Q&A with Sam!
1. What has your journey been like after graduating from MSU Denver?
After graduating from MSU Denver, I started immediately in a management development program at Anheuser-Busch (AB) InBev’s Jacksonville Brewery. This was a full-time rotational program aimed at recent graduates, and I highly recommend it. The program provided a solid foundation of AB InBev’s US operations—”Brew-Pack-Ship”—and led to accelerated placement as an optimization engineer or production leader. My degree from MSU in brewing has opened many doors, helping me stand out among food scientists and engineers during interviews. I held roles as Optimization Engineer and MTI Leader at AB InBev, gaining experience in both packaging and brewing. Later, I took on a new challenge as Senior Process Leader in the Brewing Department of Molson Coors in Milwaukee. I’ve been a judge with the Brewers Association for the past few years as well, regularly participating in panels for the Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup.
These professional experiences have given me strong technical knowledge, leadership skills, and an in-depth understanding of Lean Management and Six Sigma principles. Working at companies like AB InBev and Molson Coors, where brand longevity and recognition demand high quality and consistency standards, reinforces the need for precision and efficiency in production and drills that mindset into your everyday routine.
This past year, I moved to the Netherlands and transitioned into a new role as Control Software Engineer at ProLeiT, developers of Brewmaxx. At Molson Coors, I had worked extensively with ProLeiT’s Chicago-based team to implement process control software in our brewhouse, and I was impressed by their engineering team’s expertise. That experience helped me see that the future of excellent operations hinges on precise, adaptable process control with accessible data acquisition to inform decisions. Moving from the production floor to the engineering office has allowed me to contribute to the actual foundations of process management, and provided a welcomed opportunity to expand my global perspective as an expat in Europe.
2. Can you talk about your current role at ProLeiT?
As a Control Software Engineer, I develop automation solutions for manufacturers, primarily in Western Europe, with target markets in Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and the UK. My work focusses on creating intuitive, parameterized software interfaces that align with our clients’ process needs. My goal is not to replace human decision-making, but rather to reinforce operators’ control through visibility, reporting, and process notifications. I believe that the operations team should be able to lead a process and its outputs, rather than expend energy fighting targets.
At the heart of our approach is parameterization—our control systems are designed to be adjustable by operators and process leaders without needing a programmer to intervene. With brewing, your incoming raw materials change daily, but your outgoing product specifications remain fixed. In the past, operators skilled in brewing would run individual pieces of equipment with narrow lenses, but consumer expectations and the efficiency demand of today’s manufacturing processes makes that antiquated model unfeasible. Now, automations provides a gateway for teams to manage more complex operations while ensuring the highest levels of consistency, quality, and efficiency.
My experience as an operations manager and optimization engineer allows me to better guide our development process, not just translating process descriptions into code, but interpreting customer needs to build solutions which improve their operations. In my career, I’ve often found a gap between those with process expertise and those developing technical solutions. Bridging this gap has been paramount in shaping our engineering teams’ solutions and defines our competitive advantage as process automations engineers.
3. What does a workday look like in a production environment versus a support function?
Production environments are highly structured and fast-paced, requiring lots of real-time decision-making. My day would begin with a team meeting to exchange information from the previous shift and set the direction for the next 24 hours, culminating with the same meetings with the outgoing and incoming shifts. At AB InBev, we started with an informal handoff between operators and managers, followed by a structured meeting to discuss metrics, focus areas, and action plans. These meetings cascade upwards into inter-departmental meetings, focusing on longer-term agendas. This routine ensured that every department was aligned for the day, especially during the crucial morning hours when key decisions had to be made.
In contrast, support roles, like my current position, involve longer-term projects with firm but more distant deadlines. There’s less immediate pressure, and the organizational challenge is different—information doesn’t flow naturally like it does on the production floor. You often need to discover the right questions to ask the operations teams to guide your project.
While support roles allow for sustained focus over weeks or months, the feeling of accomplishment comes less frequently compared to the daily wins of production. I like to say that production management is a series of sprints, focused on strictly defined KPIs, whereas supporting engineering roles are more like a marathon, coordinated and paced.
4. What are you passionate about in the work that you do?
Simple, the emerging opportunities which technology brings to manufacturing. Advances in automation have transformed production environments, but there’s still tons of untapped potential. My vision for the future is to shift from engineers reviewing trends into fully utilizing trained models to detect, alert, and even respond to real-time deviations. This is something I’ve demonstrated in various areas with my previous employers, shaping my career path to where I stand today.
During my time in production, I’ve developed tools which monitor sensors to provide real-time alerts for quality concerns, preventing massive losses. This strategy empowers front-line workers to self-direct informed decisions, and it allows leadership to have more focus with strategizing solutions for larger production-critical issues. Using intelligent automation, we can move beyond basic threshold alerts into systems that recognize patterns and diagnose underlying issues, like linking extract efficiency drops to grain bed density or necessary mill grind changes. We can even automate upwards, using automatic tuning-adjustments to train and model some of the decision making that is now human-dependent. There’s massive opportunity here, and I’m passionate about being at the forefront.
5. What academic advice would you give to current and prospective MSU Denver students?
Don’t limit yourself. MSU Denver offers a unique opportunity to tailor your studies to match your career goals, and I encourage you to take full advantage of it. The professors are industry-born and passionate about guiding their students, so use their expertise to not just follow a curriculum, but rather to shape your future career. While a degree may get you in the door, it’s the knowledge and experience you gain from an academic program that will set you apart in your first interviews.
MSU Denver’s brewing program is well-regarded in the industry and has helped me secure interviews with top companies. Most employers are willing to teach the hard skills, but your ability to make decisions, draw insights, and adapt quickly will be what sets you apart. This combination of technical knowledge and business acumen is difficult to teach, but it’s something MSU Denver excels at providing.
6. What career advice would you give to current and prospective MSU Denver students?
Again, don’t limit yourself. The saying, “learn in your 20s, earn in your 30s, and yearn in your 40s,” holds true. Your degree is just a foundation. If you’re passionate about something, reach and find roles that challenge you, even if they aren’t a perfect match with your degree. Surround yourself with people who view failures as learning opportunities, and get comfortable with uncertainty. I’ve held several positions which, on the surface, may not align with my degree, however that credential has never been limiting. Allow your unique academic background to empower you into bringing new perspectives to the positions you seek out.
It’s a strength to be capable of adjusting your expectations and aspirations as you progress through a career, but always have a plan for your next step and let your vision guide you. Your career is a journey, and MSU Denver will give you the tools to succeed, wherever it leads.