Vice President, Packaging

BUILT ON FLAVOR.  FUELED BY PEOPLE. What’s it like to work at Kinder’s? Well, there’s a lot of snacking and geeking out over what we all cooked over the weekend. Beyond that, there’s also plenty of hard work. Because we don’t just like flavor, we’re obsessed with it.      With over 100 products sold nationwide, we’re now a top-five brand in multiple flavor categories at Costco, Walmart, Whole Foods, and more. We’re not your typical CPG company. Privately held and founder-led, we like to think of ourselves as a pirate ship in a sea of cruise ships . Our crew is adventurous and fearless. We chart our own course and chase big ideas to make food unforgettable.   As we expand globally and approach $1 billion in revenue, we need more smart-and-scrappy, flavor-obsessed people to come aboard. If you’re looking for a place where you can see the real impact of your work... this is it!  Every day, you’ll be part of a journey to add flavor to millions of meals and lives.  How You'll Make an Impact at Kinder's:  The Vice President, Packaging will lead Kinder’s enterprise packaging strategy and capability, with responsibility for developing and executing packaging solutions that enable innovation, protect product quality, strengthen our brands, improve operational performance, and support continued profitable growth.   As Kinder’s continues to expand its portfolio, channels, manufacturing network, and innovation pipeline, this leader will build a scalable packaging organization capable of supporting both the speed of an entrepreneurial business and the complexity of a rapidly growing CPG company. The Vice President will have broad responsibility across packaging engineering and development, commercialization, materials and supplier strategy, cost optimization, manufacturing performance, sustainability, and packaging innovation.   Working across R&D, Innovation, Marketing, Operations, Strategic Sourcing, Quality, Supply Chain, Finance, and external manufacturing partners, this leader will ensure packaging considerations are integrated early into product and commercial decisions and successfully translated from concept through commercialization and scale.   The ideal candidate combines deep technical packaging  expertise  with strong commercial judgment and enterprise leadership. They are equally comfortable evaluating a new packaging technology, challenging material specifications, partnering with suppliers on cost and capacity, troubleshooting manufacturing constraints, and advising senior leaders on packaging investments and strategic tradeoffs.   Key Responsibilities: Enterprise Packaging Strategy & Leadership   Develop and lead Kinder’s enterprise packaging strategy, establishing the long-term vision, capabilities, technologies, supplier ecosystem, and organizational structure required to support continued growth.   Establish packaging roadmaps across the portfolio that balance consumer experience, brand objectives, product protection, manufacturability, speed to market, cost, sustainability, and supply continuity.   Serve as the senior packaging subject matter expert for the organization, advising executive and functional leaders on packaging technologies, investments, capabilities, risks, and opportunities.   Build scalable packaging processes, standards, governance, specifications, and decision frameworks that create greater consistency and discipline as the organization grows.   Translate business and portfolio strategies into packaging capability requirements, identifying where Kinder’s must build, buy, automate, partner, or invest to support future growth.   Maintain a strong external perspective on emerging packaging technologies, materials, suppliers, manufacturing capabilities, consumer trends, and industry developments.   Packaging Innovation, Engineering & Commercialization   Lead packaging development from early-stage concept through design, testing, qualification, commercialization, and post-launch optimization across new products, renovations, and existing portfolio improvements.   Partner closely with R&D, Innovation, Marketing, and Creative to translate consumer and brand objectives into packaging solutions that are distinctive, functional, scalable, and operationally viable.   Ensure packaging engineering is engaged early in the innovation process to identify technical requirements, manufacturing constraints, cost implications, lead times, and commercialization risks.   Establish rigorous technical standards for packaging design, materials selection, specifications, testing, qualification, and performance.   Lead development and optimization across primary, secondary, and tertiary packaging, including rigid and flexible structures, bottles, jars, films, pouches, closures, labels, cartons, corrugate, cases, and retail-ready displays.   Drive packaging simplification and platform strategies where appropriate, reducing unnecessary complexity while maintaining consumer and brand differentiation.   Build disciplined commercialization processes that enable Kinder’s to move quickly without sacrificing quality, manufacturability, cost, or execution.   Manufacturing, Automation & Operational Performance   Partner with Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain, and manufacturing leadership to ensure packaging designs are optimized for Kinder’s internal manufacturing network and external co-manufacturing partners.   Evaluate packaging performance across filling, sealing, labeling, cartoning, case packing, palletizing, and other packaging operations to identify opportunities to improve throughput, reliability, labor efficiency, and overall equipment effectiveness.   Lead packaging-related root cause analysis for recurring manufacturing, quality, material, or performance issues and drive sustainable corrective actions.   Identify opportunities for automation, equipment upgrades, material changes, and process improvement