Senior Engineer, R&D - Design & Innovation

Job description

​​​Support execution of Design & Innovation initiatives, addressing technical and design hurdles, driving speed to market and enabling competitive advantage. ​Manage initiatives with different 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 budgets and build business cases for project execution. ​Work directly, interface and influence cross-functional team (Marketing, Procurement, Operations and

Supply Chain) and vendors. ​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. ​Partner with cross-functional stakeholders (e.g., Innovation, Process, Platform

Packaging) to translate requirements into testable material/package options and to support handover to business units.​​ Individual Contributor

• Support execution of the design strategy and support pipeline build for North America portfolio
• Support design initiatives that 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: 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
• Contribute to packaging designs delivered to Performance-Based Specifications (PBS) to meet defined functional, quality, shelf-life, consumer experience, and manufacturing performance outcomes. ​​BS/MS/PhD degree in Design, Engineering, Packaging Engineering preferred or related discipline. ​Minimum
• 4+ years of relevant experience (with BS) or 3+ years of experience (with MS) or 2+ years of experience (with PhD) ​Experience in R&D packaging development and commercialization experience, with innovation and packaging design experience and project leadership experience (consumer goods, food & beverage, pharma or similar preferred). ​Working design knowledge of materials (flexibles, rigids, fiber, etc), formats, converting processes (e.g., cartoning, filling, web handling, labeling, molding), printing, bottle closure and dispensing systems and manufacturing constraints. ​Working knowledge of project execution practices (e.g., timelines, risk identification, stakeholder updates) and ability to manage assigned deliverables. ​Demonstrated ability to support end-to-end development and launch activities, including planning/ performing experiments, documenting results, and coordinating with cross-functional partners. ​Knowledge of packaging design and innovation, DVF (Desirability, Viability, Feasibility) a plus ​Effective communication and interpersonal skills; ability to work with cross-functional partners and external suppliers. ​Industrial design experience for packaging materials, shapes, formats, with proven examples of commercialized innovations across different packaging formats a plus ​Knowledge of translating consumer insights, consumer Jobs-to-be-done, and market trends into packaging design strategies ​Knowledge of sustainable packaging solutions, material/package industry standards, and regulations (as applicable to rigid plastic packaging development work). ​Ability to support pilot line activities and scale-up to industrial production as required. ​Willingness and ability to travel up to 25% of the time. ​