About this role
Associate Director, Packaging Science
Function: Packaging Science / Supply Chain / Food Safety/Engineering
Reports to : VP of Engineering and Automation, Hellofresh
Location: Newark, NJ
Role Purpose:
The Associate Director, Packaging Science will provide technical leadership for the development, qualification, specification, and continuous improvement of packaging systems used to safely and efficiently deliver fresh food to consumers.
This role sits at the intersection of packaging engineering, food safety, cold-chain management, product quality, logistics, operations, and supplier technical management. The position will establish and maintain packaging and distribution specifications that protect food quality and safety throughout the delivery network while balancing cost, sustainability, manufacturability, customer experience, and operational performance.
The Associate Director will serve as a technical authority for temperature-controlled food.
You Will...
• Own the technical framework and specifications for packaging systems used to ship perishable food from fulfillment through the customer's doorstep.
• Establish and maintain packaging standards, technical specifications, drawings, performance requirements, qualification protocols, and acceptance criteria.
• Define and validate thermal requirements for insulated shippers, liners, refrigerants, and packaging configurations across seasonal, geographic, and worst-case conditions.
• Lead packaging qualification and validation programs spanning laboratory testing, pilot shipments, real-world distribution trials, commercialization, and post-launch validation.
• Partner with Food Safety and Quality to prevent contamination, leakage, temperature excursions, product damage, tampering, and loss of product integrity.
• Lead the development and commercialization of innovative packaging solutions, including sustainable insulation, reduced-material systems, recyclable/reusable packaging, improved moisture management, leak resistance, and enhanced dimensional efficiency.
• Establish supplier technical requirements, qualification processes, performance expectations, scorecards, and change-control procedures.
• Partner with Operations, Engineering, Logistics, Procurement, Sustainability, R&D, and Customer Experience to translate technical requirements into scalable and practical solutions.
• Develop technical governance systems, including packaging risk assessments, distribution test standards, failure/RCA procedures, seasonal validation programs, and packaging performance dashboards.
• Drive continuous improvement by using performance, temperature, quality, operational, financial, and sustainability data to improve packaging reliability, cost, efficiency, and customer experience.
You Have...
• 8–12+ years of relevant experience in packaging, packaging science/engineering, food manufacturing, cold chain, CPG, or a related technical environment.
• A bachelo