Director of Application Engineering & Customer Insights

Director of Application Engineering & Customer Insights

United States, North Carolina, Charlotte

Sealed Air Protective Packaging R&D is seeking a leader to build and lead a global Application Engineering (AE) function that connects customer operations to system-level requirements, validated performance, and differentiated innovation. This role is front-and-center in supporting new product development, mapping customer needs, conducting in-use competitive benchmarking, and leading Level 2 technical escalations. Turning real-world learning into faster launches, higher reliability, and leapfrog opportunities.

• System Performance Specifications: own fitness-for-use performance specifications across consumables, equipment, and integrated systems; ensure requirements are testable and actionable.
• NPD Qualification & Beta Leadership: lead consumable qualification on equipment platforms and customer beta qualification plans; validate solutions under real operating conditions.
• Customer Needs Mapping: lead structured observations and workflow mapping in customer operations (pack-protect-ship), identifying pain points and translating them into clear system requirements.
• Customer Insight Engine: build a repeatable process to capture learning from beta programs, trials, and field issues; synthesize insights into opportunity statements for targeted future development.
• Competitive Analysis (Technical & In-Use): plan and execute hands-on benchmarking vs. alternatives in customer environments; quantify gaps, identify differentiation spaces, and recommend performance targets.
• Level 2 Customer Support (Escalations): serve as the escalation owner for complex system-level issues (especially new/recent launches, integrated solutions, or beta platforms); drive root cause and feed learnings into design/spec updates.
• Cross-Functional Integration: partner tightly with Materials R&D, Equipment R&D (US & China), Marketing, Sales Applications, and Service to resolve tradeoffs and accelerate decisions.
• People Leadership: recruit, coach, and develop an AE team with strong test rigor, customer presence, and systems thinking; set standards for analytical excellence and technical communication.

• Marketing: AE provides evidence-based customer and competitive insights;
  Marketing owns segmentation, positioning, and portfolio commercial decisions.
• Sales / Service: AE owns Level 2 system escalations and pre-/early-commercial technical learning.
• Materials & Equipment R&D: AE does not own formulation chemistry or equipment architecture; AE owns requirements, validation, and system performance across both.

• Robust product specifications to reduce or eliminate product failures at customer
• Reduced late-stage design changes and rework during beta qualification.
• Faster time from design freeze to customer-ready validation and commercialization.
• Improved root-cause resolution speed for complex escalations; fewer repeat issues.
• Clear competitive differentiation translated into measurable performance targets and prioritized projects.
• Stronger customer adoption of new solutions due to validated fitness-for-use.

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, packaging, materials science, chemistry, or related technical field (Master’s preferred).
• Experience leading customer-facing technical work across new product development, application engineering, market development, or similar roles.
• Proven ability to translate customer insights into technical requirements, validation plans, and innovation opportunities.
• Strong systems thinking across materials + equipment + application; comfortable resolving tradeoffs under real-world constraints.
• Demonstrated people leadership: hiring, coaching, and performance management in a cross-functional environment.
• Data-driven communicator: able to create clear reports, test summaries, and recommendations for technical and business audiences.
• Comfortable with significant customer engagement and travel (domestic and international).

• Customer-obsessed: spends time where work happens and turns observation into insight.
• Execution-focused:…