Technical Manager, Corporate Packaging

Job Description

JOB TITLE: Technical Manager, Corporate Packaging
FLSA STATUS: Exempt
REPORTS TO: Vice President Supply Chain

Summary

The Technical Manager, Corporate Packaging leads the corporate packaging engineering function and is responsible for the design, development, validation, and cost-effective implementation of returnable and expendable packaging for customer finished goods, intercompany shipments, and critical purchased components.

Responsibilities And Duties

• Packaging Department Management
• Manage and direct the activities of corporate packaging department personnel, including employees located in the United States, Mexico, and Asia.
• Cook with local administrative supervisors in Mexico and Asia to support performance, communication, priorities, and accountability for international packaging employees.
• Develop and implement training plans for new, promoted, and developing packaging personnel.
• Establish, maintain, and improve departmental procedures, standards, and best practices to optimize packaging department performance.
• Ensure compliance with applicable departmental, corporate, safety, and quality policies and procedures.
• Customer Packaging Requirement Compliance
• Maintain current customer-specific packaging standards and ensure they are communicated, understood, and available to the packaging team.
• Ensure compliance with customer packaging specifications, documentation requirements, validation activities, and approval processes.
• Interface directly with customer engineers, managers, and packaging contacts to negotiate requirements and resolve packaging-related issues.
• New Program Packaging Quote Development
• Guide packaging engineers in developing estimated packaging concepts and costs for new program RFQs involving customer finished parts, intercompany shipments, and key purchased components.
• Ensure packaging assumptions are appropriate, documented, and aligned with logistics requirements, shipment frequency, transit time, inventory levels, and fleet-size calculations.
• Review, challenge, and approve packaging concepts, cost estimates, fleet-size assumptions, and total packaging costs before submission to Estimating.
• New Program Packaging Development
• Manage packaging development for new programs, including customer returnable and expendable packaging, intercompany packaging, critical internal storage packaging, and selected purchased component packaging.
• Ensure packaging solutions are optimized for employee and customer ergonomics, safety, product quality, cost, fleet size, logistics flow, and launch timing.
• Cook with Plant Launch Champions, Corporate Materials, packaging suppliers, customers, and internal program teams.
• Participate in customer-developed packaging reviews to influence outcomes and ensure Summit’s objectives are met.
• Sure Requests for Engineering Change are initiated when product or packaging changes affect packaging concept, quantity, cost, timing, or performance.
• Corporate Wide Support of Packaging Activities
• Troubleshoot packaging issues across the corporation and drive timely, practical, and cost-effective resolutions.
• Lead cost-reduction initiatives for current returnable and expendable packaging.
• Lead quality improvement initiatives for production packaging.
• Provide direction to plants for end-of-program returnable packaging disposition, including customer return, warehouse storage, reuse, recycling, or disposal.
• Maintain packaging warehouse inventory and reuse records to support disposition and cost-savings decisions.

Education And Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Packaging Engineering, Packaging Science, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related technical field; equivalent combination of education and directly related experience may be considered.
• Minimum of five years of automotive packaging development experience required, including experience with returnable and expendable packaging, new program launches, packaging cost estimates, and customer packaging requirements.
• Prior experience leading packaging projects, coordinating cross-functional teams, or supervising technical personnel preferred.
• Experience working with automotive customers, suppliers, manufacturing plants, and international teams preferred.

Skills And Abilities

• Strong knowledge of automotive packaging design, development, validation, and launch processes, including returnable and expendable packaging.
• Ability to interpret and apply customer-specific packaging standards, specifications, documentation requirements, and approval processes.
• Strong understanding of packaging cost estimating, fleet sizing, logistics assumptions, and returnable container management.
• Demonstrated leadership and project management skills, with the ability to manage priorities, people, suppliers, and multiple program deadlines.
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to resolve packaging, quality, ergonomic, logistics, and launch-related issues.
• Effective communication and negotiation skills with customers, suppliers, manufacturing plants, and cross-functional corporate teams.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications; experience with ERP, CAD, and packaging specification, preferred.
• A minimum score of 50 on the Wonderlic Assessment (26 on the cognitive portion).

Travel Requirements

This position typically does require up to 25% travel.