Process Engineer - Sauce Plant

About the role

Pedros is looking for a hands-on, site-based Process Engineer for its Sauce Plant. The role covers process performance, plant utilities, automation and equipment reliability, supporting the full sauce-making chain from ingredient addition, cooking, mixing and cooling through filling, capping, labelling, packing and CIP. The engineer diagnoses faults personally, improves efficiency and reduces reliance on external suppliers while keeping food safety and safe operation.

Key responsibilities

• Take day-to-day technical ownership of process and utility performance across cooking, cooling, transfer, storage, filling and packaging.
• Act as first-line engineer for breakdowns and chronic faults, troubleshooting mechanical, electrical, process and control issues before escalating to OEMs or contractors.
• Optimise sauce batch processing (heat-up, ingredient addition, agitation, emulsification, cooking/hold, transfer and cooling) to improve cycle time, consistency and yield.
• Maintain and troubleshoot utilities such as steam generators, boilers, steam distribution, condensate, chillers, cooling towers, water treatment, compressed air, dryers and receivers.
• Own CIP technical performance, including flow, temperature, chemical concentration, contact time, spray devices, return flow, recovery, dosing and cleaning validation.
• Troubleshoot sanitary pumps (lobe, positive displacement, centrifugal, multistage, dosing), inspect and replace mechanical seals, bearings and couplings, and support heat-exchanger and piping systems.
• Use PLC/HMI and VSD systems for fault diagnosis and coordinate software changes with approved specialists.
• Support filling, capping, conveying, labelling and coding equipment, including changeovers, calibration and downtime reduction.
• Build and maintain preventive-maintenance plans, job cards, critical-spares lists, lubrication routines and calibration schedules.
• Lead root-cause analysis, implement corrective actions, track KPIs (uptime, MTBF/MTTR, yield, CIP performance) and support hygienic engineering, GMP and food safety.
• Manage OEMs, contractors and service providers, and support commissioning, modifications and continuous-improvement projects including FAT/SAT, IQ/OQ and P&ID review.

Required profile

• BEng or BSc in Mechanical, Chemical, Electrical or Mechatronics Engineering; a national diploma, BTech, N6 or recognised technical qualification is also considered.
• 3-5 years of hands-on engineering experience in a food, beverage or FMCG plant; sauce, condiment or liquid-food processing experience strongly preferred.
• Plant-floor experience with batch heating/cooling, hygienic transfer, storage, filling/packaging and CIP, plus strong utilities experience.
• Willingness to work hands-on, support breakdowns and planned shutdowns outside normal hours, and to train operators and maintenance staff.
• Valid driver's licence and occasional travel to suppliers, OEMs or other sites is advantageous.

Required skills

• Working knowledge of PLC/HMI/VSD fault finding and industrial instrumentation; LS, Festo or Siemens exposure is advantageous.
• Ability to read P&IDs, electrical/control schematics, OEM manuals and maintenance documentation.
• Knowledge of GMP, HACCP and food safety; FSSC 22000 and hygienic-design exposure is advantageous.
• Commissioning or start-up experience is advantageous.