Pilot Plant Digital Process Engineer

Business Context

Pepsi Lipton, a joint venture between Unilever and PepsiCo, combines 125 years of tea expertise to pioneer in the ready-to-drink tea market. As an autonomous global company with its own board of directors, we launch products worldwide, offering our employees broad roles with significant responsibilities. We provide a culture of innovation and learning, competitive compensation, and comprehensive benefits.

Our development centre at Colworth Science Park creates winning products for Europe, Africa and Asia with our R&D team innovating the future of the business and industry. Our team is passionate about being at the front end of innovation and it’s exciting to see our creations in consumers’ hands.

We are seeking a practical and innovative Process and Digital Engineer to join our dynamic team.

This role is perfect for an experienced Food Processing Engineers with a passion for digital transformation in a dynamic team environment.

If you enjoy collaborating with fun, creativity, expertise and rigour, join us in unlocking the Power of Tea to produce phenomenal ready-to-drink products!

To learn more, visit www.liptonicedtea.com.

Role Context

This role operates within the Pepsi Lipton Joint Venture pilot plant at Colworth Science Park, a highly utilised R&D environment supporting Ready to Drink tea process development for global innovation programmes. The Colworth pilot plant serves multiple stakeholders and projects simultaneously, requiring disciplined coordination of equipment availability, servicing, and compliance activities.

The Pilot Plant Digital Process Engineer plays a critical enabling function by supporting operational readiness and governance across pilot-scale trials, working closely with pilot plant operations, digital leads, engineering, health and safety, and external service partners to ensure development activity can be delivered safely, efficiently, and predictably.

Key Accountabilities

• Act as the process development leader to ensure On Time in Full (OTIF) delivery of projects including process design, laboratory and pilot plant prototypes and scale up trials.
• Lead the scoping, implementation and running of ‘non-standard’ or novel pilot plant operations for new innovations, involving cross-functional interaction with R&D, Technical Project Leads, Supply Chain, Microbiology, Site Safety etc., creating new processes and protocols to support novel workstreams.
• Lead digital enablement of pilot plant trials, including digitising workflows and automating data capture, ensuring data quality and adoption by users.
• Lead the process safety implementation for all Pilot Plant equipment, ensuring compliance with HSE and Unilever standards.
• Plan and coordinate equipment inspections, servicing, and remedial work with internal teams and external service providers to enable effective execution of pilot plant activities
• Propose, prioritise, and implement continuous improvement opportunities for pilot plant processes and operations using data-led problem solving (e.g. root cause analysis), standardisation, and practical trials.
• Own the implementation of agreed improvements: develop requirements, coordinate stakeholders, validate in the pilot plant, update SOPs/training, and track benefits (safety, quality, cost, speed, reliability).
• Deputise as Group Safety Advisor to the Pepsi Lipton team at Colworth, attending regular meetings with the Site Safety Team and rolling out site wide initiatives as required.
• Support the Pilot Plant Manager in identifying and implementing future-fit processing capabilities required to deliver the JV’s innovation and growth strategy.
• Support Pilot Plant Food Safety agenda, including HACCP creation and implementation.

Key Interfaces

• Pilot Plant Operations
• R&D Project + Digital Teams
• Health, Safety & Compliance
• External Service Providers

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

• Degree in Engineering, Food Technology, or equivalent apprenticeship and experience.
• Experience supporting pilot plants, process development, or manufacturing environments.
• Comfortable working with data and digital tools to improve operations (e.g. electronic batch records, dashboards, data visualisation in Excel/Power BI or similar).
• Experience coordinating change implementation in a live operational environment: stakeholder alignment, risk assessment, documentation/SOP updates, training, and change adoption.
• Ability to manage multiple programs of work at any given time, with a keen eye for detail and rigor
• Strong communication skills.
• A strong team player who can also work independently as required.
• Strong coordination and stakeholder management skills across internal and external interfaces.
• Working knowledge of equipment servicing, operational planning, and health & safety requirements. Experience with HACCP and Foods safety appreciated.
• Ability to operate effectively in a regulated environment with multiple priorities.

What We Offer

Not only do we offer a competitive salary and pension scheme, we also offer an annual bonus, subsidised gym membership, a discounted staff shop and shares. You’ll have the opportunity to work directly with our renowned and exciting brands in a flexible and hybrid working environment.

Whilst the role is advertised on a full-time basis, we would be happy to discuss possible flexible working options and what this may look like for you. We are a key advocate of wellbeing and offer a variety of support for our people including hubs, programmes and development opportunities. We strive to achieve a family-friendly and inclusive workplace and to, above all, create possibilities for all. 

Diversity at Unilever is about inclusion, embracing differences, creating possibilities, and growing together for better business performance. We want to push boundaries, and have the flexibility needed to keep adapting in an ever-changing, more dynamic world. This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity. 

As part of your hiring journey, we are happy to support requests for reasonable adjustments, to improve your recruitment experience.

To find out more, including more information about our Employee Resource Groups, please click here.

Recruitment Fraud

Cyber criminals advertise fake job adverts with prestigious employers as a way of stealing information or even defrauding individuals out of money. In the most sophisticated cases, they will set up fake websites, which have a similar address to companies like Unilever. They even conduct fake telephone interviews and then offer candidates a role with the proviso they pay a fee for background checks or to cover work visa costs.  These types of attacks are becoming more common as more people are looking for employment in the economic climate. 

How is Unilever tackling this?

Many of Unilever’s recruitment sites publish a warning to candidates about recruitment fraud. The Cyber Security team also proactively scan for signs of people setting up fake Unilever sites and act to close them down. 

What can I do?

If you become aware of potential recruitment fraud, spot fake Unilever recruitment adverts or fake LinkedIn profiles, report them via Una Live Chat. 

Unilever does not accept responsibility or liability for any candidates who are financially impacted by recruitment fraud. Your vigilance is key!