Process Contact Engineer - Koln 

I am responsible for the Polyisobutylene Unit from an engineering point of view. With this responsibility, I organise and link production trials, product quality and daily production. Communication among the plant staff, the people who need unit data (Mass Balancing, Maintenance, Project Department), and the international organisation such as manufacturing technology and other plants is effective in avoiding quality issues and problems regarding the unit performance.  

I start my day by checking what has happened in the unit over the previous night. Then, I finish my day-to-day business, including mass balancing and contacting different departments to determine what is planned for the day. Depending on those outcomes I work to increase the performance and especially the safety of the unit.

One highlight of my activities is to be in the unit during a shutdown period (every three years for around 30 days) where I can see the ‘inner life’ of the unit and the prosperous accomplishment of a plant trial. Another highlight is to work on long-term projects that will possibly be realised in the unit.

After completion of my PhD in Technical Chemistry, I started in May 2008 with Infineum in my current position. There are still a lot of things to learn in the current role, for example, how to develop new products or how to bring projects forward. At the beginning I had a mentor showing me all the activities and responsibilities to cover as a Contact Engineer. After a few months I took over these responsibilities.

The colleague environment is the best I can imagine. You have fast growing responsibilities, an insight to different non-chemical departments (e.g., Logistics, Procurement) and a lot of challenges to resolve. This is a self-confident, dynamic company that invests in its workers and recognises their contributions