{"id":1366872,"url":"https://alion.io/job/ds-smith-technical-specialist","title":"Technical Specialist","company":{"id":1795137,"name":"DS Smith","domain":"dssmith.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/dssmith-com","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":null},"role":"Sales","role_family":"Sales","seniority":null,"employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["United Kingdom"],"countries":["GB"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-24T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-24","last_verified_at":"2026-09-28T23:33:25Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":5,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":5},"description":"Help Shape the Future of Technical Excellence at DS Smith\nAt DS Smith, we're redefining how we support our customers through innovation, collaboration and operational excellence. We are establishing a brand-new Technical Specialist team that will play a critical role in supporting our packaging operations, enhancing customer performance and driving continuous improvement across our network.\nThis is an exciting opportunity to be part of something new. As a Cluster Technical Specialist, you will help develop and shape a key role within the business, working across nine packaging sites while acting as the trusted technical partner for our customers.\nIf you thrive on solving complex manufacturing challenges, building strong customer relationships and influencing positive change, we'd love to hear from you.\nAbout the Role\nThe Cluster Technical Specialist is a highly visible customer-facing role responsible for supporting customers and manufacturing sites by providing expert technical guidance, identifying risks before they become issues and coordinating effective solutions when challenges arise.\nWorking remotely and travelling extensively across your allocated sites and customers, you will become the technical bridge between our customers and manufacturing operations, helping to ensure product performance, quality and customer confidence remain at the highest level.\nOperating to the principle of:\n\"Own the technical relationship, influence the resolution.\"\nYou will work closely with Quality, Operations, Design, Sales and Innovation teams to proactively address technical challenges while helping to build a culture of continuous improvement across the business.\nWhat You’ll be doing\nCustomer Technical Support\nAct as the first technical point of contact for customer product performance, quality and manufacturing concerns.\nConduct technical investigations and root cause analysis using structured methodologies such as 8D and RCA.\nVisit customer sites to identify and mitigate technical risks before they develop into customer complaints.\nBuild trusted relationships with customer operations, engineering and quality teams.\nDeliver technical guidance and practical training to support customer packaging line performance.\nSupport new product introductions and customer onboarding activities.\nMaintain accurate records of customer visits, actions, technical findings and risk assessments.\nOperational Improvement\nDrive improvements in product consistency, quality and manufacturing performance.\nLead and support customer trials. - Support customer trials as required (operations/quality own production trials)\nIdentify trends, recurring issues and improvement opportunities across multiple sites.\nProvide design-for-runnability feedback to Design and Manufacturing teams.\nWork with external suppliers including tooling, print plate and form manufacturers to improve product performance.\nTechnical Intelligence & Continuous Improvement\nGather technical insight from customers, operations, quality, design and sales teams.\nIdentify emerging technical risks and share learnings across the network.\nTrack technical issues through to resolution while maintaining clear customer communication.\nSupport product simplification and standardisation initiatives.\nContribute to a proactive, preventative approach to quality and technical performance.\nCollaboration\nPartner with Innovation Specialists on customer development opportunities.\nWork closely with Sales, Design, Production and Quality teams.\nShare best practice across the wider technical community.\nMaintain a proactive balance of approximately 60% preventative activity and 40% reactive support.\nAbout you\nWe're looking for a well-rounded technical professional who combines strong manufacturing expertise with excellent customer and stakeholder management skills. You'll enjoy building relationships, solving technical challenges and driving continuous improvement across multiple sites.\nExcited by the opportunity to join a newly created team, you'll play a key role in shaping technical support within DS Smith, influencing best practice and making a real impact on customer satisfaction, product quality and operational performance, while further developing your own technical and leadership capabilities.\nEssential Skills & Experience\nSignificant experience within a manufacturing environment, ideally corrugated packaging.\nStrong operational, technical or quality background.\nProven experience solving technical and process challenges.\nExcellent stakeholder management and communication skills.\nAbility to influence teams and drive action without direct authority.\nExperience using structured problem-solving techniques such as 8D or Root Cause Analysis.\nStrong organisational and prioritisation skills.\nFull UK driving licence.\nQualifications\nCorrugated packaging manufacturing experience.\nKnowledge of corrugator and conversion processes, including printing, die-cutting and gluing/folding operations.\nCustomer-facing technical support experience.\nSix Sigma, Lean or Continuous Improvement qualifications.\nISO 9001 or BRCGS Packaging Materials knowledge.\nExperience working with CRM, QMS or ERP systems.\nDegree qualification in Engineering, Packaging, Manufacturing, Design or a related discipline.\nBenefits\nCompetitive salary\nDiscretionary bonus\n25 days’ holiday plus bank holidays\nPension scheme, life assurance and income protection\nEmployee Assistance Programme\nEmployee Discounts\nCycle to work scheme\nLocation: Remote with UK Travel - Supporting designated DS Smith sites and focus customers.\nHours: Monday to Friday - 09:00 - 17:00\nAbout us\nWe are DS Smith, together with International Paper, we are a global leader in sustainable packaging solutions and other fibre-based products. We believe a better, more sustainable tomorrow is possible with the right people, who challenge and support one another to enact positive change. We employ more than 65,000 colleagues in North America and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), who are experts in innovation, manufacturing, design, sales, sustainability, supply chain, and much more. Together with our customers, we make the world safer and more productive, one sustainable packaging solution at a time. Become part of a world-leading organisation and do your best work with us!\nFair recruitment at DS Smith\nTo fulfil our purpose of redefining packaging for a changing world, we aim to build a diverse, motivated, and engaged workforce. Our goal is to create a culture of inclusion where everyone is treated fairly, differences are valued, and everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed.\nOur people come from diverse backgrounds, bring different perspectives, ideas and experiences to generate unique solutions focused on present and future sustainability challenges. We welcome all candidates to apply, even those not meeting all criteria\n#LI-CE","description_format":"text","description_chars":6882,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United Kingdom","iso":"GB","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Manufacturing","Packaging & Labeling","Packaging Design"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-28T02:34:29Z"}],"liveness":{"score":80,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.799,"p_room":1,"age_days":4,"expected_fill_days":13,"reasons":["conf:0","win:early","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-09-28T05:45:00Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/ds-smith-technical-specialist","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/ds-smith-technical-specialist.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-09-29T01:26:47Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","usage":{"tier":"crawler","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":1054,"day_limit":5000,"remaining_today":3946,"minute_limit":60,"resets_at":"2026-09-30T00:00:00Z"}}}