Process Engineer

Kanto Corporation•Portland, OR

12h•$90,000 - $130,000•Onsite

About The Position

Kanto is a leading U.S. manufacturer of high-purity specialty chemicals that power the world’s most advanced industries. With a legacy of precision, safety, and innovation, we support global leaders in semiconductor, technology, and chemical processing by delivering products that meet uncompromising standards of quality and reliability. At Kanto, we believe our people are our greatest strength. We foster a culture where collaboration, continuous improvement, and excellence are not just values, but daily practices. Joining Kanto means contributing to work that shapes the future of technology and manufacturing—while growing your career in a dynamic, high-impact environment. Own the technical performance, reliability, and continuous evolution of Kanto’s manufacturing systems. At Kanto, our manufacturing systems are becoming more complex as we grow—and we’re looking for a Process Engineer who can help ensure those systems remain safe, capable, reliable, and ready for what comes next. This is a highly collaborative technical role for an engineer who enjoys being close to the operation: solving difficult problems, improving processes, managing technical risk, and bringing structure to how manufacturing systems evolve over time. As a Process Engineer, you will serve as a technical steward for assigned manufacturing processes and systems, helping ensure they consistently deliver against Kanto’s expectations for safety, quality, reliability, delivery, and cost. You’ll work across Operations, Quality, Maintenance, Supply Chain, Engineering, and Leadership to identify emerging risks, troubleshoot complex manufacturing challenges, evaluate process changes, and implement sustainable improvements. This role goes beyond responding to problems. You’ll help strengthen the long-term health of our manufacturing operation by establishing process standards, monitoring system performance, improving technical documentation, managing change, and turning lessons learned into better ways of working.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, or a related engineering discipline.
Experience supporting complex manufacturing processes, equipment, or production systems.
Strong technical problem-solving and analytical capabilities.
Experience with process control, technical risk management, change control, and continuous improvement.
Working knowledge of structured root cause analysis and risk assessment methodologies such as PFMEA, FTA, HACCP, or similar approaches.
Knowledge of Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, Statistical Process Control (SPC), and operational excellence principles.
Experience developing or maintaining technical documentation, process standards, specifications, and operating requirements.
Strong communication and facilitation skills, with the ability to translate complex technical information for different audiences.
Ability to lead cross-functional technical initiatives and influence outcomes without relying on positional authority.
A practical, hands-on mindset and willingness to spend meaningful time where the work happens—on the manufacturing floor.

Nice To Haves

Experience working in a regulated or highly controlled manufacturing environment.
Six Sigma Green Belt, Black Belt, or comparable continuous improvement certification.
Experience supporting new product introduction, process transfer, manufacturing scale-up, or capacity expansion.
Experience developing process standards, technical governance systems, or manufacturing control strategies.
Experience supporting chemical manufacturing or other technically complex process-manufacturing environments.

Responsibilities

Serve as the technical lead for assigned manufacturing processes and systems.
Develop and maintain technical roadmaps and long-term process improvement plans.
Monitor process capability, equipment performance, trends, and system health indicators.
Establish and maintain process standards, operating envelopes, and critical process parameters.
Identify emerging technical risks before they become operational problems.
Help ensure manufacturing systems remain capable of meeting safety, quality, delivery, reliability, and cost objectives.
Own the technical aspects of change control for assigned manufacturing systems and processes.
Evaluate proposed changes for feasibility, technical risk, validation requirements, and operational impact.
Coordinate technical reviews and approvals necessary to implement process changes.
Ensure specifications, procedures, standards, drawings, and other technical documentation remain current and accurate.
Support implementation, startup, validation, and stabilization following significant process or equipment changes.
Identify and assess risks affecting manufacturing performance, reliability, safety, and product quality.
Lead or facilitate structured risk assessments, including PFMEA and related methodologies.
Develop mitigation strategies and monitor their effectiveness.
Escalate significant technical risks with clear recommendations, priorities, and recovery plans.
Help translate technical risk into actionable information for operational and business leaders.
Lead investigation and resolution of complex process, equipment, and quality issues.
Facilitate structured root cause analysis and corrective/preventive action.
Provide timely technical troubleshooting and decision support to manufacturing teams.
Move beyond temporary fixes by developing solutions that address root causes and reduce recurrence.
Use data and process knowledge to identify trends and opportunities that may not yet be visible operationally.
Coordinate technical activities across Operations, Maintenance, Quality, Supply Chain, Manufacturing Engineering, and project teams.
Provide technical direction during process improvements, equipment modifications, capacity expansions, and other manufacturing initiatives.
Ensure project execution aligns with manufacturing requirements and operating realities.
Serve as a key technical resource during startup, commissioning, validation, and process stabilization.
Influence decisions and drive action across teams, even when you do not have direct authority.
Capture lessons learned from manufacturing events, process changes, projects, and technical investigations.
Translate those lessons into stronger standards, procedures, specifications, training, and operating practices.
Identify opportunities for process optimization, standardization, reliability, and operational excellence.
Apply Lean, Six Sigma, SPC, and other continuous improvement methodologies where appropriate.
Help build technical systems and practices that can scale as Kanto grows.