Utiliities Lead (Remote)

Cargill is a family company committed to providing food and agricultural solutions to nourish the world in a safe, responsible, and sustainable way. We partner with producers and customers to source, make, and deliver products that are vital for living, enabling businesses to grow, communities to prosper, and consumers to live well. This position is in our Food Enterprise, serving food manufacturers, food service customers, and retailers with a complete range of innovative ingredients and branded products, including poultry, beef, egg, alternative protein, salt, oils, starches, sweeteners, cocoa, and chocolate.

About the role

As part of the Maintenance and Reliability Excellence team, you will partner collaboratively with internal stakeholders and external parties on preventative maintenance and audit readiness. This role focuses on guiding several plant locations with recommendations for energy sources, energy efficiency, wastewater, and other utilities, including Ammonia refrigeration, Boilers, HVAC, and Electrical. You will oversee legal and company compliance for federal Process Safety standards and provide guidance to plant management on recommended maintenance and action plans to ensure efficient and compliant operations.

Your work will improve the stability, capability, and availability of utility processes while reducing variability and mitigating risk in Food North America. This position enables plants to achieve variable, fixed cost, and operating efficiency targets while protecting people, communities, the environment, and assets. The role is remote with travel to Cargill Food Enterprise locations in North America, including sites in Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Texas, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Ontario, and Alberta (locations subject to change).

Responsibilities

• Analyze resource usage trends and develop operational plans to optimize systems for peak efficiency, including implementing reporting for consistent monitoring and early warning indicators for utility departments.
• Influence and partner with site teams in maintenance, utilities, engineering, and operations.
• Manage corporate projects at multiple sites to pilot industry-leading technologies or ways of working to assess operational execution.
• Advocate for continuous improvement, bringing curiosity, data, and insights to team leadership.
• Plan and schedule maintenance of plant utility systems using reliability models and predictive technologies in collaboration with regional maintenance leadership.
• Assess and recommend upgrades to existing systems as needed.
• Monitor and manage variable and fixed utility and energy costs, working closely with technology, finance, operations, compliance, and third-party contracting teams.
• Plan and monitor production shutdowns to ensure legal and preventive maintenance compliance of all utility equipment.
• Partner with Capital Leads to align on budget for non-base capital investments for plants as necessary.
• Influence and mentor utilities teams, providing recommendations for skills improvements and encouraging preparedness for high-pressure decision-making.
• Independently handle complex issues with minimal supervision, escalating only the most complex issues to appropriate staff.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field OR equivalent experience.
• Minimum of four years of related work experience.
• At least four years of hands-on operator/technician experience with ammonia refrigeration systems.
• Process Safety Management experience.
• Ability to travel at least 50%.
• Ability to work a flexible schedule when necessary.

Preferred Qualifications

• RETA CIRO certification.
• Experience coordinating third-party resources to deliver business results.
• Experience and understanding of site steam and condensate distribution systems, site compressed air supply, cooling towers and cooling tower water systems, and effluent and potable water systems.