Process Engineer: Product Commercialization

About Wildtype

Wildtype is on a mission to create the cleanest, most sustainable seafood on the planet, starting with sushi-grade salmon. We’re pioneering cellular agriculture to protect wild species and our oceans, and to reverse trends of global food insecurity. Wildtype will provide consumers with a new option for real seafood that provides the same nutritional benefits as the most pristine wild-caught fish, without common contaminants such as mercury, microplastics, antibiotics, or pesticides.

We were founded in 2016 by Aryé Elfenbein, a cardiologist and molecular biologist, and Justin Kolbeck (CEO), a former US diplomat who served in Pakistan and Afghanistan, in an effort to solve one of the world’s biggest problems: how to feed a growing population without stripping the earth of its natural resources and biodiversity. Investors include L Catterton, Jeff Bezos, Spark Capital, CRV, Temasek, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Robert Downey Jr.’s Footprint Coalition, among others.

Come join us in transforming our food system for good!

Your work at Wildtype

• Collaborate with food science and product commercialization to identify and engineer processes to produce high quality, safe products
• Conduct technology feasibility assessments (including CAPEX estimates) during multiple phases of Wildtype’s new product development process
• Work closely with our capital projects team to commission and qualify activities on new equipment
• Ensure quality and food safety by building quality control into processes
• Develop manufacturing SOPs for new processes and equipment
• Develop block flow diagrams and perform mass balance studies
• Foster a collaborative learning environment and mentor other engineers, scientists and manufacturing associates
• Communicate effectively with stakeholders and collaborate cross-functionally
• Build maintenance team awareness around technology, process, and troubleshooting

What you bring to Wildtype

• BS in an Engineering field
• Experience in scaling processes between bench, pilot, and manufacturing scales
• Experience with a wide range of commercial food processing equipment, their commissioning, qualification and optimization
• 5-8 years of experience in a food and/or beverage process manufacturing environment
• Experience in process engineering and design, including the development of BFDs, PIDs, and mass balance sheets
• Strong analytical and problem-solving through a data based approach
• Hands-on experience with automated food production lines is a plus

What we’ll teach you

• How ingredient functionality and process conditions yield our current end product
• The unique context of cellular agriculture operations in support of cutting edge seafood production
• How to work with a fast-moving, interdisciplinary team working at the leading edge of numerous highly technical fields

Impact plan

• Within 1 month you will familiarize yourself with the downstream production process and begin vetting equipment recommendations from consultants pertaining to the current production process. You will also familiarize yourself with Wildtype’s product intake process and will collaborate closely with a number of teams to evaluate and prioritize potential products on Wildtype’s product roadmap.
• Within 3 months you will begin commissioning, qualifying, and troubleshooting equipment selected for scale up and developing specifications for continuous production. You will execute manufacturability assessments of new and existing processes. You will help develop systems for training, and handover to process technicians. You will work closely with the food science/product development team to identify data collection requirements that align with project deliverables and manufacturability assessments. You will also work closely with our capital projects team to ensure any proposed equipment and processes are compatible with our existing and future facilities.
• Within 12 months you will develop functional specifications, manufacturing instructions for new processes and continue to collaborate with the product commercialization team to scale and optimize existing and new processes while maintaining a standard of high quality and safe products. You will ensure a lean design (building waste reduction into the process from inception to installation) for scale up and work with the product teams to help translate benchtop methods into scalable, industrial unit operations. You will work on targeted improvement strategies, geared towards COGS improvement in established processes.

The hiring range for this position is $150,000 - $165,000, plus 90th percentile equity.

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Wildtype is committed to building a diverse workplace spanning multiple dimensions including race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity, and veteran status.