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System Engineer - Belvidere

General Mills

General Mills

belvidere, il, usa · United States
USD 68,700-103,200 / year
Posted on May 7, 2025

Job Description

Belvidere Site Overview

Belvidere is a manufacturing facility of approximately 700 employees serving the Snacks Operating Unit and Convenience and Foodservice Segment. We operate in a dynamic business environment, with a rich history of performance, innovation and renovation. Recently, we added Natural and Organic bars and Fruit by the Foot production into our portfolio after divesting Green Giant, which concluded over 120 years of vegetable growing and manufacturing. We are continuing to evolve to a more complex product portfolio to meet the changing needs of our consumers and customers (organic, non-GMO, new packing formats). The Belvidere plant is a very strategic and critical plant to both the NAR and C&F Segments and continues to be a magnet for investment and growth.

We operate in a dynamic business environment with a culture that values safety, teamwork, wellness and more! If you ask what some of the things that the team members value more in Belvidere are, you will hear that we are family-oriented, foster a culture of teamwork, enjoy great wellness programs, employee giveaways and family appreciation day.

Job Overview

The System Engineer role provides technical leadership and serves as a system and product specialist. They are responsible to build the team’s packaging and processing technical skills through a hands-on approach. They are accountable for the operational foundation systems across the platform to secure basic conditions and drive out losses. The System Engineer plays a critical role to continuously improve by optimizing system performance and product quality while driving strategic productivity and capacity solutions for the platform and ultimately the business.

This level is an entry role to the System Engineering career. The primary focus will be on daily troubleshooting, problem solving and on-the-floor activities to build confidence, capability and credibility with the theory of operations, 4M relationships and our product portfolios. It involves significant floor time to understand manufacturing processes, coupled with development within the System Engineering JTA. As progress is made to grow equipment and technical knowledge, overall capability will improve to identify and execute solutions for performance improvements and loss elimination.

Primary Duties/Responsibilities (% of time)

Safety (5%)

    • Lead food and human safety through Safety 2.0 leadership principles and standards:
    • Cultivate Human Safety Culture that reduces risk by increasing capability to proactively discuss, identify and control risk.
    • Cultivate Food Safety Culture that is committed to manufacturing safe food that is compliant with policy and regulatory requirements.

Capability Building (10%)

    • Troubleshoot, problem solve and facilitate on-the-floor activities to build team member confidence, and capability of theory of operation and Operational Foundational Systems (CIL, CL, DH).
    • Communicate and engage effectively with teams on the manufacturing floor.
    • Mentor the Operations Capability Specialist in their ability to teach & coach CIL, Centerline, & TOO

Process Leadership and Ownership (25%)
Driving System Utilization (DSU):

    • Responsible to build necessary skills around the development of Loss Tree and glidepaths for the line / system.
    • Execute loss elimination tasks to improve system and equipment reliability through use of continuous improvement processes and problem solving.
    • Execute HMM initiatives.

Operations Foundational Systems:

    • Accountable for the operational foundation systems across the platform to secure basic conditions and drive out losses (Clean-Inspect-Lubricate CIL, Centerlines CL and Theory of Operation TOO).
    • Maintains the health and can deliver results through CIL & Centerline

Daily Direction Setting (DDS) and Operations Foundational Systems:

    • Accountable for the operations foundational systems across the platform to secure basic conditions and drive out losses (Clean-Inspect-Lubricate CIL, Centerlines CL, and Theory of Operation TOO).

Vertical Start-Up (VSU):

    • Provide Start-up support to the platform team to drive execution and improvements.

Know your Operation, Data and Technology (55%)

    • Gain exposure through a physical presence on the manufacturing floor to the 4M's (machine, materials, methods, human) to grow skills and understanding of interdependency of inputs.
    • Gain exposure to data and information systems to identify and drive decision making (performance metrics, financial information, data historian, maintenance management system).
    • Learn material balances and unit operation capability on your system(s) to ensure optimal production rates, parameters, and formulas.
    • Develop through connections and learning from operators, technicians, maintenance, and peers through rigorous application and understanding of foundational systems.

Back-Up Support (5%)

    • This position will provide backup support as needed, ensuring business continuity and operational efficiency - Technical partners on platform team (SE, QE, Maintenance)

Minimum Requirements

  • High School Diploma or GED
  • 1 year of manufacturing experience
  • Theory/functionality of manufacturing systems and unit operations
  • Data and manufacturing performance metrics analysis
  • Consumer Products or Process Industry experience
  • Food science or process/packaging science experience
  • Statistical analysis and analytical methods
  • Mechanical aptitude
  • General Engineering Principles knowledge
  • Demonstrated leadership and working in a highly collaborative environment
  • Success in driving results through process and teamwork
  • Proven success reducing losses and improving performance in a manufacturing setting
  • Demonstrated technical capability and knowledge of unit operations and manufacturing machinery
  • Skilled at communicating between work groups, cross-functional resources, and other members of the plant and corporate teams
  • Working knowledge of manufacturing data analysis systems (examples: SAP, Maximo, Manufacturing Analytics, MQIS) and proven success with decision making for results

Preferred Requirements

  • Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering or related degree with applicable experience or extensive relevant work experience
  • 2+ years of manufacturing experience

Salary Range

The salary range for this position is $68700.00 - $103200.00 / Annually. At General Mills we strive for each employee's pay at any point in their career to reflect their experiences performance and skills for their current role. The salary range for this role represents the numerous factors considered in the hiring decisions including, but not limited to, educations, skills, work experience, certifications, etc. As such, pay for the successful candidate(s) could fall anywhere within the stated range. Beyond base salary, General Mills offers a competitive Total Rewards package focusing on your overall well-being. We are proud to offer a foundation of health benefits, retirement and financial wellbeing, time off programs, wellbeing support and perks. Benefits may vary by role, country, region, union status, and other employment status factors. You may also be eligible to participate in an annual incentive program. An incentive award, if any, depends on various factors, including, individual and organizational performance.