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For more than 115 years, Ferrara has created sugar confections that enable moments of sweetness, celebration, and connection for candy lovers of all generations. Today, the company is the #1 sugar confectioner in the United States. Ferrara boasts a passionate team of nearly 9,000 employees creating and delivering hundreds of products sold under 20 popular brands like Brach’s®, NERDS®, SweeTARTS®, Laffy Taffy®, and Trolli® to more than 66 million U.S. households annually and popular Dori snacking products under brands such as Dori, Gomets, Pettiz, and Yogurte 100 in Brazil. Additionally, Jelly Belly, known world-wide for its confections, was acquired in November of 2023.

Packaging Engineer

Job Location: ​Bellwood​

Bellwood, IL (hybrid) 

Want to make an impact?

The Packaging Engineer will be responsible for the design, development, and commercialization of new packaging for high-speed manufacturing of confections and fruit snacks products. This individual will also be responsible for supporting packaging initiatives aligning with company goals.  At Ferrara, Packaging Engineering is critical to the success of our commercialization objectives, therefore high levels of responsibility, technical rigor, and program ownership are required for this position. 

Ways you will make a difference

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily.

  • Manage multi-functional high-value projects impacting multiple plants and business units
  • Lead planning, qualification, and execution of new primary, secondary, and tertiary packaging and packaging equipment systems
  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams and facilitates to identify and drive efficiencies (i.e. cost savings, reducing changeover time, consolidation efforts, etc.)
  • Ability to analyze, comprehend, and communicate findings/recommendations to senior leadership
  • Act as internal consultant providing technical guidance on most complex projects.
  • Lead technical partnerships with external suppliers to implement new technology specific to Ferrara brands and product categories
  • Perform root-cause analysis and technical problem solving to quality issues
  • Create technical specifications for finished goods and packaging materials used in the manufacturing process
  • Identify continuous improvement opportunities associated to manufacturing, materials, and overall package quality
  • Engage in consumer research activities such as ethnography observation, focus groups, etc.  Converts consumer hypotheses and insight into packaging ideas, quickly reducing those ideas to functional and testable prototypes
  • Ensure adherence to all company policies and procedures 
  • Understand and demonstrate the Company’s core values
  • Perform other duties as assigned

Skills that will make you successful

The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.  

  • Action oriented
  • Ability to deal with ambiguity
  • Innovation Management
  • Building Effective Teams
  • A certain degree of creativity and latitude is required
  • Interpersonal Savvy
  • Planning and Organizing 
  • Must be organized, able to multitask and meet commitments
  • Strength in both oral and written presentation skills are a prerequisite to success
  • Ability to work independently with minimal supervision
  • Working knowledge with multiple materials and processes in various distribution environments including rigid plastics, flexible materials, corrugated and paperboard packaging, labels
  • General knowledge of G.M.P.
  • Packaging material processing specification knowledge
  • Extensive knowledge of packaging machinery
  • Demonstrated ability to perform as a contributing member of cross functional teams, including marketing, sales and research, purchasing, manufacturing, quality engineering, graphics development, and packaging supplies
  • Demonstrated ability to communicate with all levels of the organization, including senior leadership
  • Willing to travel up to 20%

Experiences that will support your success

  • BS degree in Packaging Engineering/Science discipline
  • 4+ years’ experience 
  • 2+ years’ experience leading projects and/or teams
  • Project management of packaging validation and qualification
  • Experience with TOPS or CAPE Shipper/Palletization software
  • Experience with SAP and skilled with Microsoft applications (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Project, Outlook, Access) 

 

#LI-AG1

Ferrara’s success in industry-leading innovation has been driven by deep consumer insights, strong retailer co-creation and partnerships, and a dedication to diversity of thought, experience, and people. A privately held company, Ferrara has its global headquarters in Chicago and an operational network of more than 27 locations in North America, Brazil, and China that includes manufacturing, distribution, sales, and R&D facilities. Ferrara is a privately held Ferrero related company. Learn more at www.ferrara.com or www.linkedin.com/company/ferrara-.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. In order to provide equal employment and advancement opportunities to all qualified applicants and employees, employment decisions and opportunities at Ferrara will be based on merit, qualifications, and abilities, without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, marital or civil union status, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, military or veteran status, disability, handicap, genetic information, pregnancy (childbirth or related medical condition), or on any other basis prohibited by law. This policy governs all aspects of employment, including selection, job assignment, compensation, discipline, termination, and access to benefits and training.

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