Project Manager / Food Process Engineer

"Our food system is broken, inefficient, depletive, and damaging. Do you want to help change that?"

Project Manager / Food Process Engineer

Our current food system is essentially broken, inefficient, depletive, and damaging to the environment. We want to change that! So, are you up to the task? 

We are looking for a committed, entrepreneurial and driven individual with strong analytical skills and who wants to be part of a movement to disrupt the incumbent environmentally destructive food system.

The Good Pulse Company is a food technology company with a mission to develop functional, sustainable, cleaner, and minimally processed proteins and ingredients blends from pulses (peas, beans, and lentils) that make it easier and cheaper for food companies to create better and more nutritious plant-based dairy, meat, and baked goods alternatives, thus accelerating the shift from animal- to plant-based diets.

Team Intro

We are a diverse and multicultural team of scientists and engineers with varied experience from several areas of the food industry ranging from farming to food chemistry and physics to human nutrition, and even as professional chef.

All our scientists have a PhD in Food Science & Technology and have been working at the cutting-edge of research for some of the largest and most innovative companies in the industry. Similarly, our team has published dozens of peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals and also contributed to writing books on food science and technology.

Ultimately, we are bounded by our passion for sustainable food production and the use of sound science to develop new solutions that address the challenges to feed a growing population.

Now, we are looking for someone with a food production technical background and project management experience to help our team deliver and to act as a bridge between the scientific team and the CEO to translate our technology and innovations into scalable solutions.

Person Specification & Skills

The candidate should be a quick learner and competent to work independently, focusing on our shared goals. An ideal candidate will be skilled at both creative and strategic thinking and able to report qualitatively and quantitatively in a clear and concise manner. More specifically, the candidate should have/be:

·      Understanding of the importance of meeting high standards of personal and professional conduct and respecting deadlines as agreed.

·      Pro-active, self-motivated, self-starter, enthusiastic, problem-solver, and able to stay on task.

·      Effective time management and organisational skills.

·      Reliable and punctual.

·      Flexible and able to work remotely without supervision.

·      An active mindset and able to positively engage with a wide range of people and organisations.

·      Strong analytical skills and the ability to summarise complex problems into concise explanations.

·      Excellent written and verbal communication skills, and ability to speak clearly with colleagues, stakeholders, and other partners.

·      Willingness to learn new skills, take up new challenges and be a fast learner.

·      High level of IT literacy and knowledge of tools such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Project Management applications.

·      Respectful, courteous, supportive, flexible, and adaptable.

Ultimately, we are looking for someone that is brave and not afraid of challenges, and who has the right personal characteristics as well as the right behavioural, general business, and technical skills to support the company in moving to the next phase. 

Responsibilities

We are based at School of Food Sciences at the University of Nottingham Sutton Bonington campus. As a dual management and technical role, you will be providing overall management and any technical support to our team of six PhD-level food scientists (including the company’s co-founder who is a Professor at the University) working on research and development, thus ensuring they have everything they need and producing all necessary progress reports from their multiple work packages. 

Similarly, you will be working closely with the CEO on all aspects of management, operations (including supply chain, logistics and manufacturing), budgeting, planning, and organisation, and ultimately acting as a bridge between the scientific team and the CEO.

The company has just secured a major grant from Innovate UK to complete our R&D and get us closer to scale up and commercialisation of our ingredients. This new role is fundamental to ensure efficient execution and delivery of the scope as well as leading our efforts to scale up our technology, including its implementation and QHSE aspects. We are currently in discussions with major food companies interested in developing nutritious plant-based food products using our unique functional ingredients, and so, the successful candidate will also support external NPD and prototyping with potential customers. 

As Project Manager the principal responsibility is to deliver the project within budget and schedule limits in accordance to specifications (quality). This includes, but not limited to:

·      Planning of activities, tasks, and deliverables, which would include creating, where appropriate, work breakdown, schedules, budgets, coordinating with others, and recommending allocation of resources.

·      Preparing regular (weekly) 1-page progress reports about the discreate work packages from the technical teams.

·      Regular monitoring of tasks from each work package, and overall project status.

·      Regular interfacing with team members, stakeholders, and other partners.

·      Identify technical and functional problems, and provide solutions quickly and directly.

·      Provide regular support to the technical team on all aspects of procurement or operations outside the University.

·      Ensuring timesheets and other resource sheets are completed weekly and ready for preparation of invoices where relevant.

·      Preparing monthly and/or quarterly progress reports for selected stakeholders (e.g. investors and Innovate UK).

·      Regular monitoring of risks and mitigation measures, and updating of the company Risk Register.

As Food Process Engineer the principal responsibility is to ensure we have the necessary plans and resources in place for scaling up our technologies. This includes, but not limited to:

·      Drafting and implementing necessary QHSE plans.

·      Supporting the CEO in drafting the company’s operations strategy and plans.

·      Assessing and selecting production partners (co-manufacturers) by ensuring they have the relevant QHSE certifications, procedures, and policies, as well as the right team and facilities to deliver our ingredients to our specifications.

·      Assessing and selecting other suppliers and sub-contractors such as commodity traders, warehouse providers, logistics/transport companies, and packaging materials suppliers.

·      Providing NPD support to potential customers about how our ingredients are used in prototyping and full-scale production.

Requirements

This is a dual project management and food processing engineering role. Therefore, we are looking for good levels of competency in both areas. The candidate should have:

·      Very good understanding of Project and Risk Management principles and frameworks (Work Packages, Gantt charts, definition of scopes, tasks planning and management, definition of milestones, costs estimates and budgeting, project quality management, risk assessment, project control, procurement, etc).

·      BSc degree in food technology/production or similar subject, preferably with a management component; and ideally an MSc or other relevant professional qualifications.

·      Proven knowledge and experience in planning and managing projects (people, budgets, deliverables, stakeholders).

·      Knowledge of and experience in working in food new product development – NPD (setting up requirements, processes, QA/QC).

·      Ideally, previous experience in food ingredients or food products manufacturing (engineering processes, equipment, quality management, supply chain, and overall operations).

·      You must be a permanent resident in the UK (have the legal right live and work in the UK).

·      Preferably based in the Nottingham area. Although the work can be done remotely, you are expected to have regular (weekly or every fortnight) visits to the University of Nottingham facilities in Sutton Bonington campus for meetings with the team, overseeing progress, managing or providing support to the team in all aspects of project delivery.

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