A Career in Packaging Development
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by Sarah Leech 
Packaging development may not be an obvious choice for a graduate engineer considering career options, but the technical challenges and diversity of work can make it a rewarding career for engineers.
With more focus on packaging aesthetics to communicate the brand and the importance of the environmental impact, being able to take a pack design from concept to a product on the shelf is certainly not a straight forward process. Factors including consumer perception of the pack and the brand identity, production at multiple global locations and the fact it has to survive all climates and conditions from bumping around on the back of a delivery van in the humid summers of south east Asia to storage in enormous warehouses in the cold winters in north America have to be taken into consideration in the pack design. All of this while making sure that the pack still has the “wow” factor for consumers and meets all technical and functional requirements!
A career in Packaging within a global company such as Unilever can involve technical challenges in structural design of packaging as well as manufacturing, while stretching your organisational and project management skills. However challenging, it can be very satisfacting seeing something which you have helped create being sold in the 100’s of millions every year.
What does a Packaging Development Engineer Do?
Packaging development engineers project manage the process of taking a new pack from design agency concept to a product on the market. As a packaging development engineer you will interface with Designers, Supply Chain, Brand Development, Formulation, Consumer Research, and Suppliers in order to create and promote exciting, consumer focused, innovative packaging solutions.
The job can be split into a few key areas:
- Consumer understanding: working with marketing, the design agency and consumers to come up with new packs (innovative in both aesthetics and function) which will meet the project and brand brief.
- Technical input into packaging design: understanding the manufacturing process, development of internal details to allow components to fit together, working with the Supply Chain to ensure the pack meets the requirements of the factory / factories where the packs are filled, labelled and prepared for shipment to supermarkets, structural engineering of the pack so it meets technical requirements, without compromising the aesthetics. The focus is on balancing the pack function and style with the necessity to keep costs low and material use to a minimum.
- Development of distribution packaging working with regional packaging groups and customers (for example retailers such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Wal-Mart) to design and develop the “secondary” packaging (protective packaging that contains a number of primary packs for distribution) which is suitable both for its function and in meeting the requirements of the customer.
- Creation of packaging specifications and testing of packs to ensure they meet the required specification. This can include lab work, statistical analysis and creation of reports.
- Future technology understanding and scouting: keeping abreast of new technology and ideas which could be relevant to future projects.
- Project management to be able to deliver the packaging element to a project, on time, within budget and in full. Manage relationships within the internal team as well as with external suppliers and consultants to ensure that they deliver as planned
- Working as part of a cross-functional team you have to be able to communicate effectively technical information to people who are not technically trained.
How to get into Packaging Development?
To get started in packaging development, you should ideally have an engineering degree (e.g. packaging, mechanical, or materials) that gives you the sound understanding of manufacturing processes as well as engineering concepts. Additional areas such as experiences in 3D design (CAD systems, CAE etc) and knowledge of the manufacturing processes involved in packaging (injection moulding, blow moulding, cardboard etc) would be useful to anyone starting out in the world of packaging
If you want to stand out from the crowd, passion for product design in general would be advantageous, and to demonstrate through experiences a creative thought process and innovative approach to problem solving.
To really get ahead you will need to have a passion for change, the drive to want to do things better in spite of the many obstacles.
The skills, competencies and knowledge developed in a role like this can just about take you anywhere you want...whether it is to remain in a technical role in the factory or supply chain, or to move into a more business based and managerial role.
To find out more:
- Read publications such as Packaging Weekly
- Take a look at design council website on packaging design
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