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Principal Engineer - Packaging

KIND
Chicago, IL Full Time
POSTED ON 12/6/2025 CLOSED ON 12/19/2025

What are the responsibilities and job description for the Principal Engineer - Packaging position at KIND?

Who We Are...

As a collection of brands including KIND, Nature’s Bakery, and trü frü within the Health and Wellness Division of Mars Snacking, we are proud to offer healthy snacking options to our consumers. From granola to snack bars and better for you hyper-chilled and hyper-dried chocolate covered fruit, we believe that the choice to snack healthier should be an easy and desirable one. With real, recognizable ingredients in every bite, we’re on a mission to inspire everyone to snack better.

We’re on the lookout for passionate associates to join our dynamic, growth-oriented team! If you’re someone who loves to dive in and make things happen, we want you!

Join us to become the foremost leader in health & wellness and provide healthy snacking choices to our consumers! Come be part of our journey to become the leading force in health and wellness, providing tasty and nutritious snacking choices to our consumers!

What You'll Do

This Principal Packaging Project Engineer will be a project manager for the large and complex projects executed all Health and Wellness Platform (KIND, Natures Bakery and Tru Fru Business Units) and will be responsible for all aspects of planning and executing projects from ideation to project closure. This role will potentially lead projects in process areas, buildings and infrastructure, general manufacturing processes, and packaging systems depending on business needs.

The role owns overall leadership of major capital projects through Health and Wellness platform for executional excellence in project delivery. This role will drive technology capability within the entire team, as well as line management responsibility for a small team and major project management for project teams.

A strong leadership and communication skill set is critical for this role. The incumbent should be capable of innovative thinking and driven to maintain momentum, while maintaining a healthy industrial climate. The ability to prioritize and balance multiple projects, tasks and organizational needs in an environment that is always dynamic is a critical success factor. The Principal Engineer needs to be diverse enough to understand and track the needs of the business at the most economic cost and highest quality. Ideal candidate must be able to work in a cross-functional role to achieve business objectives with the technical, plant, finance and procurement functions.

Responsible for being the Health & Wellness platform Engineering team leader supporting execution and delivery of projects and strategic programs across the North American Region. Provide engineering support and project management, technical and engineering support to Manufacturing, Technical Operations, Brand Innovation, Brand Change and Procurement organizations.

Decision Making & Financial Responsibility

  • Develop and execute projects of $5M-200M that meet business objectives, while ensuring compliance with safety, quality, security and environmental standards.
  • Member of the Health and Wellness Engineering team, focused on upskilling the engineering team in various technologies and project management execution.
  • Mentoring and developing a small team of project engineers
  • Develop standards for equipment, systems and engineering processes and collaborate with other senior engineers and global technical teams.
  • Partner with R&D and global technical teams to support the development of technology platforms for providing a sustained technical advantage.
  • Participate in staffing and management strategy for engineering associates.
  • The role is required to make decisions within the project and negotiate with suppliers or internal customers to help deliver the expectations for the benefit of the Health & Wellness platform, within policies and guidelines, delivering projects on time and within budget.
  • The role requires building an engaged and effective operational community by fully leveraging resources in Procurement, R&D/Q&FS, and Supply, Finance, Logistics and managing internal stakeholders. Collaborating with other Mars segments on synergies to drive optimal value to the organization.

What You'll Bring To KIND

  • Experience in Engineering or other PMO roles
  • Knowledge of sourcing and procurement process and procedure
  • Knowledge of Quality process and procedures
  • Knowledge of Supply Chain process and procedures
  • Knowledge of Manufacturing process and procedures
  • Leadership of cross functional teams

You have...

  • Bachelor of Science in engineering; advanced degree core discipline is required. EE, ME or CE degree preferred.
  • Minimum of a combination of 10 years of technical/production/engineering role preferably in consumer products manufacturing & packaging. Well-rounded engineering and technical expertise are expected.
  • Ability to manage multiple work streams while delivering to target dates.
  • Travel required up to 50% of the time dependent on project maturity/workload
  • Demonstrated understanding of project management principles and general knowledge of engineering disciplines: Building, Infrastructure, Civil, Utilities, Process, Packaging, Electrical and Construction, with specialized knowledge in Packaging equipment.
  • Strong understanding of functional engineering - expertise in – CPG manufacturing in food or related industry.
  • High performance team and people leadership experience
  • Proven success developing and executing projects
  • Leadership of capital projects > $50M (preferred)
  • Effective relationship management - internal and external

Certain states and localities require employers to post a reasonable estimate of salary range. A reasonable estimate of the current base salary range for this position is $160,000 to $190,000. Actual salary will be based on a variety of factors, including location, experience, skill set, performance, licensure and certification, and business needs. The range for this position in other geographic locations may differ.

What We Offer...

We are proud to provide a robust benefits package to help support you physically, financially, and emotionally through the big milestones and in your everyday life.

  • Competitive salary, including a target bonus and an impressive benefits package.
  • A 401(k) plan, complete with a generous company match!
  • Flexible Paid Time Off.  Choose what works best for you.
  • Excellent health, dental & vision insurance, with options to fit you & your family’s needs.
  • Casual office dress code - feel free to wear your KIND, Nature’s Bakery and trü frü gear!
  • A dynamic, ambitious and fun work environment

EEO

We are committed to an inclusive workplace where diversity in all its forms is championed. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and we are an affirmative action employer. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you require special accommodation, please let us know. 

Privacy Policy

Mars and its family of brands is committed to transparency and responsibility in how we handle the personal data entrusted to us by our customers and consumers. To learn more about our privacy policy please follow this link.

Salary : $160,000 - $190,000

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