Senior Innovation Engineer

kp is a globally recognised leader in the packaging and specialty film industry, renowned for its unwavering commitment to sustainability and innovation. The need to act onclimate change has never been clearer so we incorporate sustainability into everything we do by #Investing In Better  – creating innovative products that enhance product protection, shelf life and contribute to reducing the overall carbon footprint.

At kp, we are passionate about ensuring our customers' satisfaction, and we strive to achieve this goal by focusing all our efforts on meeting their evolving needs. Our dedication to drive a positive change in the packaging industry with a focus on quality and sustainability has earned us a reputation as a trusted partner for businesses worldwide.

kp is currently looking for a Senior Innovation Engineer at our Pharma, Health & Durables Site in Charlottesville, VA who will be responsible for conceptualizing, developing, validating technically and commercially feasible high barrier sustainable packaging solutions for pharmaceutical and medical devices for global markets. The position will align with kp’s short and long‑term strategic goals and work with internal and external stakeholders to design and develop packaging solutions by collaborating with global innovation and cross‑functional teams.

• Understand market/customer requirements to design, develop and validate high‑barrier sustainable packaging solutions for pharma and medical device products.
• Construct design brief in close coordination with sales, product line management, quality, manufacturing and regulatory to define product CTQs and CTPs
• Lead packaging development projects from concept to commercialization using kp’s stage‑gate process and present stage‑gate updates to peers and kp’s senior leadership team
• Work in close collaboration with global innovation team members to develop kp’s short and long‑term strategic platform solutions.
• Develop packaging solutions which meet with global pharma and medical device regulatory requirements.
• Work with kp’s external partners to develop open innovation and joint solutions that meet with customer and market expectations.
• Use quality by design (QBD) methodologies to develop robust solutions which would meet with pre‑defined critical to quality (CTQ’s) and critical to process (CTP’s).
• Write timely and detailed but succinct reports to bring out the project goals, actions, observations and next steps
• Domain expertise in pharma packaging/medical packaging
• Demonstrated ability to work with process and production engineers to understand & solve real‑time operational challenges during product development
• Demonstrated ability to use analytical techniques such as but not limited to – DSC, TGA, FTIR
• Partner with material & technology providers to drive new innovations
• Liase with legal/patent attorneys to develop/evaluate IP/Freedom to Operate
• Monitor and drive product safety through regulatory compliances for all new products – familiarity with CONEG, PROP 65, USFDA, EC/EU, REACH etc…

Masters degree in Polymer/Chemical/Plastics Engineering, min 8 years of relevant professional experience

• In depth working knowledge of polymers such as but not limited to PE, PET, PP, PETG, PCTFE, PVC, PVDC
• Hand on experience on various polymer processing techniques such as single screw/twin screw extrusion, calendaring, coating and lamination
• Subject matter expertise on structure‑property relationship of different polymers.
• Working knowledge of various additives for polymers such as antioxidants, nucleating agents, anti‑static agents, colorants etc.
• Working knowledge of films providing oxygen and moisture barrier for protection of sensitive product such as pharma solid/liquid oral dosage.
• Domain knowledge of sterilizable medical device packaging films using various sterilizable techniques such as gamma, E Beam, EtO etc.
• Hands‑on experience on extrusion/lamination/coating processes
• Good understanding of various analytical techniques such as FTIR, DSC, TGA, DMA, Microscopy
• Good understanding of various instruments such as tensile tester, impact tester, rapid prototyping.
• Proficient…