Senior Engineer, R&D - Design & Innovation

Job Description Job Purpose

As the Design & Innovation Packaging Engineer,you willsupportinnovative and disruptive packaging design initiatives that will be instrumental in delivering novel, competitively advantaged solutions across the Kraft Heinz North America portfolio. The team'sobjectiveis to deliver packaging design strategies, translating brand strategies and consumer Jobs-To-Be-Done (JTBD) intoviabledesign solutions to meet growth,innovation and sustainability objectives.

Theobjectiveof 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 includesidentifyingpackaging design solutions,leveraging external designpartnersand internal consumer experience teams to translate insights intoviabledesigns that resonate with consumers.

The ideal candidate combines technical packaging commercializationexpertisewith design and innovation knowledge and experience managingpackagingprojects

• Support execution of Design & Innovation initiatives, addressing technical and design hurdles, driving speed tomarketand enabling competitive advantage.
• Manage initiatives withdifferentscopes and/or cross enterprise platforms concurrently
• Partner with legal to build robust IP strategies to drive competitive advantage
• Develop andmaintaindetailed 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 testingandassistwith pilot line setup and scale-up to industrial production asrequiredto 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:
• 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
• 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.
• Minimum4+ years of relevant experience(with BS) or 3+ years of experience(with MS) or 2+ years of experience (with PhD)
• Experience inR&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 ofproject 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…