What you will own at Wildtype

We are seeking a mission-driven Plant Engineer to join our growing team at our pilot plant in San Francisco, CA. The Plant Engineer will be responsible for ensuring the smooth operation of all production equipment and facilities by overseeing maintenance and repair activities, coordinating with other production and engineering teams, and implementing best practices for preventive maintenance. This role will be also responsible for managing day-to-day activities for utility operation, preventative and predictive maintenance, calibration, and troubleshooting.

This role will report to the Plant Director.

What you'll do

• Ensure personal safety, food safety and quality protocols are followed at all times
• Develop and implement a comprehensive maintenance program, including preventive and predictive maintenance schedules to ensure that all equipment and facilities are operating at optimal levels with minimal unplanned downtime
• Coordinate with other departments, including production and engineering to ensure that maintenance activities are harmonized with production goals
• Develop and maintain accurate inventory of spare parts and supplies ensuring that they are readily available when needed
• Establish and maintain effective communication with vendors and suppliers to ensure timely delivery of parts and services
• Monitor and analyze equipment performance data to identify areas for improvement and implement appropriate changes
• Implement and enforce safety procedures to ensure a safe working environment for all employees
• Start up, commission, qualify, and troubleshoot clean utility systems (CIP, SIP)
• Develop and maintain calibration plan for all process and clean utility systems
• Develop plan for internal vs external maintenance and instrumentation team
• Manage utility, maintenance and instrumentation contractors
• Maintain P&IDs and other technical documentations for all utility systems (electrical diagrams, equipment layout, Functional Specs, DDS) and process equipment
• Manage projects for capacity expansion and continuous improvement on site
• Manage Lock Out Tag Out and Confined Space Entry program for safety
• Owns maintenance and continuous improvement of utility and process automation systems

What you'll bring

• Minimum of 5 years of experience in plant engineering or maintenance management in a manufacturing environment
• Degree in Chemical/ Mechanical Engineering preferred
• Experience with biotech, pharmaceutical or semiconductor clean utility systems required
• Strong understanding of industrial equipment and facilities, including electrical, mechanical, and plumbing systems
• 5+ years experience working with clean or high purity utility systems
• Understanding of fermentation or cell culture processes preferred
• Experience with predictive and preventive maintenance techniques
• Hands-on personality with ability to work in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment including availability for responding to after-hours calls and timely resolution of utility issues to support production
• Strong safety mindset
• Strong leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills
• Ability to pass a standard background check

What we'll teach you

• How to work with a fast-moving, interdisciplinary team working at the leading edge of numerous highly technical fields
• The unique context of cellular agriculture operations in support of cutting edge seafood production
• Wildtype advocates for transparency and sharing of ideas and information. You will be working alongside the Operations, Process Development, Engineering, and Quality teams where you can find out what they are working on, what intrigues and motivates them, understand the challenges and successes are that have led to the current production process

Impact plan

• Within 1 month you will familiarize yourself with our production process, equipment, and facilities. You will have adapted your experience to Wildtype's unique manufacturing context. You will have defined your professional development goals for the next 6 months. You will also form an initial improvement plan for minimizing equipment down time.
• Within 3 months you will have worked cross-functionally with our operations and engineering teams to understand the requirements of our technology and process. You will have made significant upgrades to our predictive and preventative maintenance procedures by defining set schedules for our most critical equipment. You also will have developed and implemented a calibration plan for all our process and clean utility systems. Finally, you will have assumed end-to-end accountability for operational uptime of all production equipment at Wildtype.
• Within 6 months you will continue to work closely with our operations & manufacturing teams to ensure a high standard for equipment and utility system maintenance. You will be independently running projects and managing external contractors. You can expect to periodically report progress on your projects to our entire team and will feel accountable for the functions of our plant maintenance and facilities systems. You will be able to apply lessons learned managing our San Francisco plant to the design and construction of Wildtype's first full-scale production site.
• Within 12 months you'll be our in-house expert regarding all utility systems and process equipment. You will have fostered an environment of high quality and continuous improvement. You will be our in-house expert in efficiently responding to and resolving utility and process equipment issues to support production.

The hiring range for this position is $155,000 - $175,000 per year, plus 90th percentile equity.

Location: this position is an onsite role based in San Francisco.