Engineering Manager - Food

Engineering Manager Food Manufacturing

Berkeley, CA

A growing food manufacturing company is seeking an experienced Engineering Manager to lead plant engineering, equipment reliability, capital projects, preventative maintenance strategy, and continuous improvement initiatives within a fast-paced manufacturing environment.

This is an excellent opportunity for a hands-on engineering leader who enjoys solving complex equipment and process challenges, improving plant performance, and partnering cross-functionally with Production, Quality, Food Safety, R&D, Operations, and outside vendors.

The Engineering Manager will play a key role in improving equipment uptime, supporting operational efficiency, reducing downtime, and ensuring manufacturing systems, utilities, and facility infrastructure are operating safely and reliably.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead initiatives to improve equipment reliability, plant efficiency, manufacturing performance, and overall operational effectiveness.
• Analyze downtime trends, equipment failures, and process inefficiencies to identify root causes and implement long-term corrective actions.
• Develop, support, and improve preventative and predictive maintenance programs for production and facility equipment.
• Provide technical troubleshooting support for manufacturing systems, processing equipment, packaging equipment, utilities, heating/cooling systems, and facility infrastructure.
• Manage engineering projects, including equipment upgrades, new installations, automation initiatives, facility improvements, and process optimization projects.
• Partner with Production, QA, Food Safety, R&D, and Operations to support manufacturing goals, product quality, and food safety standards.
• Coordinate with outside vendors, contractors, and service providers for repairs, equipment servicing, and project execution.
• Support spare parts strategy, equipment lifecycle planning, engineering documentation, SOPs, and long-term capital improvement planning.
• Ensure compliance with GMP, HACCP, OSHA, food safety, and company safety standards.

Qualifications

• Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, or a related field preferred.
• 5+ years of plant engineering, manufacturing engineering, industrial engineering, maintenance/reliability, or related experience in a manufacturing environment.
• Food manufacturing or consumer packaged goods manufacturing experience preferred.
• Strong knowledge of manufacturing equipment, process systems, plant utilities, facility operations, and reliability engineering principles.
• Experience leading equipment improvement, process optimization, capital projects, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Familiarity with preventative maintenance systems, root cause analysis, GMP, HACCP, and food safety standards preferred.
• Strong project management, analytical, communication, and cross-functional leadership skills.
• Ability to read and interpret technical drawings, schematics, and engineering documentation.
• CMMS and Microsoft Office experience preferred.

This position operates in a food manufacturing environment and requires close collaboration with plant operations and technical teams. The role may require occasional off-hours support for troubleshooting, maintenance coordination, or project implementation.

Qualified candidates should have a strong engineering foundation, a hands-on leadership style, and the ability to drive meaningful improvements in plant reliability, safety, efficiency, and performance.

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