Senior Coffee Process Expert

Summary

Job Responsibilities

• Act as a central expert for industrial coffee processing and provide end-to-end technology expertise from farm to cup.
• Develop, validate, document, and transfer industrial coffee-processing know-how across Bühler’s organization and customer projects.
• Develop, review, and maintain high-quality flowsheets, process concepts, and plant solutions in line with customer requirements, Bühler standards, and strategic Coffee portfolio priorities.
• Support technical sales, regional sales and service organizations, quotation, engineering, product management, R&D, commissioning, and project teams with in-depth process expertise.
• Analyze complex process challenges in industrial coffee-production plants and develop practical, technically sound, and commercially realistic solutions.
• Advise customers and internal teams on complex technology topics, connecting process recommendations with product quality, capacity, efficiency, food safety, plant performance, and operational requirements.
• Provide sound process input, process-risk assessments, and clear information transfer to quotation, engineering, technology, design, and project teams.
• Support complex commissioning, start-ups, plant optimization, trials, and customer demonstrations, including structured reporting and documentation of relevant findings.
• Build, document, and continuously improve Bühler’s coffee-process knowledge base, including trial results, commissioning learnings, start-up experience, and process standards.
• Contribute process expertise to product portfolio development, R&D activities, technology standards, and Coffee technology-roadmap discussions.
• Drive the development of coffee-process technology standards and scalable OneCoffee solution concepts across green coffee handling, cleaning, roasting, grinding, degassing, plant engineering, and adjacent processes.
• Train and coach colleagues and selected customer groups on coffee-processing topics, including technical sales, service, quotation, and engineering teams.
• Deliver internal courses, customer training, guest lectures, and technical sessions to strengthen Bühler’s coffee competence and position the company as a trusted expert in industrial coffee processing.
• Monitor coffee-process and technology trends, including customer needs, operational challenges, process innovations, and relevant academic or research developments.
• Translate relevant technology insights into practical recommendations for Bühler and its customers.
• Collaborate with internal and external technology partners, universities, and Research and Technology Centers to further strengthen Bühler’s coffee-processing capabilities.

Qualifications

• University degree in Food Process Engineering, Food Technology, Process Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related technical field; extensive relevant industrial experience in coffee processing may be considered as an alternative.
• Strong professional experience in the coffee industry, ideally in industrial coffee-production process design, plant engineering, plant management, production, quality assurance, commissioning, process technology, or technology development.
• Expert-level understanding of industrial coffee processing, ideally covering green coffee handling, cleaning, roasting, grinding, degassing, plant concepts, process integration, and product-quality implications.
• Deep product and process understanding, or the ability to build it quickly through close collaboration with internal experts.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and review flowsheets, process concepts, and plant solutions according to customer requirements and quality standards.
• Ability to connect process expertise with customer needs, product requirements, plant performance, food safety, operational efficiency, and commercially realistic solutions.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities in industrial food-production environments.
• Experience supporting commissioning, start-ups, plant optimization, trials, customer demonstrations, and technology-validation activities.
• Structured, proactive, and documentation-oriented working style, with the discipline to capture and transfer learnings from trials, commissioning, start-ups, and customer projects.
• Strong interpersonal and teamwork skills, with the ability to collaborate across Sales, Service, Technology, Engineering, R&D, Product Management, Commissioning, and Project Execution.
• Ability to work effectively in an international matrix organization.
• Strong training, coaching, and knowledge-transfer capabilities.
• Fluent English for global collaboration with colleagues and customers; additional languages are an advantage.
• Coffee Master capability or equivalent practical coffee expertise is strongly preferred. SCA accreditation or comparable coffee-specific training is an advantage.
• Academic, research, or university-collaboration experience is an advantage.
• Willingness to travel internationally approximately 30% for customer visits, trials, commissioning support, training, and strategic technology activities.