Senior Packaging Engineer & Sustainability Innovator

Kevin; Stockton (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 165,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus

Benefits package

Career growth opportunities

Job summary

Kevin's Natural Foods is seeking a strategic Senior Packaging Engineer to lead packaging innovation, sustainability, commercialization, and compliance across our refrigerated and frozen portfolio. You will influence packaging technologies, automation strategy, and enterprise sustainability roadmaps to drive growth and reduce environmental impact.

You will collaborate across Operations, R&D, Quality, Procurement, and Mars Food & Nutrition to turn bold ideas into scalable packaging solutions with

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Packaging Engineering or related technical field.
• 7+ years of progressive experience in packaging engineering, packaging development, or packaging commercialization.
• Experience within food, beverage, refrigerated, frozen, protein, meal-kit, or consumer packaged goods industries.
• Demonstrated success leading packaging projects from concept through commercialization.
• Deep technical expertise in packaging materials, structures, converting processes, and manufacturing systems.
• Experience developing and executing packaging qualification and validation programs.
• Strong knowledge of food industry regulations and standards, including FDA, USDA, SQF, HACCP, and GMP requirements.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional projects and influence stakeholders across multiple functions.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and root cause analysis capabilities.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills.
• Willingness to travel up to 20-30% for supplier engagement, testing, and plant support.
• Passion for the clean-eating, better-for-you food space and a desire to contribute to a mission-driven brand.

Responsibilities

• Lead packaging strategy and multi-year roadmap balancing consumer experience, safety, performance, sustainability, regulatory compliance, and cost.
• Direct enterprise packaging initiatives across innovation, renovation, productivity, and sustainability programs.
• Develop and execute EPR mitigation strategies including regulatory assessments and design initiatives.
• Serve as packaging technical authority guiding long-term investments and cross-functional decisions.
• Design and govern the company's packaging qualification process with standards and readiness reviews.
• Establish risk-based qualification strategies for materials, formats, suppliers, and processes.
• Lead development of primary, secondary, and tertiary packaging solutions for refrigerated/frozen lines.
• Own packaging specs, BOMs, drawings, and engineering standards for scalable growth.
• Evaluate emerging packaging technologies to improve performance and sustainability.
• Lead plant trials, scale-ups, and commercialization events for successful launches.
• Develop and execute test plans covering shelf-life, seal integrity, and transportation.
• Lead packaging capability studies for manufacturing performance and quality attributes.
• Analyze results, recommend commercialization readiness and long-term performance actions.
• Partner with Quality/Operations/Procurement to investigate failures and validate solutions.
• Evaluate manufacturability, automation compatibility, and line performance of packaging solutions.
• Drive root-cause investigations and continuous improvement to reduce waste and costs.
• Build strategic supplier relationships to drive innovation and supply continuity.
• Collaborate across functions to deliver scalable packaging solutions fueling growth.
• Develop packaging standards and governance processes for growth and excellence.
• Mentor teams on packaging technologies, qualification, and commercialization processes.
• Establish scalable systems for documentation, change management, and knowledge transfer.
• Stay ahead of industry trends, regulatory developments to inform strategy.

Skills

Packaging engineering

Packaging development

Packaging commercialization

Food industry regulations

Cross-functional leadership

Sustainability

Education

Bachelor's degree in Packaging Engineering or related technical field

Tools

BOMs & technical drawings

Job description

Kevin's Natural Foods is seeking a strategic Senior Packaging Engineer to lead packaging innovation, sustainability, commercialization, and compliance across our refrigerated and frozen portfolio. You will influence packaging technologies, automation strategy, and enterprise sustainability roadmaps to drive growth and reduce environmental impact.

You will collaborate across Operations, R&D, Quality, Procurement, and Mars Food & Nutrition to turn bold ideas into scalable packaging solutions with