Job Purpose
As theDesign & InnovationPackagingEngineer,you willidentify,leadanddriveinnovative and disruptive packaging design initiatives that will be instrumental in delivering novel, competitively advantaged solutions across the Kraft Heinz North America portfolio.The team’s objective is to deliver packaging design strategies, translating brand strategies and consumer Jobs-To-Be-Done (JTBD) into viable design solutions to meet growth, innovation and sustainability objectives. The objective of the role is to support development ofplatformablepkg innovation solutions, across brands and categories to fuel sustainable BU innovation pipelines. You will partner with the Innovation, Process and Platform packaging teams as well as cross functional stakeholders to translate consumer insights and sustainability requirements into commercially viable, manufacturable solutions. The role includes identifying packaging design solutions, leveraging external design partners and internal consumer experience teams to translate insights into viable designs that resonate with consumers. The ideal candidate combines technical packaging commercialization expertise with design and innovation knowledge and experience managing designand/or innovationprojects.
Essential Functions & Responsibilities
Leadexecution ofDesign & Innovationinitiatives,addressing technical and design hurdles, driving speed to market and enabling competitive advantage.
Manage multiple initiatives with complex scopes and/or cross enterprise platforms concurrently
Partner with legal to build robust IP strategies to drive competitive advantage
Develop and maintain detailed project plans, schedules and budgetsand build business cases for project execution.
Work directly, interface and influence cross-functional team (Marketing, Procurement, Operations and Supply Chain) and vendors.
Supportpkg design/technology award submissions with external sponsors, working with R&D platform teams and suppliers to build submissions for leadership/comms/marketing alignment
Apply Design of Experiments (DoE), statistics, and problem-solving practices to research, development, and validation work.
Support prototyping development for consumer testing and assist with pilot line setup and scale-up to industrial production as required to enable commercialization.
Contribute to knowledge sharing and capability building by documenting learnings, creating technical summaries, and supporting training content or informal coaching as needed.
People Management Responsibilities
Individual Contributor
Key Outputs & Deliverables
Contribute to execution of the design strategy and supporting pipeline build for North America portfolio
Deliver against design initiatives to address innovation, sustainability and value engineering,from concept through proof of concept and handover support, meeting committed timelines and performance targets for assigned responsibilities.
Support compliance with sustainability and regulatory requirements by incorporating requirements into design recommendations, including:
Minimizing Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) fee impacts (as applicable to design choices)
Supporting designs that help avoid material bans and regulatory risks
Supporting recyclable, reusable, and compliant packaging formats aligned with enterprise sustainability goals and legislative requirements
Support delivery of packaging designs to Performance-Based Specifications (PBS) to meet defined functional, quality, shelf-life, consumer experience, and manufacturing performance outcomes.
Expected Experience & Required Skills
BS/MS/PhD degree in Design, Engineering, Packaging Engineering preferred or related discipline.
6+ years of R&D packaging development and commercialization experience, with significant innovation and packaging design experience and project leadership experience (consumer goods, food & beverage, pharma or similar preferred).
Workingdesignknowledge ofmaterials (flexibles, rigids, fiber,etc), formats, converting processes (e.g.,cartoning, filling, web handling, labeling, molding), printing, bottle closure and dispensing systems and manufacturing constraints.
Demonstrated ability to support end-to-end developmentand launchactivitiesfor packaging complex projects, including planning/performingtesting, documenting results, and coordinating with cross-functional partners.
Workingknowledge of packaging design and innovation, DVF (Desirability, Viability, Feasibility) experience a plus
Excellent communication, negotiation and interpersonal skills; ability to influence at all levels.
Industrial design experience for packaging materials, shapes, formats, with proven examples of commercialized innovations across multiple packaging formats
Knowledge of sustainable packaging solutions, material/package industry standards, and regulations (as applicable to rigid plastic packaging development work).
Skilled at directing consumer insights for packaging
Skilled at translating consumer insights, consumer Jobs-to-be-done, and market trends into packaging design strategies
Ability to support pilot line activities and scale-up toindustrial production as required.
Willingness and ability to travel up to 25% of the time.
Work Environment & Scheduleisposition operatesprimarily in