Job Summary:

We are seeking a highly motivated Food Packaging Engineer to manage the design and testing of new packaging (structural/functional/aesthetics) supporting the fresh food innovation and creating proprietary and differentiated solutions that enable a competitive advantage in the c-store space.

Food Packaging Engineer Responsibilities:

• Manage the development and testing of new packaging and quality improvements to existing packaging. This includes, but not limited to, paper, plastic, corrugate, film, & labels. Attention to quality, consumer experience, market differentiation, sustainability, and ease of use by store operators.
• Consumer panels and field testing will be used to optimize packaging and quality improvements.
• Participate/lead ideation sessions grounded in consumer needs. This includes marketplace immersions with cross functional and vendor involvement.
• Presentation of new packaging to executives, franchisees and other internal customers to achieve alignment and support.
• Maintain industry involvement to keep up with latest innovations & trends, including visits to key vendor partners, conferences and trade shows.
• Central cross functional pillar connecting departments throughout the business to keep packaging projects moving.

Specific Knowledge & Skills needed for position:

• Experience in packaging design for food service brands, using stage gate approach, with clear success metrics and cross functional partners.
• Experience connecting business needs with operator capabilities, financial constraints and consumer insights to viable product solutions.
• Experience working effectively with outside vendors, leveraging a broad range of resources to maximize impact to innovation.
• Experience with commercialization/scale up, robustness testing as well as operational considerations for store readiness.
• Strong leadership and interpersonal skills, business acumen and experience presenting to various levels of management.

Education Requirements:

• Minimum Bachelor's Degree with Packaging Science designation preferred.
• 2+ years of packaging engineering experience in a CPG environment. Food strongly preferred. 
• Areas of expertise – packaging development & manufacturing, CPG and ESG.