Continuous Improvement Engineer Undergraduate Placement

We are excited to offer an opportunity for a placement student to join our experienced and passionate Manufacturing team on a Continuous Improvement Engineer Undergraduate Placement.

You will support the manufacturing team to deliver innovative solutions to the food manufacturing process.

There are a variety of projects, which you could be involved in, that add value to the business and can make a huge difference in every aspect of it.
We're looking for someone to support complex manufacturing processes and develop innovative engineering or process solutions to improve the performance of our manufacturing facility.

You'll gain experience in manufacturing principles, process flows, facility design, production equipment (particularly cooking, dicing, mincing, LEVs and lifting support) and refrigeration systems.

This placement will be an opportunity to learn and put in practice techniques such as lean, six sigma and PRINCE2. You will learn techniques such as 5S, root – cause analysis and apply DMAIC steps to your projects/objectives.

apetito is the UK’s leading food supplier to the health and social care sectors serving more than 1,300 care homes, health care and education settings.

Our meals are expertly crafted by our dietitians and chefs, and then frozen to lock in the goodness.

Wiltshire Farm Foods, our sister company, is the UK’s largest ready meal supplier cooking and delivering over 330 different delicious frozen ready meals across the UK.

Many of our placement students have gone on to join the company as Graduates on completing their degrees. Full details on the programme can be found on our careers pages at apetito Graduates.

Examples of previous projects Placement students have been involved in:

Cake project

- The development of a brand new cakes range
- Recipe, mixing, baking, process flow and line installation
- Supplier visits & installation, planning of trials and presenting data
- Staff procedures and management

Multi - Plus project

- Supplier sourcing and visits – Germany
- Tray and packaging design
- Production line modifications
- Sourcing new equipment and machinery
- Trials and customer feed-back

Continuous improvement and lean projects that require you to understand step by step approach and subsequent removal of steps that do not add value to the process and finished product.

Essential:

• Studying towards a degree in Engineering/Mathematics/Sciences related discipline with the expectation that you will receive a 2:1 or above and are looking to complete a 12 - month placement as part of your degree.
• Confident working with large data sets and able to analyse them to determine any patterns or trends to support further work or solution.
• Comfortable of being “hands on” and working on the shop floor to further understand the problem and find solution.
• Interaction with shop floor staff at all levels will be essential to be successful in the various projects and tasks assigned.

Desirable:

• Experience of Project Management
• Passion for food 

Personal Qualities:

•  Excellent analysis, problem management and interpersonal skills
•  A completer finisher
•  Self-motivated and able to own and manage workload with minimal supervision – a proven self-starter
• Able to demonstrate a structured approach to work as well as being able to work well in team environment and deal with people professionally at all levels
• Is effective at using oral and written forms of communication
  

• Competitive salary – accredited Living Wage employer
• 25 days holiday per year, plus bank holidays
• Option to purchase up to 5 additional days holiday per year
• Discretionary annual bonus scheme
• Pension scheme - employer matched contributions up to 4%
• Life assurance scheme worth at least 1x annual salary
• Subsidised canteen
• Free parking
• Free turkey or voucher at Christmas
• apetito perks scheme including salary sacrifice options and retail discounts

As a family-owned business, we take great pride in being a company that makes a real difference and is dedicated to creating outstanding meals to be proud of.

We develop a range of products designed to enhance health and well-being for all our customers.

We are driven by a passion for service and dedicated to feeding some of the UK’s most vulnerable people.

We proudly support British food and farming, focusing on using the best ethical and sustainable produce in alignment with our goal to reach Net Zero by 2040.

Our ethical standards are recognised by the ETI and we are an accredited Living Wage employer.
Learn more about apetito’s commitment to a more sustainable future.

We embrace inclusion, empowering individuals from diverse backgrounds.

Our commitment to making a real difference extends to customers, communities, and staff and we're on a mission to build an inclusive workplace where everyone reaches their full potential.