Packaging Engineer

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Packaging Engineer

Holland, Michigan

There has never been a more exciting time to join Request Foods. We’ve been selling products to many of the world’s leading food companies, retailers and restaurants for over 35 years. A privately owned and financially sound company, we do our best to run our business based on Christian values. Whether it’s cooking up great tasting food, assisting in customer support, providing quality and production leadership, or supporting administrative or technical activities, a career at Request Foods is a great opportunity. At Request, we’ve achieved success by treating our employees with integrity, trust and respect. If you’re passionate about food, and the people who help produce it, then Request Foods might just be for you.

Benefits and Perks:

Medical
Dental
Vision
401k
Paid Paternity Leave
Wellbeing programs
Immediate Holiday Pay
Paid Time Off
Profit Sharing

Request Foods is a leading food and co-packing manufacturer seeking a Packaging Engineer expert within the food industry. The Packaging Engineer is responsible for designing, developing, testing, and implementing packaging solutions that ensure product integrity, optimize cost, and support sustainability goals. This role will cross collaborate with manufacturing, procurement, quality, and customers. Through building relationships with packaging equipment suppliers this person will deliver innovative and efficient packaging systems for new and existing products. The ideal candidate will demonstrate internal and external capabilities to show a growth mindset and be an idea-forward thinker who can present to customers, negotiate and work with supplier partners, and assist Request Foods for further excellence within the packaging space.

Essential Responsibilities:

Analyzes technical malfunctions, makes suggestions for improvement, tests and implements the necessary improvements by coordinating the activities of all concerned departments.
Optimizes the operation of manufacturing processes by finding the optimum packaging and machine settings with an underlying goal to improve performance and reduce costs.
Participates in the analysis of quality problems in research and applicable solutions, handles relations with the maintenance and production departments for optimization purposes and ensures follow-up to solutions.
Manages and updates documentation including specifications, test results, and change controls, for all existing packaging used throughout the manufacturing facility.
Document and communicate quality issues, work with suppliers to mitigate and/or eliminate specification deviations.
Works directly with sales and product development teams for new product/packaging requests coming from customers.
Supports new product development and commercialization projects by providing packaging expertise.
Organizes and tracks industrial tests and defines the parameters of production of new products in collaboration with the Plant Manager, maintenance, and scheduling.
Reports, tests and validates the manufacturing feasibility of new products.
Consults with vendors in the development of packaging for components and to source materials. Works directly with packaging suppliers and production to execute appropriate trials to ensure production readiness.
Creates Project Plans and harnesses resources to ensure project milestones are met within expectations of timeline, quality and budget.
Determines material, equipment, and packaging; to be used for specific projects and ensure it meets the needs of the customer, production, and maintenance while maintaining functionality.
Studies product design, customer requirements, and determines performance standards. Conducts tests to ensure safe and satisfactory product performance.
Maintains observation of new equipment/packaging/product once implemented until it reaches the expected performance level on a consistent basis.
Trained in understanding the mechanics of the production line machines in order to design and optimize new and current packaging formats as well as line efficiency.
Support packaging lot traceability where applicable by establishing procedures and monitoring compliance.
Ability to troubleshoot packaging issues that are experienced on the production line and offer short and long term solutions with maintenance and manufacturing team.
Build relationships with packaging equipment suppliers supporting new products or changes, ensure clear communication to the supplier to determine if change parts, machine modifications or requisition is needed and follows the process through to implementation.

Key Qualifications:

Bachelor’s Degree (B.S) in Packaging Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, or a related field.
Minimum of 3 Years of CPG packaging and equipment experience.
Strong knowledge of packaging materials (plastics, paperboard, films, etc.)
Familiarity with food safety standards (e.g., HACCP, SQF, BRC), packaging machinery and automation systems
Proficiency in CAD software (e.g., SolidWorks, ArtiosCAD) and packaging testing protocols (e.g., ASTM, ISTA).
Self-motivated, hands-on individual with keen interest in quickly learning and applying new skills who can follow written/verbal instructions and meet deadlines with minimal supervision.
Strategic thinker with a proactive approach to packaging design challenges supporting CPG customers and ability to identify strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
Knowledge of engineering principles, life cycle analysis and environmental impact assessments.
Ability to react quickly to changing business conditions and new process developments and make effective decisions under pressure.
Ability to balance needs such as worker safety, process efficiency, and budgetary constraints.
Commercialization Design and Execution with current Product Troubleshooting abilities.
Familiar with Lean Six Sigma or other continuous improvement methodologies
Understanding of supply chain and logistics considerations in packaging design
Excellent problem-solving, decision-making abilities and communication skills (presentation, written and verbal)
Strong project management skills with experience of managing a portfolio of CI and value improvement projects
Experience with sustainability packaging initiative and standards in the USA
Experience with Cardboard required and poly film preferred