NESTLE USA

Foods people love. Brands people trust. And a career that nourishes your future like no other.

If you're driven by the passion to do something meaningful that changes lives, Nestlé is the place for you. Nestlé USA is one of seven operating companies that make up Nestlé’s presence in the United States. We're in 97% of American homes, and as the leading food and beverage company, our goals are to continue to deliver quality food and beverage products, strengthen our local communities, and reduce our environmental and climate impact.

We’re determined to challenge the status quo and be better tomorrow than we are today. As individuals and teams, we embrace our entrepreneurial culture and have created a workplace where collaboration is essential, courage is rewarded, speed is expected, and agility is the norm to delight our consumers every single day. Here, you will find limitless opportunities to learn and advance your career, and feel empowered to succeed in the workplace and beyond. Because our focus is not only on nourishing our customers, it’s about enriching you.

POSITION SUMMARY: Technical lead on highly complex projects to identify competitive solutions, delivers innovation and renovation portfolio, and optimization/improvement projects. Partners with Marketing to leverage and translate consumer insight into strategic project pipelines and executes projects, while ensuring packaging safety, quality, functionality and sustainability objectives are being met in a cost efficient manner. Trains and coaches to contribute to the success of the Packaging function. Collaborates internally and externally to build relationships in order to continuously improve own and others technical skills and personal development, including coaching others to facilitate their professional development.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:
Implementation of Innovation & Renovation strategy in the market. Proactively engage in the definition of the businesses I&R strategy by participating in Brainstorming and concepts evaluation. Leverages technical experience, R&D and external industry insights to develop, implement, and execute creative packaging development activities (e.g. bench top, pilot plant, and internal/external factory) to achieve highly complex project goals and deadlines to delight the consumer. These projects could involve investment/new equipment. Aligns with relevant PTCs on breakthrough packaging solutions as well as process or technology improvements to safeguard intellectual property.

Drives creative structural packaging development, as part of complex Innovation/Renovation projects and processes that delivers on consumer insights and key Brand attributes. Uses consumer & customer centric insights. Participates in relevant consumer research activities and, for specific structural package development projects, assists in the development of appropriate consumer research plans. Uses Nestle innovation workshop for idea/concept generation and Nestle tool to assess the impact to the environment of the packaging structure.

Drives technical matter with packaging suppliers. Participates in the selection of packaging material and equipment suppliers. Will be involved in the capital process request and the definition of the equipment requirements. Responsible for maintaining vendor and industry relationships to keep abreast of current trends and to ascertain future trends.

Maintains/Develops packaging specifications & packaging safety documentation. Ensures that the packaging solutions comply with global specification guidelines operates efficiently in production and provides adequate protection through the distribution system in a cost effective manner.

Provides technical support and packaging expertise to internal customers, including Marketing, Operations, QA, Engineering, Purchasing, Packaging Communications, and others. Through assigned Brand and Manufacturing responsibilities, serves as a point-person to proactively search out packaging solutions that are aligned with Brand vision and Manufacturing strategy.

Responsible for performing packaging production qualification trials (materials and vendor selection) as well as shipping and handling tests. Reviews, evaluates, documents results and facilitates decision making. These trials could require significant amount of analysis and higher cost.

Works with Quality Management to set quality attributes and evaluation procedures for packaging components, ensuring quality by design. Provides input to Operations for SOPs for packaging equipment.

Collaborates and influences internal and external project teams (Teams are made up of PTC, Product Developers, Project Managers, Quality, Regulatory, Engineering, Packaging, Factories, Marketing, Co-Manufacturing, Purchasing, and Supply Chain, etc.) to develop, industrialize, and launch on a complex range of Innovation and Renovation projects.

Continuous improvement of technical skills and personal development, while being a proactive affiliate member of a Nestlé Expert Network and/or external networks.

Is involved with packaging graphics; has input and approval responsibilities. Responsible for providing accurate packaging specifications and templates to Packaging Communications team.

Acts as a coach and mentor for junior team members and can act as a coaching and training resource to build packaging mastership in operations

REQUIREMENTS AND MINIMUM EDUCATION LEVEL:
BS in Packaging Engineering, Science, Mechanical Engineering or similar degree
Preferred category specific packaging technology experience
Experience with a broad range of packaging formats, processes, materials, and performance tests is a plus.

EXPERIENCE:
5-8 years of packaging R&D and/or Packaging operations experience preferred

SKILLS:
• Interpersonal communication skills, written and verbal communication, organizational skills, and project management skills must all be strong.
• Must be capable of adapting to change while working in a fast-paced, team environment with minimal direct supervision and the ability to adhere to aggressive deadlines
• Consumer oriented, continuous improvement mindset

Administrative skills: CAPE/TOPS (packaging palletization programs), Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SAP (preferred).

The Nestlé Companies are an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer seeking diversity in qualified applicants for employment. All applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status.