Senior Packaging Designer

About Us

Bakery is an independent creative and culture agency designed to ignite people's obsession in great brands. From our headquarters in Austin, TX, we work with Nike, Grillo's Pickles, and Cheetos to build brand worlds, campaigns, packaging, and the kind of craft that makes people stop. Bakery is a 4x AdAge Small Agency of the Year.

Responsibilities

• Work on iconic consumer brands, shaping packaging that carries real shelf presence and cultural relevance
• Create holistic concepts and design solutions that build on a brand's identity and give it a genuine point of difference across every touchpoint
• Demonstrate a clear understanding of how to connect strategy to craft
• Quickly edit and refine concepts to land on the strongest idea, not just the safest one
• Manage relationships with vendors and production partners — printers, structural engineers, prototypers — to make sure the work holds up from final file to finished package
• Collaborate with internal teams and client expertise to arrive at better creative solutions than either side would reach alone
• Operate with the integrity, reliability, and openness that earns trust from clients and colleagues alike
• Act as a creative partner to clients, building long-term trust rather than one-off approval
• Push back on and interpret feedback where needed to protect the integrity of the brand
• Bring design expertise and point of view to client conversations, including productive provocation when the work calls for it
• Look for opportunities to deepen and extend client relationships over time
• Deliver strong pitches and client presentations that move the work forward
• Communicate clearly and confidently across all levels, adapting style to audience while staying consistent in message
• Encourage collaborative, cross-functional ways of working across the studio
• Mentor junior designers and help them sharpen their craft

Requirements

• At least 6 years of packaging design experience
• Skilled at creating holistic packaging and brand concepts, from idea through final production
• A portfolio with real examples of work on iconic FMCG or CPG brands
• Strong grasp of structural packaging design — how shape, fold, and container form work in three dimensions, and how a design needs to hold up physically as well as visually on shelf
• Proficiency in Adobe Creative Cloud (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign) for flat design, plus working knowledge of 3D visualization tools like ArtiosCAD or Cinema 4D to see a design as a real object before it's produced
• Working knowledge of print production — CMYK, Pantone matching, foil stamping, and special finishes — and how different substrates (paper, plastic, metal) affect how a design actually prints and reads
• An eye for consumer psychology — what makes a shopper stop and pick something up in the first three seconds on shelf
• Awareness of regulatory and labeling requirements (ingredients, barcodes, safety warnings, recycling symbols) and how to design around them without compromising the work
• Experience managing multiple creative projects at once, with the judgment to edit toward the strongest idea
• A genuine drive to produce world-class work — in concept and in craft
• A natural instinct for storytelling through design
• The ability to move fluidly between creative thinking and technical execution
• Comfortable using AI tools to speed up your process, but your portfolio should show what you can make with your own mind and hands — not a book of AI comps
• Real enthusiasm for design, identity, and brand experience as a discipline, not just a job
• Must be employable in the USA and work on-site in Austin, TX

Benefits

• Competitive insurance coverage, inclusive of medical, dental, and vision
• 401k Retirement with 3% employer matching
• Open PTO Policy
• 2 weeks Work From Anywhere (WFA)
• 13 weeks paid Maternity and Paternity leave
• Pet-Friendly Office
• Yearly Creative Stipend
• Snacks, Meals and Drinks
• No Time Tracking