PACKAGING TECHNOLOGIST

At The Compleat Food Group we’re not just serving up great food, we’re creating an environment where our people can thrive. As one of the leading chilled prepared food manufacturers in the UK food industry, we believe that our employees are the secret ingredient to our success. We’re passionate about fostering a culture where quality, innovation, collaboration, and personal growth are at the forefront.
Location: Midlands
Working Hours: Monday – Thursday: 8:30am – 5pm, Friday: 8:30am – 4pm
Salary: £35,000

EXPERIENCE:

• Experience in a packaging technologist role held in FMCG required
• Experience with specifying at least 3/5 food-contact packaging materials listed (Flexible Plastic, Rigid Plastic, Cartonboard, Corrugate or Aluminium)
• Experience in the retailer environment
• Experience in managing multiple key projects
• Understanding of industry bodies and compliance schemes eg. FSC/PEFC, OPRL, Plastic Packaging Tax, WRAP etc
• Good technical background both in machinery and material technology and good technical background, material technology would be advantageous
• Proven track record of problem solving under tight timelines

KEY SKILLS:

• Planning, organisation and project management
• Communicating with all key-stakeholders
• Presentation skills
• High attention to detail
• Persistence and determination
• Identifying solutions
• Intermediate computing skills, in particular excel
• Full driving license required

JOB PURPOSE

We’re looking for a proactive and innovative Packaging Technologist to support the successful delivery of NPD and EPD projects by identifying and implementing the most sustainable, commercially viable, and fit-for-purpose packaging solutions across both branded and own-label products. We would consider/welcome graduates to apply.
In this role, you’ll work closely with the wider product development team, focusing on packaging format and material selection, manufacturing feasibility, trialing, and performance testing. You’ll also play a key role in customer interactions—supporting packaging format decisions and helping resolve challenges related to product quality, shelf life, and recyclability.

KEY DUTIES:

• Ensure NPD and EPD projects, for both own-label and brands, have a strong focus on packaging from concept through to launch
• Sharing with the team the most innovative solutions available for individual projects and sharing knowledge on the most sustainable options
• Assisting Product Developers and submitting briefs to packaging suppliers and following up with samples
• Working closely with the Packaging Procurement team to ensure quotes and samples are submitted in line with the project critical path
• Liaising with Brand owners both internally and externally to capture the key deliverables on packaging for each product brief
• Working closely across the relevant business divisions to ensure packaging is optimised
• Justifying to internal and external stakeholders why each material is appropriate for different applications and projects eg. Recyclability, renewable sources, recycled content, re-heat etc
• Ensuring material selection is suitable for the application, with product safety and integrity as the priority
• Working across all possible food-grade packaging materials including Plastic (Rigid & Flexible), Carton board, Corrugate, Aluminium, Pulp etc
• Identifying opportunities with suppliers to improve sustainability of packaging, in particular the inclusion of recycled content to mitigate the plastics packaging tax and reducing liability under Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
• Developing cutter guides for all new formats, using suppliers as support if possible, to maximise service offered
• Reviewing/developing/approving new packaging items on Recipe Professor in-line with critical paths requirements
• Supporting the Process Teams in carrying out transit trials on new or re-developed formats
• Supporting the Packaging Procurement and Operations teams with value engineering projects in-line with PIPS commitments
• Liaising with packaging suppliers to provide trial materials
• Feeding in packaging lead time information to Product Developers to create the overall critical path
• Responsible for the packaging development elements of any critical paths requiring new or re-developed packaging
• Supporting operations with any concerns reported around packaging performance eg. Wrapping/Sealing issues, ensuring to maximise field-technical resource available from suppliers
• Monitor compliance with immediate and future milestones of individual customer packaging pledges
• Initiate packaging innovation sessions with suppliers and NPD team to maximise design creativity across the team
• Stay up to date with industry regulations and communicate to relevant stakeholders across the group as and when required to ensure compliance
• Lead the packaging innovation agenda for the relevant business division to ensure the wider NPD strategy is delivered
• Meet suppliers on a regular basis to discover and track emerging technologies and materials
• Knowledge share across the immediate Packaging team and wider NPD team when relevant
• Keep up to date with competition and other ‘best-in-class’ formats from other industries
• Attend relevant trade shows to stay connected with the latest trends and technologies available
• Be the ambassador for introducing market-disruptive packaging formats, working with Process Technologists to ensure new formats are not dismissed on ‘first-look’
• Work closely with Specification Managers to ensure new and existing specifications are accurate with regards to packaging
• Maintain customer dashboards as developed with the Group Packaging Development Manager
• Develop and maintain a materials tracker for the relevant business division, which will be used to monitor plastic and packaging reductions
• Support Technical Compliance with packaging data submissions for Environmental reporting, plastics packaging tax, PRNs etc
• Offer guidance to external data gathering services (eg. Clarity) in understanding packaging formats and completing customer data submissions
• Work with suppliers to offer technical support in developing new and sustainable packaging solutions
• Keep up to date with OPRL guidelines and ensure packaging innovation pipeline is compliant with future changes
• Work closely with other Packaging Team members across the group to ensure best practice learnings are maintained
• Work closely with site teams to ensure factory knowledge is developed and maintained
• Demonstrate ability to communicate with various teams as required by manager / projects
• Organise, and attend as necessary, project meetings and panels
• Appropriate communication (written and verbal) to teams and team members
• Provide a cross functional support to all the Compleat Food sites as and when required
• Support in customer/audit visits to site
• Follow all H&S requirements during kitchen and process development work
• Promote safe working across site and advise immediately on unsafe work practices
• Group role will require regular travel across the various manufacturing sites within the UK, and where applicable outside of the UK
• General office duties
• Support benchmarking panels