Senior Packaging Engineer (manager level)

Job Purpose / Overview

The Senior Packaging Engineer is responsible for driving business growth by delivering packaging components for innovation projects within the Research and Development Technology hub. Projects are typically complex in terms of design, technical solutions (materials and machinery), timelines, and global scale. This role works closely with central and operational excellence teams to enable project delivery and requires a broad external network of suppliers and agencies to develop technical solutions. The Senior Packaging Engineer operates autonomously in developing technical solutions for their project portfolio.

Key Responsibilities

Project Delivery: Deliver all packaging components for consumer-centric innovation projects, managing projects from concept to technical readiness and overseeing packaging timelines and budgets. Responsibilities include concept and design work at the framing stage, input into desirability, feasibility, viability, and sustainability assessments (including financials), material and machinery design and optimization, trialing and testing, and delivery of global packaging specifications at regional handover. This role is accountable for intellectual property risks and opportunities and all elements of upfront packaging quality management, including packaging risk assessment.

Collaborative Teamwork: Lead the packaging work stream for global projects, collaborating closely with global marketing, research and development, engineering, supply chain, and commercial teams. Work with consumer technical insights and consumer market insights, as well as marketing, to develop and evaluate new packaging concepts, ensuring a holistic design approach across product, packaging, and brand. Collaborate with global and regional engineering and supply teams to ensure optimal technical engineering solutions for collation and filling. Occasionally, packaging team members may lead projects as overall project technical project leaders.

Capability Building: Partner with the Central Packaging Capability Director to build global packaging capability within the team by leading areas of the global packaging strategy.

Design Excellence: Support the integration of packaging design as a central element of the holistic product experience, ensuring packaging requirements and consumer desires are incorporated into the framing and concept-building process. Maintain a thorough end-to-end understanding of packaging inputs and opportunities across the full consumer journey to deliver consumer-centric packaging. For assigned projects, own the global packaging design brief and hold accountability for briefing design agencies.

Technical Excellence: Demonstrate detailed knowledge and understanding of internal packaging development processes and associated business processes, including product lifecycle management and packaging quality management. Maintain a thorough understanding of product and packaging interactions, design of experiments, test methodologies, and data knowledge management. Responsible for detailed record keeping, reporting, and global packaging specifications. Understand regional trade requirements and the impact of packaging on-shelf and off-shelf across all channels, including grocery, specialty retail, discount stores, and e-commerce.

Future Materials: Source, develop, and deliver new material innovations for global rollout, guiding materials through technology readiness level gates for transfer into innovation or quality, efficiency, and sustainability projects. Ensure all new packaging innovations are designed for circularity and tested for compliance.

Packaging Pulse: Maintain up-to-date knowledge of packaging technologies, materials, and solutions, with a focus on sustainability. Achieve this through an extensive external network and active involvement in external bodies, trade fairs, and industry experts.

Coaching & Mentoring: Assist the packaging manager in providing training and support to other team members. Responsible for induction plans for junior team members and support for students, interns, and trainees.

Context and Scope

Role and Level of Independence: Generating new packaging ideas, initiating new projects, and leading or further developing technical and quality standards requires a high level of independence and self-responsibility.

Level of Routine: Low. Leading innovation projects presents new challenges each time. The job holder must fully understand packaging interactions along the entire supply chain and be able to methodically conduct complex analyses.

Description of Interfaces:

• Internal Interfaces: Packaging innovation and deployment, marketing, commercial (packaging and co-packing buying, supplier quality assurance), consumer market insights, consumer technical insights, engineering, supply chain, logistics, activity management, scientific regulatory affairs, quality and food safety.
• External Interfaces: Packaging suppliers, co-packers, packaging organizations, and institutes.

Degree of Guiding and Disposition Allowance: Responsible for packaging project budget spend. No direct reports.

Job Specifications / Qualifications

Education & Professional Qualifications

• University degree in a technical discipline such as science, engineering, or packaging/product design.
• Previous experience in packaging development, packaging engineering, or a technically related discipline is essential.

Knowledge / Experience

• Expertise in packaging development (see skills below).
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications (Outlook, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Teams).
• Fluent in English (spoken and written).
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including communication, relationship building, networking, and working as part of multifunctional teams.