Associate Director, R&D - Sustainability & Materials CoE

Job Description

Job Purpose

As the Sustainability & Materials Center of Excellence (CoE) Packaging Leader, you will lead a team of technical experts responsible for developing packaging solutions to serve the North American portfolio. The team's objective is to develop material and format solutions in flexibles, thermoforms and rigid packaging that meet sustainability requirements, while supporting innovation, compliance and value engineering initiatives. In this role, you will be responsible for the team to develop and lead technical strategies to deliver novel, functional and cost competitive solutions.

You will partner with the Innovation, Process and Platform packaging teams as well as cross functional stakeholders to translate technical and sustainability requirements into commercially viable, manufacturable solutions. The role includes identifying material/polymer/packaging technology solutions and research pathways, leading proof of concept and technology scale up, and enabling seamless transition of technologies to the business units. The ideal candidate combines deep technical packaging expertise with strong sustainability knowledge and proven experience managing complex projects and technical teams.

Essential Functions & Responsibilities

• Lead and prioritize a portfolio of complex packaging technology strategies and initiatives by balancing technology exploration with proof of concept of novel technologies. Manage complex partnerships across the value chain to demonstrate value and business case, address technical hurdles, drive speed to market and enable competitive advantage.

• Build, coordinate and manage relationships and partnerships with suppliers and technology providers (including resin, coating, material, film manufacturers) and with universities, institutes, start-ups, open innovation networks, and scouting partners to define research and develop materials to meet specific platform and application needs

• Represent Kraft Heinz on critical industry committees and forums, serving as one external voice to advance sustainability and technology.

• Direct the team to build and execute research plans, including technical documentation, prototyping, lab testing, qualification on pilot and/or production equipment at vendor or at Kraft Heinz

• Support the team in translating research findings into meaningful recommendations, communicating results and driving decisions and technology adoption

• Serve as Subject Matter Expert by leading and driving functional training and process improvements for the pkg organization.

• Act as technical expert for junior developers and direct team to flex onto projects requiring problem solving

• Partner with legal to build robust IP strategies, conduct exploration and help build IP portfolio to drive competitive advantage

• Own project and portfolio-level budgets, resourcing strategies and capacity planning to ensure delivery within approved financial guardrails. Develop and maintain detailed project plans, schedules, budgets and resource allocations to monitor progress, assess risk, escalate tradeoffs, and drive corrective actions.

• Serve as an accountable owner for governance, escalation and go/no-go decisions. Represent packaging in steering forums and influence stakeholders. Provide technical leadership and oversight on packaging reviews to ensure design decisions align with enterprise standards, manufacturability, sustainability, and long-term platform strategy

• Mentor, coach and train junior project team members and contribute to PMO best practices and templates.

People Management Responsibilities

• Team (salaried): targeting 3 direct reports, 11 total team responsibility.

Key Outputs & Deliverables

• Deliver technology strategy and prioritize a portfolio of complex packaging technology/format initiatives, to deliver against sustainability, innovation and value engineering initiatives.

• Lead and deploy a team of packaging technical experts to successfully deliver 20 to 30 concurrent complex packaging technology projects annually across flexible, rigid and thermoform materials and formats, meeting committed timelines, budgets, and technical performance targets from concept through proof of concept and handover.

• Ensure compliance with evolving sustainability and regulatory requirements for portfolio projects, including:

• Minimizing Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) fees

• Designing packaging solutions that avoid material bans and regulatory risks

• Advancing recyclable, reusable, and compliant packaging formats aligned with enterprise sustainability goals and legislative requirements

• Deliver packaging designs to Performance-Based Specifications (PBS), ensuring solutions meet defined functional, quality, shelf-life, consumer experience, and manufacturing performance outcomes (rather than prescriptive designs).

• Build and sustain a high-performing packaging technical team, with clear capability deployment across the portfolio, improved bench strength, and consistent application of enterprise packaging…