Packaging Engineering Manager - Frozen Foods

Hunter the Headhunter; Columbus (OH); On-site; USD 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Hunter the Headhunter is seeking a Packaging Technology Manager to lead development, optimization, and commercialization of frozen food packaging, ensuring quality, safety, shelf life, and performance from production to frozen distribution.

You will oversee bench, pilot, and plant-scale trials; tackle freezer burn and texture challenges; collaborate with R&D, Operations, Quality, and Suppliers to drive cost savings, compliance with FDA/USDA, and speed to market.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Packaging Science, Packaging Engineering, Food Science, or related field.
• 7–12+ years in packaging, food R&D, commercialization, with strong frozen-food experience.
• Experience with frozen meals, entrees, vegetables, sauces, or similar categories.
• Experience taking products or packaging from development through commercial-scale production.
• Strong understanding of frozen food systems, packaging materials, ingredient functionality, processing, and shelf-life.
• Strong project management, analytical, troubleshooting, and cross-functional leadership.
• Ability to balance product quality, packaging performance, cost, manufacturability, and speed to market.

Responsibilities

• Lead packaging development and optimization for frozen entrees, meals, vegetables, snacks, sauces, and related products.
• Evaluate materials, formats, and technologies for compatibility with IQF, blast freezing, frozen storage, distribution, and reheating.
• Conduct bench, pilot, and plant-scale trials to validate packaging and product performance.
• Address challenges including freezer burn, moisture migration, ice crystal formation, seal integrity, phase separation, and texture degradation.
• Lead scale-up and commercialization from development through full production.
• Partner with Operations to troubleshoot packaging and product issues during manufacturing and startup.
• Develop and maintain packaging/product specifications and processing parameters.
• Ensure compliance with FDA/USDA regulations, HACCP, GMP, SQF, labeling, and internal quality standards.
• Conduct shelf-life and stability testing under frozen storage conditions.
• Identify cost savings and productivity improvements through packaging, ingredient, and process optimization.
• Collaborate with R&D, Operations, Quality, Procurement, Marketing, and suppliers on innovation and renovation projects.

Skills

Project management

Analytical

Troubleshooting

Cross-functional leadership

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Packaging Science/Packaging Engineering/ Food Science

Job description

Hunter the Headhunter is seeking a Packaging Technology Manager to lead development, optimization, and commercialization of frozen food packaging, ensuring quality, safety, shelf life, and performance from production to frozen distribution.

You will oversee bench, pilot, and plant-scale trials; tackle freezer burn and texture challenges; collaborate with R&D, Operations, Quality, and Suppliers to drive cost savings, compliance with FDA/USDA, and speed to market.