Senior Engineer, R&D - Packaging

About Tropicana Brands Group
The launch of Tropicana Brands Group represents an exciting fusion of some of the world's most beloved and up-and-coming brands in the juice category, including Tropicana, Naked, KeVita, Izze, Dole, Copella and Punica. Established in 2022 as a joint venture between PAI Partners and PepsiCo, our new company blends the best of two worlds: one steeped in industry-leading expertise and the heritage of prestige juice brands, and another rooted in a true entrepreneurial, agile mindset.
With a global footprint of more than 2,000 associates that spans North America and Europe, we are proud of our industry-leading capabilities in areas that include innovation, R&D, manufacturing, distribution, sales, marketing and nutrition expertise.
The company’s focused on the vision to quench the world's thirst for more delight and nourishment, while continuing to build upon the many important diversity, sustainability, local community and philanthropic activities that our people and brands have historically supported.
Key Responsibilities:
Tropicana Brands Group is looking for a highly qualified Senior Packaging Engineer to support the Global Packaging R&D team to ensure the company’s goals and initiatives are met.
As part of an entrepreneurial culture, the ideal candidate will be open to stretching within the R&D function and will develop a broad skill set and critical experiences in this role. Ability to create "go to market" solutions that deliver product efficiently via multiple distribution platforms and maintain a current understanding of packaging technologies, process and material sustainability, as well as technology developments within the packaging industry is expected. The candidate will be required to transfer technology within internal plants and co-packers to optimize overall system cost and efficiency. Tropicana is looking for a critical thinker with exceptional communication, influencing, and relationship management skills who thrives in a fast-paced environment.
This position is based in Chicago, IL
Additional responsibilities include:

• Manages and executes multiple simultaneous packaging projects with minimal supervision.
• Maintains open communication and builds strong relationships with internal & external teams from cross functional partners to suppliers.
• Innovative thinking and solution-oriented problem-solving skills. Knowledge of troubleshooting tools/techniques desired.

• Participate as an active member of cross-functional business development teams comprised of individuals from a variety of disciplines, including Marketing, Purchasing, Engineering and other groups.

• Support the identification and implementation of cost savings opportunities, looking both at individual component level as well as process improvements and manufacturing efficiency gains.
• Design and execute package testing and evaluation, including production line trials, to validate packaging performance.
• Provide support to manufacturing during the implementation of commercialization activities and packaging changes.
• Builds, maintains, and leverages external network of material and equipment vendors and co-manufacturing partners.
• Must demonstrate an ability to thrive in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial and consumer-driven environment.
• Strong desire to learn and grow in multiple cross-functional areas.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively and manage risk in a fast-paced environment with ambiguity and change.

• Tackle ambiguous problems to determine and prioritize business strategies.

Professional Experience / Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Packaging Science/Engineering, Chemical or Mechanical Engineering, or related field required.
• 4+ years of experience in packaging development roles, ideally in the high-volume food or consumers goods industries.
• Must have experience in the development and execution of primary, secondary, and tertiary packaging materials, and have knowledge of the interrelationship with equipment.
• Must have 4+ years’ experience executing scale up activities; writing plant trial protocols, leading qualification and scale up trials at manufacturing sites, and completing trial reports with recommendations for manufacturing to deliver successful production of a finished good.
• Strong track record of identifying opportunities, setting priorities, and delivering results in complex, cross-functional organization.
• Strong project management skills in developing project timelines with multiple cross-functional touchpoints.
• Must have conceptual, analytical, and technical skills with excellent communication and presentation skills.

• Excellent written and oral communication skills.

• Must be able to travel domestically and internationally 15-25% of the time.
• Must be able to lift product cases unassisted at plant trials and prepare pallets for testing.
• Must be able to sit or work on foot for extended periods of time.