Senior Sales/Application Engineer

Position: Senior Sales/Application Engineer

Location: North America (ideally East Coast)

Are you a technical minded solutions driven Engineer? Are you looking to join a growing, ambitious business that allows their staff to work with autonomy?

Company Background

We are working with a fast growing flexible packaging films manufacturer with a strong reputation for innovation, responsiveness, and customer partnership.

The business operates with a highly entrepreneurial mindset and a lean, collaborative structure, giving technical and commercial leaders real autonomy to make decisions, solve problems, and drive growth.

Unlike larger competitors with more bureaucracy, this organization empowers its team to move quickly, work cross-functionally, and play a direct role in customer success.

With a strong presence in blown film and flexible packaging, the company is continuing to invest in product development, commercialization, and market expansion.

This is an opportunity to join a business where R&D and commercial strategy are closely linked, and where the right person can make a visible impact from day one.

Position Summary

We are looking for a Commercial astute technical engineer who will supporting major customer accounts through new product development, film design, commercialization, and qualification activities.

This role sits at the intersection of product development, process engineering, materials, and customer support, and will act as a primary contact for key customer R&D projects.

The Application Engineer will help define film solutions, manage trials, troubleshoot formulation and process issues, and support the successful commercialization of new products from extrusion through converting and end use.

This is not a purely lab-based engineering role. It is a highly visible, customer facing position for someone who combines strong technical depth in films and polymers with the interpersonal skills and commercial judgment needed to influence projects, support growth, and work effectively across Sales, Operations, Quality, and suppliers.

Responsibilities

• Lead development activity for key customer accounts and act as a main contact for R&D-related projects
• Interact directly with customers to define film needs and design products that meet critical quality and performance objectives
• Manage new product development and commercialization projects from concept through qualification and launch
• Follow internal and external development trials and support successful execution with customers, suppliers, and manufacturing teams
• Support qualification of films and resins from extrusion through converting and final end use
• Lead troubleshooting of process and formulation-related issues, including root cause identification and corrective action
• Support manufacturing teams in completing new product development activities and implementing process improvements
• Lead key process installations and upgrades to ensure R&D and commercialization objectives are achieved
• Assess new materials from resin suppliers and identify opportunities for new markets, improved performance, or material consolidation
• Support commercial activities including project prioritization, costing, pricing input, bids, and account growth strategies
• Provide direction and guidance to internal R&D engineers on trial prioritization, research projects, and execution plans
• Communicate project updates, priorities, and long-term opportunities to cross-functional stakeholders and leadership

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering, Materials Science Engineering, Polymer Science Engineering, or a related technical field
• Strong technical knowledge of polymers, resins, film structures, and plastic processing
• Ability to interpret physical property data and composition data related to polymer materials
• Experience troubleshooting plastic processing equipment and production defects in thin film manufacturing
• Background in product development, commercialization, process support, or technical customer-facing roles within flexible packaging, films, or plastics
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to work effectively across customer and internal teams
• Ability to optimize workflows, prioritize projects, and make sound technical and commercial decisions

Experience

• Experience within blown film, flexible packaging, or film-based product development
• Exposure to formulation work, material qualification, and converting processes
• Experience supporting customer trials, external testing, and new application development
• Ability to balance technical problem-solving with commercial priorities and customer expectations