Technical Manager, Corporate Packaging

Summit Polymers is a leading, global supplier of automotive interior systems including consoles, door panels, and instrument panels. With over 50 years serving the industry, we deliver engineering and product excellence to our customers, on time, in budget, with the latest innovations.

JOIN A TEAM WHERE YOU’LL BE CHALLENGED AND valued.

A career with Summit Polymers means working with smart people in a culture that thrives on challenging, meaningful work. At Summit, we look for growth potential with every hire. We don’t just fill seats, we set people on career paths. We’re always on the lookout for smart people who are committed to continuous improvement, customer service and quality.

JOB TITLE: Technical Manager, Corporate Packaging

FLSA STATUS: Exempt

REPORTS TO: Vice President Supply Chain

The Technical Manager, Corporate Packaging leads the corporate packaging engineering function and is responsible for the design, development, validation, and cost-effective implementation of returnable and expendable packaging for customer finished goods, intercompany shipments, and critical purchased components. This role manages packaging engineering resources across domestic and international locations and ensures packaging solutions meet customer requirements, launch timing, product quality, safety, logistics, and cost objectives.

The position partners with Estimating, Program Management, Project Engineering, Plant Launch teams, Materials, Procurement, Operations, and Finance to support accurate quoting, successful program launches, packaging cost control, and continuous improvement across the corporation.

• Packaging Department Management
  • Manage and direct the activities of corporate packaging department personnel, including employees located in the United States, Mexico, and Asia.
  • Coordinate with local administrative supervisors in Mexico and Asia to support performance, communication, priorities, and accountability for international packaging employees.
  • Develop and implement training plans for new, promoted, and developing packaging personnel.
  • Establish, maintain, and improve departmental procedures, standards, and best practices to optimize packaging department performance.
  • Ensure compliance with applicable departmental, corporate, safety, and quality policies and procedures.
• Customer Packaging Requirement Compliance
  • Maintain current customer-specific packaging standards and ensure they are communicated, understood, and available to the packaging team.
  • Ensure compliance with customer packaging specifications, documentation requirements, validation activities, and approval processes.
  • Interface directly with customer engineers, managers, and packaging contacts to negotiate requirements and resolve packaging-related issues.
• New Program Packaging Quote Development
  • Guide packaging engineers in developing estimated packaging concepts and costs for new program RFQs involving customer finished parts, intercompany shipments, and key purchased components.
  • Ensure packaging assumptions are appropriate, documented, and aligned with logistics requirements, shipment frequency, transit time, inventory levels, and fleet-size calculations.
  • Review, challenge, and approve packaging concepts, cost estimates, fleet-size assumptions, and total packaging costs before submission to Estimating.
• New Program Packaging Development
  • Manage packaging development for new programs, including customer returnable and expendable packaging, intercompany packaging, critical internal storage packaging, and selected purchased component packaging.
  • Ensure packaging solutions are optimized for employee and customer ergonomics, safety, product quality, cost, fleet size, logistics flow, and launch timing.
  • Coordinate packaging deliverables with Plant Launch Champions, Corporate Materials, packaging suppliers, customers, and internal program teams.
  • Participate in customer-developed packaging reviews to influence outcomes and ensure Summit’s objectives are met.
  • Ensure Requests for Engineering Change are initiated when product or packaging changes affect packaging concept, quantity, cost, timing, or performance.
• Cor…