Process Development Engineer III - Pet R&D

Business Unit Overview

Headquartered in Lakeville, Minn., Post Consumer Brands, a business unit of Post Holdings, Inc., is dedicated to providing people and their pets with delicious food choices for every taste and budget. The company's portfolio includes beloved brands such as Honey Bunches of Oats , PEBBLES , Grape-Nuts and Malt-O-Meal cereal and Peter Pan peanut butter, as well as Rachael Ray Nutrish , Kibbles 'n Bits and 9Lives dog and cat food. Post also provides private label solutions to customers in pet food, cereal, nut butters and granola. As a company committed to high standards of quality and to our values, we are driven by one idea: To make lives better by making delicious food accessible for all. For more information about our brands, visit and follow us on LinkedIn or Facebook for the latest news.

Location Description

Post Consumer Brands corporate headquarters in Lakeville, Minnesota, is about 20 miles south of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Lakeville has all the benefits of smaller town living with access to everything a large metropolitan area has to offer. Join more than 400 team members collaborating on the two-building campus to help put breakfast on the tables of millions of consumers in North America.

Responsibilities

Big company opportunity. Small company attitude.

At Post Consumer Brands, you'll find the best of both worlds: the resources to do big things and the kind of close-knit culture where your work has a visible handprint. We make delicious food accessible for all, and our pet portfolio is an exciting part of that story. If you love turning bold ideas into real, scalable processes and you're energized by partnering across R&D, Operations, and suppliersm this role is for you.

About the Role

As a Process Development Engineer III - Pet R&D, you'll develop, optimize, and implement proprietary process technologies and equipment that power our innovation roadmap, while also improving existing processes through value engineering and technology development. You'll drive process development from concept through commercialization, working on cross-functional teams to deliver new pet food or snack innovation, cost savings, and quality improvements.

Key Responsibilities
Lead and support scale-up & commercialization: Support/lead development, scale-up, and commercialization of Innovation, Renovation, and Value Engineering initiatives while ensuring process activities meet cost, capacity, quality, marketing, and product development requirements.
Commissioning & qualification: Lead commissioning and support Operations with qualification of new product/process technologies and improvements to existing process technologies.
Documentation that enables repeatability: Develop SOPs, manufacturing specifications, and related documentation; communicate effectively with manufacturing partners and co-packers.
Engineering rigor + smart experimentation: Apply mass/energy balances, heat transfer, designed experiments, data analysis, and process flow diagrams to support decisions and knowledge capture.
External and internal partnership: Interface with equipment suppliers, service providers, manufacturing facilities, and key business partners (including marketing and supply chain) to achieve goals.
Technology opportunity assessment: Assess legal/environmental aspects and patent opportunities (with guidance) for new technologies/processes.
Data-to-action problem solving: Collect/analyze data from suppliers, plant operations, customers, and consumers; design/execute experiments at supplier sites and in plant operations; validate improvements and corrective actions to deliver targeted benefits.

Qualifications

What We're Looking For

Required
Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Chemical Engineering preferred)
More than (5) years of relevant experience in Research and Development
Demonstrated problem-solving ability, innovation/creativity, and strong communication skills
Ability to work effectively in a team-based, cross-functional environment and manage multiple projects in a fast-paced setting

Preferred
Experience in pet food processing (including extrusion and retorted food products)

Nice to know (role demands)
Ability to lift up to 50 lbs

Why You'll Love This Role
Make your mark: This is the kind of role where you can point to a new process, a better technology, or a scaled product-and say, I helped bring that to life.
Innovation with real-world impact: You'll help translate ideas into commercial reality-supporting products families trust and pets love, with an emphasis on quality and accessibility.
Best of both worlds: You'll have strong resources behind you while working in a culture that values flexibility, inclusion, and the kind of collaboration that makes work both fulfilling and fun.
Big thinkers welcome: If you enjoy experimenting, learning fast, and solving complex process puzzles with cross-functional partners, you'll feel right at home here.

Location & Travel
Location: Lakeville, MN (hybrid/onsite expectations may vary by project needs).
Travel: Initially 40-50% for onboarding; steady state up to 30% (to plants, suppliers, and partner sites as needed).

Ready to Make an Impact

If you're excited to turn innovation into scalable, reliable pet food processes-and you want big company opportunity with a small company attitude-we'd love to meet you. Bring your curiosity, your engineering fundamentals, and your drive to improve how great pet food gets made. Apply today.
The pay range for this position is $77,831 - $115,190 per year.