{"id":4191125,"url":"https://alion.io/job/sunopta-packaging-engineer","title":"Packaging Engineer","company":{"id":2272262,"name":"SunOpta","domain":"sunopta.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/sunopta","size_band":"501-1000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Dayforce","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":92,"open_postings":15,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.333,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":29,"computed_at":"2026-11-12T10:38:37Z"}},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":"middle","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Eden Prairie, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":3,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"GMP","optional":false},{"name":"Microsoft Office","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-12T06:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-12","last_verified_at":"2026-11-12T19:22:36Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":0,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":0},"description":"Job Summary:\nAt SunOpta we believe that packaging innovation can fundamentally change the trajectory of our company by making our products more innovative, more sustainable, and more cost-effective. This position will report to Director of R&D and will be responsible for various technical packaging development projects across an array of products. \n\nWorking closely with SunOpta R&D, Marketing and Commercialization teams, the successful candidate will design, execute, and deliver packaging for plant-based food and beverage products. The successful candidate will have experience with packaging materials including interface with the packaging equipment. This person will manage packaging development and improvement projects from ideation through commercialization, to meet customer and company needs. The successful candidate will build and maintain networks with relevant industry and academic experts to gain early insight and access to high impact packaging technologies. They will develop packaging specification standards to ensure technical performance and reliability as well as cost effectiveness. Key consumer product focus areas will be Shelf Stable Beverages (e.g, Oat, Almond, Soy, Rice, Tea and Broth) and Hot Extruded Fruit Snacks, along with their associated Package & Material Technologies (e.g., aseptic, barrier films, corrugate, etc.). A key focus area of Packaging R&D will be working toward improving the sustainability of our packaging materials. \n\nThe successful candidate will be primarily responsible for supporting the design of packages through a collection of materials and documentation in the specification system. Additional responsibilities include development of unit load specifications, performing shelf life/sensory testing, testing packaging materials, and assisting the cross functional team with maintenance projects.\n\nEssential Functions of the Job: \nLead the design, development, qualification, and commercialization of packaging components and systems for new products, customer programs, and existing product improvements.\nServe as a technical packaging lead for key customers, working directly with customer Packaging team, Quality, and Commercialization teams to understand requirements, provide technical recommendations, communicate risks, and drive packaging activities through implementation.\nPlan, coordinate, and lead plant trials for new packaging materials and formats, including development of trial objectives, protocols, success criteria, material requirements, data collection, and post-trial recommendations.\nProvide technical leadership during line trials, validation runs, commercial start-ups, and troubleshooting, partnering with Operations, Engineering, Maintenance, Quality, and R&D to resolve packaging and equipment-related issues.\nSetup packaging material and unit-load specifications in DevEx, including pallet configurations and transportation requirements, to ensure performance throughout manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution.\nDevelop and execute packaging testing and qualification plans, including compression, drop, vibration, environmental, shelf-life, and stability evaluations, and translate results into actionable recommendations.\nAssess manufacturing and packaging-line capabilities for new formats and customer opportunities, identifying equipment limitations, change-part requirements, technical risks, and potential capital needs.\nPartner with packaging suppliers and equipment vendors to develop and optimize solutions, qualify new materials, troubleshoot technical issues, and drive packaging performance improvements.\nCollaborate cross-functionally with R&D, Manufacturing, Engineering, Food Safety & Quality, Procurement, Supply Chain, Sales, Marketing, and Commercialization to align packaging solutions with customer expectations and operational capabilities.\nIdentify and implement cost savings, sustainability, and continuous improvement opportunities, including material optimization, waste reduction, recyclability, pallet utilization, and transportation efficiency.\nEnsure packaging materials, designs, trials, and processes comply with applicable regulatory, food safety, customer, company, and GMP requirements.\nMaintain clear technical documentation and effectively communicate project status, trial results, technical risks, decisions, and recommendations to customers, manufacturing sites, cross-functional teams, and leadership.\n\nSupervisory Responsibilities:\nNone\n\nMinimum Qualifications:\nBachelor’s Degree in Packaging, Food Science, Chemistry, Engineering, or related field.\nExperience working as a member of a cross functional team.\nExperience with Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel).\n\nPreferred Qualifications:\n3+ years’ experience working on packaging materials within a consumer product organization.\nFamiliarity with food manufacturing.\n\nKnowledge and Skills:\nOutstanding verbal, written, multi-tasking and presentation skills. \nStrong attention to detail with bias to documentation and codification of knowledge. Must have experience with Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel).\n\nAdditional Considerations:\nTravel Expectation: Up to 30% to various SunOpta locations, to customer meetings, and/or conferences.\nThis role will be located at our US Corporate Office in Eden Prairie, MN.\nRelocation (within the US) will be considered.\n\nWork Environment/Physical Demands:\nApproximately 95% of work is done in an office environment; 5% of work may be performed in a manufacturing environment.","description_format":"text","description_chars":5532,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":3,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":true,"industries":["Organic Food","Food Ingredients"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-12T19:22:36Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":0,"expected_fill_days":29,"reasons":["conf:0","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-11-12T19:51:07Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/sunopta-packaging-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/sunopta-packaging-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-12T19:51:07Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":41920,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-13T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":2272262},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=2272262"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fsunopta-packaging-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":2,"usd":0.2},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fsunopta-packaging-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fsunopta-packaging-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/sunopta-packaging-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fsunopta-packaging-engineer"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":4191125}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"sunopta.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":4191125},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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