, suppliers, and co-manufacturers.
Key Responsibilities: Technical Leadership, Process Design & Industrial Scale-Up
Lead process strategy, design, scale-up, validation, and commercialization for complex innovation, renovation, productivity, quality, and capacity programs.
Apply deep expertise in mixing, thermal and aseptic processing, homogenization, fermentation, filtration, filling, sanitation, controls, and automation.
Define critical process parameters, operating windows, scale-up rules, control plans, and risk mitigations; lead resolution of high-impact manufacturing issues.
Portfolio, Program & Stage-Gate Leadership
Lead multiple strategic technical programs and own R&I process-engineering deliverables through stage-gate, including scope, resources, risks, trials, documentation, and recommendations.
Design and execute pilot and plant trials, analyze results, and communicate decision-ready conclusions to technical, operational, and business leaders.
Build reusable standards, scale-up playbooks, and lessons learned to improve speed and first-time-right commercialization.
Manufacturing Excellence & Continuous Improvement
Apply engineering fundamentals, statistical methods, and plant data to optimize unit operations and distinguish process variation from systemic capability gaps.
Partner with manufacturing teams to establish sustainable operating standards, monitoring, and corrective actions.
Equipment, Automation & Capital Projects
Define process and user requirements for pilot equipment, including hygienic design, utilities, instrumentation, automation, data collection, and cleanability. Work with OPS Engineering to ensure industrial equipment meets desired requirements.
Guide equipment selection and capital projects from concept through commissioning and start-up, ensuring product, process, food-safety, operability, and scale-up requirements are met.
Quality, Food Safety & Technical Governance
Ensure process designs and commercialization plans meet GMP, HACCP, sanitary design, validation, regulatory, and internal food-safety requirements.
Partner with Quality & Food Safety to assess risk, resolve deviations, define validation evidence, and review key process and change-control documentation.
Technical Influence, Capability Building & External Partnerships
Mentor technical contributors, deliver training, and build organizational process-engineering capability without direct supervisory responsibility.
Serve as a senior subject-matter expert; influence cross-functional and global partners; and evaluate suppliers, co-manufacturers, emerging technologies, and digital tools.
Physical Demands & Work Environment:
Work spans office, laboratory, pilot plant, and manufacturing environments and requires plant-floor presence, appropriate PPE, and approximately 40–50% travel.
Compensation & Benefits:
The salary range for this position is $116,000 – $167,000 USD. The exact salary offered will depend on several factors, including the candidate’s relevant experience, geographic location, internal equity, and market conditions. Danone North America additionally offers a performance-based bonus and has a strong benefits package including Medical, Dental, Vision, Prescription Drug Coverage, 401k Plan, Wellness Program, Life Insurance, Tuition Reimbursement, Flexible Time Off, and Paid Parental Bonding Leave, among other benefit plan options. To give our employees flexibility, Danone is a hybrid work environment. This role is considered a “hybrid” position that allows for flexible work, meaning it is a role where collaboration with key stakeholders in Danone Hubs occurs. While you may have the option to work from home on a schedule as agreed to with your supervisor, you are also expected to regularly report to your assigned office location at least 3 days per week.
About You:
The ideal candidate will bring a combination of education, experience, and skills that enable them to excel in this position. The following qualifications outline what we’re looking for, including both required and preferred criteria:
Education & Experience
Must Have:
Bachelor’s degree or higher in Chemical, Process, Food, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
10+ years of progressive process-engineering, scale-up, or industrialization experience in food, beverage, CPG, or another regulated hygienic manufacturing environment.
Demonstrated success scaling processes from bench or pilot to manufacturing and establishing robust operating windows and validation plans.
Ability to mentor technical talent, lead cross-functional work across projects and sites, and communicate risks and recommendations to senior stakeholders.
Preferred:
Master’s degree or PhD in engineering, food science, or a related technical discipline.
Advanced expertise in thermal or aseptic processing, fermentation, filtration, mixing, homogenization, hygienic design, and product-process interactions.
Lean Six Sigma or equivalent problem-solving expertise, plus experience with capital projects, suppliers, co-manufacturers, or global teams.
Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:
Expert command of engineering fundamentals, scale-up principles, process dynamics, equipment capability, and hygienic manufacturing.
Strong knowledge of GMP, HACCP, sanitation, thermal validation, process risk, instrumentation, controls, and manufacturing data systems.
Advanced data analysis and statistical skills, with the ability to integrate formulation, rheology, processing, equipment, packaging, and shelf-life requirements.
Strong project leadership, prioritization, communication, and influencing skills, with comfort operating hands-on in ambiguous, fast-paced environments.
About Us, We offer and What's next
Life at Danone With approximately 5,000 employees and 13 production locations across the U.S., our vibrant culture and endless growth opportunities are just a couple of the reasons our employees call themselves “Proud Danoners.”Learn more about Life at Danone Our Brands When you join us, you’ll work with some of the best-known food and beverage brands in the world, including Activia®, DanActive®, Danimals®, Dannon®, evian®, Follow Your Heart®, Happy Family® Organics, International Delight®, Light + Fit®, Nutricia ®, Oikos®, Silk®, So Delicious® Dairy Free, STōK® Cold Brew Coffee ®, … Our Purpose We’re committed to making a positive impact on our world. Rooted in our mission to bring health through food to as many people as possible, we’re proud ...
Learn more about our mission. Our Benefits Our commitment to making the world healthier starts ...
Physical Wellbeing: We pay for the majority of your medical benefits – which include medical, dental and vision – with our competitive 80%/20% cost-sharing model.
Mental Wellbeing: Danoners receive fitness discounts, unlimited flexible time off and hybrid work schedules. We also have a range of programs that support mental health and substance abuse.
Financial Support: We offer a performance-based bonus, a 401(k) plan, tuition reimbursement, employee discount programs and voluntary perks.
Family Care: We offer caretaker benefits, 18 weeks of parental bonding, fertility, surrogacy, adoption benefits and pet insurance.
Learn more about our benefits. Equal Opportunity Employer Danone North America is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. It is our policy to give equal employment opportunities to all qualified persons without regard to legally protected characteristics, or any other consideration made unlawful by applicable federal, state/provincial and/or local law. For our EEO policy statement and your EEO rights under law click here.
