Help shape the future of food packaging at one of the fastest-growing brands in refrigerated and frozen foods. Kevin's Natural Foods is seeking a strategic and technically skilled Senior Packaging Engineer to lead packaging innovation, sustainability, commercialization, and compliance across our growing portfolio. This is an opportunity to influence everything from next-generation packaging technologies and consumer experience to automation strategy and enterprise sustainability roadmaps. Working across Operations, R&D, Quality, Procurement, and Mars Food & Nutrition, you'll turn bold product ideas into scalable packaging solutions that drive growth, reduce environmental impact, and strengthen operational performance. If you're passionate about solving complex challenges and building the future of packaging, we'd love to meet you!
What You’ll Do:
Packaging Strategy & Program Leadership
Own Kevin's packaging strategy and multi-year roadmap, balancing consumer experience, food safety, operational performance, sustainability, regulatory compliance, and total delivered cost.
Lead enterprise packaging initiatives across innovation, renovation, productivity, supply continuity, and sustainability programs.
Develop and execute Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) mitigation strategies, including regulatory assessments, fee reduction opportunities, packaging redesign initiatives, and compliance planning.
Packaging Qualification & Validation Leadership
Design and govern the company's packaging qualification process, including standards, protocols, decision criteria, documentation requirements, and commercialization readiness reviews.
Develop risk-based qualification strategies for new materials, packaging formats, suppliers, equipment, and manufacturing processes.
Establish testing frameworks that evaluate package performance across product quality, shelf life, distribution, manufacturability, sustainability, and consumer use requirements.
Lead cross-functional qualification planning from concept through commercialization, ensuring alignment across R&D, Quality, Operations, Supply Chain, Procurement, and Marketing.
Package Development & Commercialization
Own packaging specifications, BOMs, technical drawings, and engineering standards to support scalable growth and strong change management practices.
Evaluate emerging packaging technologies, materials, and supplier innovations to improve performance, sustainability, and cost.
Qualification Execution & Performance Validation
Develop and execute package test plans covering shelf-life performance, seal integrity, transportation durability, environmental conditioning, and consumer use requirements.
Lead packaging capability studies to evaluate manufacturing performance, equipment compatibility, dimensional control, critical-to-quality attributes, and operational readiness.
Partner with Quality, Operations, Procurement and suppliers to investigate failures, implement corrective actions, and validate sustainable solutions.
Operational Excellence & Supplier Partnership
Evaluate packaging solutions for manufacturability, automation compatibility, labor efficiency, line performance, and OEE impact.
Collaborate across Operations, R&D, Quality, Procurement, Supply Chain, and Mars Food & Nutrition to deliver scalable packaging solutions that support business growth.
Continuous Improvement & Capability Building
Stay ahead of industry trends, emerging technologies, and regulatory developments to inform packaging strategy and business decisions.
Other duties as assigned and necessary.
What You’ll Need:
Required Qualifications
Bachelor's degree in Packaging Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, or a related technical field.
Experience within food, beverage, refrigerated, frozen, protein, meal-kit, or consumer packaged goods industries.
Deep technical expertise in packaging materials, structures, converting processes, and manufacturing systems.
Strong knowledge of food industry regulations and standards, including FDA, USDA, SQF, HACCP, and GMP requirements.
Preferred Qualifications
Healthy, Diverse Teams Breed Innovation:
Kevin’s Natural Foods is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We deeply believe that diverse backgrounds and experiences make better teams, and we seek to attract talent from all walks of life. The team at Kevin’s is smart, humble, and passionate and we value a work environment that fosters personal development and opportunities to move within our small, but quickly growing organization.
More About Kevin’s Natural Foods:
Kevin's Natural Foods is a line of refrigerated and frozen meals, sides, soups, and sauces on a mission to empower even the busiest people to eat clean without sacrificing flavor. Co-founded by Kevin McCray who battled an auto-immune disorder for years, Kevin's Natural Foods was born from his desire to make clean eating seamlessly fit into any lifestyle. Shockingly delicious and made with clean ingredients, Kevin’s products are ready in minutes and always free from gluten, soy, and refined sugar. I
n 2023, Kevin’s Natural Foods joined the Mars Food & Nutrition family, allowing us to expand our reach, accelerate innovation, and bring our mission to even more households while staying true to the quality and integrity that define our brand. A true market disruptor, Kevin's is the first clean refrigerated entrée brand working to prove every day that proper nutrition can be as delicious as it is healthy.
Salary Range: $130,000.00- $165,000.00 annually + benefits + bonus
Compensation within this salary range is dependent upon the candidate's experience, education, and relevant qualifications
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