Adept Group offers an award-winning workplace for exceptional packaging industry talent. We work on a range of innovative projects for iconic brand owners. Our technically gifted team collaborates to produce unparalleled results.
We offer a great place to showcase your expertise and build upon your skillset. All while having fun with amazing people from a variety of diverse backgrounds. We’re driven, inspirational and most importantly, human.
We offer a flexible, creative culture focusing on 3 pillars - our environment, our communities, and our health and well-being. Join a team committed to building a sustainable future!
The Opportunity
Adept Group is seeking a Senior Packaging Engineer (1099 Contractor) to add to our team! This candidate would have 5+ years of Packaging Engineering experience in food, beverage, or CPG manufacturing. They would also have hands-on packaging engineering experience across flexible, rigid, and corrugated systems, with strong capability in line support, plant trials, specification management, and TOPS/CAPE, combined with data-driven problem solving, cross-functional collaboration, and project execution in fast-paced manufacturing environments.
This candidate must be comfortable working PST hours.
This is a 1099 Contractor opportunity for 40-hours per week for 6-12 months.
This role will lead packaging initiatives focused on cost savings, efficiency, and smooth production execution across snacks and beverage platforms. The packaging engineer will support flexible, rigid, and corrugated packaging systems, execute packaging line trials, and manage SKU and line transfers from internal plants to co-manufacturers. The position partners closely with Operations, Supply Chain, Procurement, Quality, and packaging suppliers to ensure packaging systems meet quality, food safety, and cost targets while maintaining accurate specifications and documentation.
Key Responsibilities:
- Leads complex projects or assignments within large projects with minimal supervision.
- Lead packaging qualification activities by generating packaging protocols, overseeing test execution, analyzing test data, and authoring qualification reports.
- Provide technical expertise for packaging risk assessments and failure mode/root cause analyses.
- Lead the improvement and standardization of packaging on existing products with focus on performance and cost effectiveness
- Plan and execute a design of experiments. Perform statistical analysis on data generated from experiments and write final reports.
- Initiate and coordinate packaging line trials including planning, conducting and post-trial activities.
- Partner with purchasing and production departments to determine costs and feasibility of producing proposed packaging
- Lead internal and external relationships to effectively influence and gain support for initiatives.
- Able to identify areas of cost savings or improvements to new and on market products
Requirements:
Bachelor’s degree in Packaging Engineering or a related field
5+ years of packaging engineering experience in food, beverage, or CPG manufacturing
Working knowledge of flexible packaging, rigid containers, corrugated packaging, and palletization systems
Experience with TOPS/CAPE software
Experience creating and managing specifications
Experience supporting packaging lines and conducting plant trials
Strong problem-solving, communication, and project management skills
Technical rigor and hands-on problem solving
Ability to manage multiple projects in a fast-paced manufacturing environment
Strong collaboration across technical and non-technical teams
Data-driven decision making with a continuous improvement mindset
Nice to Haves:
Experience with aseptic, shelf-stable beverage, or dry food packaging systems
Familiarity with sustainability frameworks and material reduction initiatives
Experience working in a regulated food manufacturing environment
Exposure to packaging automation and capital project support
Disclaimer:
This is a 1099 independent contractor position. As such, this role is not eligible for company-sponsored benefits, including health insurance, paid time off, or retirement plans. The contractor is responsible for managing their own tax withholdings, insurance coverage, and other obligations associated with independent contractor status.
Applicants must be authorized to work for ANY employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.
