About us:
Based in Berkeley, CA, UPSIDE Foods grows meat, poultry, and seafood directly from real animal cells. These products are not vegan or vegetarian—they are delicious meat, made without the need to raise and slaughter billions of animals. In doing so, the company aims to address some of the most pressing environmental, animal welfare, and public health challenges, while still giving people the meat they love.
Founded as the world’s first cultivated meat company in 2015, UPSIDE Foods (formerly Memphis Meats) has achieved numerous industry-defining milestones, including being the first company to produce multiple species of meat (beef, chicken, and duck) and to sell a cultivated meat product in the United States. The company believes that people shouldn’t have to choose between the foods they love and a thriving planet, and is working to build a better food system with access to delicious, humane, and sustainable meat, poultry, and seafood.
UPSIDE Foods has won various industry awards, including New York Times’ Good Tech Awards, FastCo’s Next Big Thing in Tech and World Changing Ideas Awards, and the Best and Brightest Companies to Work For in the Nation by the National Association for Business Resources. UPSIDE Foods has raised a total of $608 million, including from the Abu Dhabi Growth Fund (ADG), Baillie Gifford, Bill Gates, Cargill, John Doerr, John Mackey, Kimbal and Christiana Musk, Norwest, Richard Branson, Softbank, Temasek, Threshold, Tyson Foods, and others.
About this job:
The Plant Engineer is the Subject Matter Expert (SME) for all building infrastructure, utilities, and process equipment used to produce cell-based meat in the world’s first end-to-end production facility for this impactful product. Utilities and production systems include technology from both bioprocess and food manufacturing systems and will be operated in a regulated environment for food production.
The Plant Engineer will ensure that the equipment and systems are started up, commissioned, maintained, and enhanced to support production and continuous process improvements. The role will manage associated subcontractors and maintenance record documentation.
Responsibilities Include:
- Lead the maintenance operations of building systems, including mechanical, electrical, fire/life safety, plumbing, process utilities, and process equipment
- Manage facilities technicians and associated subcontractors and vendor relationships
- Collaboratively develop, implement, execute, and document a systematic approach to ensure all aspects of the facility, utilities and process equipment are started up, commissioned, operated, and maintained
- Execute strategic plans to continually improve the facility’s operation including repair, modification, and execution of facility capital projects, automation strategy, installation, commissioning and qualification
- Along with the Manufacturing and Engineering Leads, direct, author, test, and coordinate equipment corrective, preventative and predictive maintenance procedures and protocols as necessary to ensure systems are in proper working order. (RO/DI, steam boiler, HVAC, piping, valves, air compressors, wastewater systems, and refrigeration units, sterile bioprocess equipment, food formulation equipment, etc)
- Monitor systems to identify performance risks and implement risk reduction strategies
- Perform post repair, Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and FMEA on failures to optimize a true condition based maintenance strategy
- Continually review and ensure systems are installed and operating safely and comply with pertinent environmental health/safety practices, rules and regulations
- Interact with inspectors as necessary to demonstrate equipment maintenance and calibration through compliant documentation
About You:
- Bachelor's degree preferred, or equivalent experience
- 6+ years of progressive hands-on experience in a maintenance role in either utilities or facilities; 2+ years managing individual contributors, contractors, or third party vendors
- Extensive hands-on experience operating, modifying, installing, and/or maintaining utilities and process equipment in a regulated industry such as purified water, clean steam, waste neutralization, refrigeration, HVAC, clean compressed air, sterile bioreactor equipment, food processing equipment
- Experience managing and/or participating in projects to procure, install, and startup new equipment
- Experience with preventive and predictive maintenance
- Knowledge of OSHA guidelines, and other federal, state and local regulations
- Comfortable presenting in front of large groups consisting of peers and/or management
- Ability to respond to off-hour and urgent matters as needed
- Ability to lift, push, and pull up to 50 pounds without assistance, as well as the ability to stand, sit, kneel, bend, lift, push, pull for extended periods. Ability to work in a manufacturing and machine shop environment. Valid California Driver’s License required.
Compensation Range: $120,000 - $145,000*
*Pay may vary depending on factors including job-related knowledge and skills.
UPSIDE Benefits!
- Stock options for all full-time incoming team members!
- 90-100% employer-paid healthcare premiums for team members (medical [including HSA and FSA], dental, and vision)
- Pet insurance for your furry family members!
- Unlimited PTO
- Employee Engagement Council
- Company-sponsored learning & development opportunities
UPSIDE Foods is an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Our company-wide mission is to create a product for everyone, so we are deeply committed to having teams and leaders that reflect this mission.