Principal Engineer, R&D - Design & Innovation

Job Description

Job Purpose


As the Design & Innovation Packaging Engineer , you will identify, lead and drive innovative and disruptive packaging design initiatives that will be instrumental in delivering novel, competitively advantaged solutions across the Kraft Heinz North America portfolio. The team's objective is to deliver packaging design strategies, translating brand strategies and consumer Jobs-To-Be-Done (JTBD) into viable design solutions to meet growth, innovation and sustainability objectives. The objective of the role is to support development of platformable pkg 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 includes identifying packaging design solutions, leveraging external design partners and internal consumer experience teams to translate insights into viable designs that resonate with consumers. The ideal candidate combines technical packaging commercialization expertise with design and innovation knowledge and experience managing design and/or innovation projects.


Essential Functions & Responsibilities

• Lead execution of Design & Innovation initiatives, addressing technical and design hurdles, driving speed to market and enabling competitive advantage.

• Manage multiple initiatives with complex scopes and/or cross enterprise platforms concurrently

• Partner with legal to build robust IP strategies to drive competitive advantage

• Develop and maintain detailed 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 pkg design/technology award submissions with external sponsors, working with R&D platform teams and suppliers to build submissions for leadership/comms/marketing alignment

• Apply Design of Experiments (DoE), statistics, and problem-solving practices to research, development, and validation work.

• Support prototyping development for consumer testing and assist with pilot line setup and scale-up to industrial production as required to enable commercialization.

• Contribute to knowledge sharing and capability building by documenting learnings, creating technical summaries, and supporting training content or informal coaching as needed.

People Management Responsibilities

• Individual Contributor

Key Outputs & Deliverables

• Contribute to execution of the design strategy and supporting pipeline build for North America portfolio

• Deliver against design initiatives to 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

• Support delivery of packaging designs to Performance-Based Specifications (PBS) to meet defined functional, quality, shelf-life, consumer experience, and manufacturing performance outcomes.

Expected Experience & Required Skills

• BS/MS/PhD degree in Design, Engineering, Packaging Engineering preferred or related discipline.

• 6+ years of R&D packaging development and commercialization experience, with significant 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.

• Demonstrated ability to support end-to-end development and launch activities for packaging complex projects, including planning/performing testing, documenting results, and coordinating with cross-functional partners.

• Working knowledge of packaging design and innovation, DVF (Desirability, Viability, Feasibility) experience a plus

• Excellent communication, negotiation and interpersonal skills; ability to influence at all levels.

• Industrial design experience for packaging materials, shapes, formats, with proven examples of commercialized innovations across multiple packaging formats

• Knowledge of sustainable packaging solutions, material/package industry standards, and regulations (as applicable to rigid plastic packaging development work).

• Skilled at directing consumer insights for packaging

• Skilled at translating consumer insights, consumer Jobs-to-be-done, and market trends into packaging design strategies

• Ability to support pilot line activities and scale-up to industrial production as required.

• Willingness and ability to travel up to 25% of the time.

Work Environment & Schedule is position operates primarily in a hybrid work environment and is based at the Kraft Heinz R&D Innovation Center in Glenview, IL. Our hybrid model provides flexibility based on business needs, allowing employees to work virtually up to two days per week, with an expectation to work on-site at least three days per week at the Glenview Innovation Center (Glenview, IL).


Physical demands include but not limited to

• Regular office work

• Physical presence at labs and manufacturing sites (internal and external) to perform experimental and validation testing

This job description is not designed to cover or contain all duties or responsibilities that are required of the role. Duties or responsibilities may change or be added with or without notice.


Our Total Rewards philosophy is to provide a meaningful and flexible spectrum of programs that equitably support our diverse workforce and their families and complement Kraft Heinz' strategy and values.

New Hire Base Salary Range:
$104,200.00 - $130,200.00

Bonus: This position is eligible for a performance-based bonus as provided by the plan terms and governing documents.

The compensation offered will take into account internal equity and may vary depending on the candidate's geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors

Benefits: Coverage for employees (and their eligible dependents) through affordable access to healthcare, protection, and saving for the future, we offer plans tailored to meet you and your family's needs. Coverage for benefits will be in accordance with the terms and conditions of the applicable plans and associated governing plan documents.

Wellbeing: We offer events, resources, and learning opportunities that inspire a physical, social, emotional, and financial well-being lifestyle for our employees and their families.

You'll be able to participate in a variety of benefits and wellbeing programs that may vary by role, country, region, union status, and other employment status factors, for example:

• Physical - Medical, Prescription Drug, Dental, Vision, Screenings/Assessments
• Social - Paid Time Off, Company Holidays, Leave of Absence, Flexible Work Arrangements, Recognition, Training
• Emotional - Employee Assistance Program , Wellbeing Programs, Family Support Programs
• Financial - 401k, Life, Accidental Death & Dismemberment, Disability

Location(s)
Glenview R&D Center

Kraft Heinz is an Equal Opportunity Employer - Underrepresented Ethnic Minority Groups/Women/Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity and other protected classes. In order to ensure reasonable accommodation for protected individuals, applicants that require accommodation in the job application process may contact View email address on click.appcast.io for assistance.