Virtual Merchandiser & Lead Packaging Designer

Shark Ninja is a global product design and technology company, with a diversified portfolio of 5-star rated lifestyle solutions that positively impact people’s lives in homes around the world. Powered by two trusted, global brands, Shark and Ninja, the company has a proven track record of bringing disruptive innovation to market and developing one consumer product after another has allowed Shark Ninja to enter multiple product categories, driving significant growth and market share gains.

Headquartered in Needham, Massachusetts with more than 4,100 associates, the company’s products are sold at key retailers, online and offline, and through distributors around the world.

At Shark Ninja, we’re building an AI-native culture. We’re not waiting for the future; we’re creating it. Our people are expected to experiment boldly, adopt new tools, and continuously raise what’s possible to create meaningful impact for our consumers. If you believe the best way to do your job hasn’t been invented yet, you’ll fit right in.

Creative Labs is Shark Ninja’s in-house creative engine. We turn breakthrough innovation into unforgettable visual worlds, campaigns, and consumer moments. We move fast, we build bold, and we do not settle. We are now looking for the person who will redefine what packaging and visual merchandising can be  just functional, but cultural.

This is not a production role. The Virtual Merchandiser & Lead Packaging Designer is a creative disruptor who sees packaging as a brand moment, not a box. You understand that the shelf, the shipper, the unboxing, the endcap. Every single touchpoint is an opportunity to create buzz, earn attention, and drive conversion as the Virtual Merchandiser & Lead Packaging Designer.

As the Virtual Merchandiser & Lead Packaging Designer, you bring together mastery of packaging craft, visual merchandising instinct, and advanced CGI and 3D rendering skills to produce work that goes beyond beautiful. You produce work that moves product, starts conversations, and makes competitors take notes.

• Design packaging systems that are not just on-brand, but genuinely disruptive. The kind that stop a scroll and own a shelf.
• Bring expert CGI and 3D rendering skills to concept visualization, photorealistic mockups, and production-ready assets across all packaging formats.
• Integrate AI tools into your creative workflow to accelerate ideation, visualization, and concept exploration without sacrificing craft or brand integrity.
• Lead visual merchandising design for retail environments including endcaps, PDQs, planograms, and in-store displays, always with an eye toward what earns attention at the point of purchase.
• Translate top-funnel creative strategy into packaging and VM executions that carry the big idea all the way to the consumer’s hands.
• Partner with product, marketing, and retail teams to develop packaging concepts early in the product development cycle, not at the end of it.
• Develop and maintain dielines, mechanical files, and print-ready specs with precision, ensuring every file is production-ready and every material choice is intentional.
• Stay ahead of packaging trends, retail innovations, and emerging CGI techniques and bring those insights back before anyone had to ask.
• Push the boundaries of what packaging can do: think viral, think shareable, think cultural moment.

• 6+ years of experience in packaging design and visual merchandising, with a portfolio that demonstrates both craft and creative courage.
• Expert‑level CGI and 3D rendering skills across Keyshot, Cinema 4D, Blender, Rhino, or equivalent. You render photorealistic product worlds, not just pretty mockups.
• Deep fluency in Adobe CC (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat), motion graphics tools (After Effects, Premiere Pro), and AI‑powered creative platforms (Midjourney, Adobe Firefly, Runway, or equivalent).
• A true understanding of retail: how consumers move, what they see, and what makes them stop and pick something up.
• Hands‑on expertise in print production, including materials, substrates, dielines, color management, and vendor hand‑off.
• A disruptor’s mindset. You are not satisfied…