We’re Tovala, a food-tech company reinventing home cooking to save consumers time. Through an innovative combination of hardware, software, and fresh food delivery, we make it incredibly simple for anyone to prepare and enjoy delicious, home-cooked meals without sacrificing time to do whatever matters to them. Through our superior technology, product experience and food quality, we have separated Tovala from the busy pack of other meal delivery businesses. In the process, we’ve amassed a loyal, rapidly growing following and our retention, product engagement and customer NPS are all best-in-class. We’ve raised over $100mm from great investors like Left Lane Capital, Origin Ventures, Y Combinator and Comcast Ventures and have invested strongly in building a unique culture that fosters growth, personal development and camaraderie.
Position Summary
We’re looking for an intern to join our Operations Engineering Team this summer (May - August 2023). In this role you will assist with the testing of packaging materials, design of experiments, process improvement tasks, and support to the Maintenance Team. You will also be exposed to a number of different facets of a fast growing company, such as capacity evaluation, production planning and resource management.
You’ll take on projects that will help our overall operation, as we continually grow week by week with the number of the meals produced and shipped.
How you’ll spend your time at Tovala
- Learn about a great variety of equipment in the food and packaging manufacturing industries.
- Develop technical knowledge on how different engineering statistical analysis techniques get applied to make testing procedures more efficient and robust.
- Learn how different parameters on our equipment affect the final product that reaches the customer, and how to test and adjust machine settings for that end.
- Learn about different interactions between packaging materials and how that affects operation decisions.
- Create procedures and guides to support the production and maintenance staff training and SOPs on existing and new equipment.
- Design and conduct tests for our various packaging materials in order to make our processes more robust and allow for a better QA of incoming material. Spend time learning about various aspects of our production process and contribute ideas on how to best scale the operation either by process changes or acquiring new equipment.
- Aid in the vetting, selection, implementation, and maintenance of a broad spectrum of food production equipment.
- On rare occasions, spend time in a refrigerated cooler to learn about production processes
- Work cross functionally with other departments at Tovala, acting in support of their projects.
About you
- You are entering your third or fourth year of your degree in Manufacturing, Mechanical, Industrial, Process Engineering or related field, and have a foundational understanding of manufacturing engineering, statistics, and industrial processes.
- You are a critical thinker. You enjoy approaching problems that are open ended and can be solved from various methods.
- You have strong verbal and written communication skills.
- Ability to use MSOffice, Google Suites (Drive, Sheets, Docs, etc.) to create useful and transparent electronic tools. Statistical software is a plus.
- On rare occasions you must be able to work in refrigerated coolers, kneel, reach, bend, and lift up to 30 pounds for very brief periods of time.
- You have a great interest in the industrial world, both in its equipment, functioning, and production processes. You are also intrigued in learning and acquiring experience in all involved disciplines.
- Hands-on experience on dealing with industrial equipment is a bonus, but not required.
- You are fluent in English; Spanish is a bonus.
- You can reliably commute to our facilities located on the South Side of Chicago and in Carol Stream.
The values we hold dear
Put the team first
We put what is best for the broader team ahead of what is best for ourselves or our immediate department.
Get s#!t done (well)
We celebrate people at all levels for delivering high impact work that expands the bounds of what we’re able to do.
Connect the dots
We engage with curiosity to learn how our work impacts others so that we can problem-solve holistically and work collaboratively.
Be Direct
We share our perspective openly and directly, even when it feels difficult to do so.
Embrace the obstacles
We rise to meet challenges with a sense of urgency, resolve, and optimism.
Champion the customer
We consider and prioritize our customer in all of our decisions
At Tovala we‘re committed to building a workplace that represents a variety of backgrounds, skills, and perspectives and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Everyone is welcome here!
