What will be your mission as a Design Manager?  

As the Design Manager you are responsible for the design process of our new production facilities. Together with the Lead Engineer you will be responsible to translate all business requirements to an integrated and feasible design. As the lead engineer will focus on all technology developments and definition of the process setup, you will be the glue between the functional workstreams, the lead engineer and the business stakeholders to ensure alignment of all requirements on the table. You lead the team consisting of process and lead engineers to ensure an integrated design. 

You can find more about the Design Manager's mission at the bottom of the text 

What will you do? 

• Manage the plant design process for the realization of insect production facilities that fit in Protix international roll-out program. 
• Closely collaborate and align with all departments within Protix, to ensure that design requirements are captured properly and design impact is considered from multiple sides (CAPEX, OPEX, timeline etc). 
• Set-up, manage and ensure sign-off of the user requirement specifications and basis of design of our new facilities. 
• Responsible for the design process until the end of the concept engineering phase and quality control / design audit during the execution phase thereafter. 
• Ensuring proper cost estimations are made for the concept design to provide as an input towards the business case. 
• Challenge cost estimations based on market best practices (AACE/DACE) and facilitate the process towards our CAPEX targets. 
• Create a good understanding of the direction the cost estimation is heading towards.  
• Organize multi-disciplinary value engineering exercises & design reviews to improve cost and quality of the design. 
• Manage the coordination between the various design workstreams to ensure an integrated design. 
• Translate the specific design of our next facility towards a blueprint design package to be used in next production facilities. 
• Set-up / improve design decision metrics (cost, quality, LCA, etc) and apply these in the design process. Manage senior stakeholders to force timely (design) decisions.  

Main performance objectives of the role  

• Lead the design process of our new insect production facilities from a rough idea to a full and signed off concept engineering package ready for execution. 
• Knowing your scope and deliverables.  Initiating timely change notices when deviation is made from your scope, affecting either schedule, deliverables or cost of the work. 
• Coach and support the leads of the underlying work streams in the process towards a frozen concept design. 
• Organize and support design alignment sessions when needed. 
• Ensure that the business requirements are translated into an integrated design 
• Setup and integrate cost estimates for both the installation as the building of our new facilities. 
• Develop a blueprint design as the basis for next production facilities. 

• You will become part of our mission: 'Food in balance with nature!' 
• A varied job where you can make the difference within a driven and inspiring team 
• There is an employee participation plan ('piece of the Protix pie') 
• A fast moving, entrepreneurial and sustainable work environment 
• There is a lot of room to take responsibility and to develop yourself further 
• After 5 years, you may go on sabbatical for 6 weeks. We pay 50% for your time out! 
• You will receive a travel allowance of €0.24 per km, even if you come by bike. Public transport is also fully reimbursed 

• MSc/BSc degree in engineering, business administration, or similar experience. 
• Experience in the development of production and processing lines, preferably in the feed or food industry. 
• Fluent in English (both verbal and in writing). 
• Dutch proficiency is a preference. 
• A general interest in nature and technology. 
• No nine-to-five mentality. 
• Hands-on person that loves to be with boots on the ground. 
• Natural tendency to take the lead/ownership for highly complex problems.  
• Excellent communication skills are a must. 
• Experience with cost estimating is preferabel. 

We are on the brink of a global insect revolution. Protix is a fast-growing company and is leading this 'ento revolution' as an industry leader. Since 2009, our life mission has been to bring the food system back into balance with nature. 

With high-tech solutions, artificial intelligence, genetic enhancement programs and robotics, we produce the ingredient of the future: insects. 

The black soldier fly is a key player in bringing our mission to life. Their larvae provide us with a unique source of protein that is processed into feed for pets, fish, piglets and chickens, among others. 

Our values are a reflection of our culture. We are always looking for new talent who will go for the next step with us and recognize themselves in our values. Choosing Protix is a conscious choice, because it is important that our values also fit you. We care about our planet, are innovative & curious, open minded, diverse and always go for the best result. 

Do you want to work for the future and be part of our revolution? We would love to connect with you! Apply and connect with us on LinkedIn to stay on top of our mission. 

More about your tasks and responsibilities

Your first priority is to capture the specific business requirements into a User Requirements Specification, which sets the basis for the conceptual design of our new plant. You are to ensure that there are no loose ends on the table and that all stakeholders are endorsing the capabilities as described in the URS. Together with the design team you will than facilitate the process to translate these requirements into a Basis of Design. Any trade-offs between the requirements and proposed design choices are yours to manage to a jointly acceptable outcome keeping in mind business goals, total CAPEX involved and other considerations.  

As Design Manager you are key in getting the required investment towards CAPEX targets that will be set to reach an investable business case. Already early in the process you should get a good understanding if the targets are achievable with the current scope and if not, intervene to ensure that proper decisions are made to align expected CAPEX with the targets. This can be by organizing value engineering sessions, minimal scoping sessions or facilitating second opinions on design or cost estimates. 

When the design is taken to the delivery stage of the project (starting basic engineering), you as Design Manager will be responsible to safeguard that all requirements and concept design choices are reflected properly in the final design. You will organize design sign offs, involve the lead engineer of other subject matter experts, when design changes are imminent and provide input for the CAPEX project manager when specific change requests are on the table. 

Your scope will be both the installation as well as the building design. For the latter you will also be working closely with the project developer site and permit, to reflect any requirements that may be on the table from external stakeholders. 

Beside the role towards the next production facility, you will also ensure that the design is translated to a blueprint design, that can be the basis for next facilities that are planned for next phases of our rollout program. This way you contribute to an increasingly cost and time efficient project delivery plan.