Packaging Engineering

Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream Technical Packaging Lead
Are you looking to catapult your career by driving high-impact transformation with household brands? At Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, we are excited to start a new chapter of accelerated growth as part of Froneri – a global pure-play ice cream leader. S, a robust portfolio of powerhouse brands that consumers know and love such as Häagen-Dazs, Drumstick, Dreyer's/Edy's, Skinny Cow, OREO®, Outshine and Frollies, and the backing and coaching of European-based ice cream experts, we know we have the winning recipe.
Headquartered in Walnut Creek, the Bay Area's hub for up-and-coming food trends, our DGIC team across our offices and factories is raising the bar on all things ice cream. The brands have strong investments in marketing support, quality improvements and exciting line extensions and innovation. You won't just stay in your lane, you'll get hands-on exposure to everything from Sales, Marketing and operations to Finance and Supply Chain. It's like getting an MBA on the job (but with way more ice cream). Unleash your potential at Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream and discover what a sweet career we have in store for you!
And We Are Better Together by making decisions that benefit the whole organization, fostering inclusion through diverse perspectives, and treating everyone with fairness and respect. Serves as the technical packaging lead on project teams to deliver "Innovation & Renovation", "Buy Better", "Factory support", "Quality improvement" and "Alternative supply" projects. Supports the factories to optimize filling and packaging line performance and with packaging quality issues. Develops and launches packaging solutions in line with Marketing, or factory improvement initiatives while ensuring packaging safety, quality, functionality and sustainability objectives are being met in a cost-efficient manner. Collaborates internally and externally to build relationships in order to continuously improve technical skills and personal development.
Work hand in hand with the Quality and Operational teams to identify and prevent packaging defects. Work directly with packaging vendors to resolve quality defects.
Work with operations and engineering to optimize the packaging performance on packaging equipment.
Identifies the optimal packaging material and die-lines for new ice cream products. Works with vendors to ensure correct specifications are captured and agreed upon and that all materials comply with food safety and internal company quality standards.
Perform basic packaging quality checks to ensure the structural integrity of our packages and that they comply with the agreed specifications.
Ensuring that any new packaging is tested and trialed on the factory and palletization equipment in the development stage and that Operations and Marketing have signed off on the final design.
Design palletization patterns to optimize the transportation costs while ensuring pallet stability and quality. Perform and document the results of pallet transportation tests.
Ensure that the artwork development process has the right quality of technical information (eg. to allow the creative services team to develop the graphics. Ensure that technical packaging data inputs are provided in a timely manner to avoid delays in the development timeline.

Contribute to developing the Market Packaging sourcing and ESG strategy translating it into a local packaging project pipeline.
Obtain a good understanding of DGIC manufacturing capabilities and packaging equipment.
Develop strategic relationships with key packaging suppliers to define with Procurement the optimal sourcing strategy and to partner with companies offering innovations on new and relevant sustainable packaging materials.
Ensure project management tools are used for managing timelines, project teams and key stakeholders to ensure that all key activities are managed appropriately.
Packaging projects are clearly defined with regular project meetings with timelines, minutes and agreed action plans.
Artwork development timelines are respected, and the quality of the technical packaging team's input is correct.
Packaging materials required for new equipment or new products are tested ahead of time and risks are mitigated. Identified quality issues are addressed and alternative vendors are identified for materials that cause recurring operational issues.
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Bachelor's degree required in Packaging Science
No prior experience required, although any experience supporting packaging, manufacturing, or product development in a food or consumer packaged goods (CPG) environment (frozen or dairy products strongly preferred) is a plus.
Experience working with new product development or commercialization projects , including packaging trials, scale-ups, or first-production runs
Strong understanding of packaging materials, structures, and equipment compatibility for frozen products (cups, lids, wraps, cartons, multipacks, pallets)