Senior Director, NA Segment Packaging

Kenvue•Summit, NJ

1d•$242,250 - $342,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Director, North America Segment Packaging R&D leads the North America Segment Packaging R&D organization and is accountable for packaging strategy, development, and execution across the full North America portfolio. The role translates enterprise and global packaging priorities into an integrated segment strategy, delivers consumer-centric and commercially relevant packaging, and ensures disciplined execution across innovation, lifecycle management, business continuity, sustainability, regulatory, and cost/value programs. Working closely with Segment R&D, Marketing, Design, Supply Chain, Quality, Regulatory, Procurement, Manufacturing, and Global Packaging R&D, the leader sets priorities, deploys resources, applies global platforms and standards, and develops a high-performing organization. The role oversees packaging across Baby & Child Care; Women’s Health & Active Aging; Skin Health & Beauty; Self Care; and Family Care & Professional. The position is based in Summit, New Jersey / Neenah, Wisconsin, with a hybrid work location, and reports to the Global VP of Packaging.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Packaging Technology, Packaging Science, Engineering, Materials Science, or a related technical field; a master’s degree is preferred.
12+ years of progressively responsible Packaging R&D, engineering, and innovation experience, with significant experience across multiple consumer product categories and complex portfolios.
5+ years of senior people leadership experience, including leadership of leaders and geographically or functionally dispersed teams.
Demonstrated experience leading packaging development, commercialization, and lifecycle execution in a complex, matrixed consumer products environment.
Strong business and financial acumen, with demonstrated ability to translate technical decisions into portfolio, cost, growth, and risk implications.
Proficiency in English.
Deep technical knowledge of packaging materials, specifications, testing, design/artwork interfaces, manufacturing technologies, and scale-up.
Strong portfolio and project leadership, including prioritization across competing business needs and resource constraints.
Ability to balance local/segment needs with global platform reuse, sustainability priorities, and cost/value trade-offs.
Advanced cross-functional stakeholder management and influencing skills, including senior business and technical leadership.
Demonstrated change leadership, organization development, and talent development capability.
Strong external orientation and ability to build productive supplier and technology partnerships.
Ability to operate effectively in a multicultural, highly matrixed organization with a strong sense of ownership and accountability.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in Packaging Technology, Packaging Science, Engineering, Materials Science, or a related technical field.
Additional language capability for roles spanning multiple markets.

Responsibilities

Define and execute an integrated North America Packaging R&D strategy aligned with enterprise, global packaging, and sector strategies.
Own segment and sector packaging priorities across innovation, lifecycle management, business continuity, regulatory compliance, sustainability, and productivity.
Translate consumer, customer, channel, and market needs into packaging briefs, technical requirements, and launch-ready solutions, including e-commerce and omnichannel readiness where relevant.
Lead end-to-end packaging development and commercialization from concept through design, prototyping, testing, specification, qualification, scale-up, and launch.
Drive right-first-time execution, speed-to-market, and technical transfer through clear governance, risk management, and decision-making.
Partner with Manufacturing and Supply Chain to ensure packaging readiness, manufacturability, quality, resilience, and crisis/business-continuity response.
Apply and adapt global packaging platforms, standards, specifications, and test methods to segment requirements while minimizing unnecessary variation.
Clarify handoffs with global packaging platforms, innovation, sustainability, and operations teams to reduce duplication and accelerate reuse.
Enable cross-sector leverage of technologies, materials, suppliers, specifications, and capabilities.
Drive design-to-value, value engineering, and packaging cost optimization while protecting consumer experience, quality, regulatory compliance, and brand equity.
Deliver sustainable packaging priorities, including material reduction, recyclability, circularity, and carbon-footprint improvement in alignment with enterprise commitments.
Balance value, performance, supply resilience, and sustainability trade-offs using fact-based technical and business judgment.
Build, lead, and develop a high-performing Packaging R&D organization with clear accountability, strong technical depth, and an inclusive culture.
Develop talent, succession plans, and future-ready capabilities in packaging materials, digital tools, data and analytics, sustainability, and emerging technologies.
Deploy internal, external, and partner capacity dynamically against the highest-value portfolio priorities.
Partner across Product R&D, Marketing, Design, Supply Chain, Quality, Regulatory, Procurement, and Manufacturing to ensure end-to-end packaging readiness.
Build strategic relationships with packaging suppliers, technology providers, design partners, academia, and external innovation ecosystems.
Represent Segment Packaging R&D in business and technical governance, translating technical choices into business impact, risks, and opportunities.
Advance adoption of digital-first development, modeling, simulation, data analytics, and knowledge-management tools to improve speed and decision quality.
Establish and track KPIs across launch delivery, right-first-time execution, cost/value, sustainability, quality, issue resolution, and innovation impact.
Use portfolio data to improve prioritization, capacity decisions, performance transparency, and continuous improvement.
Prioritize segment Packaging R&D resources and investments within agreed financial guardrails.
Deliver productivity and value commitments through disciplined portfolio choices, design-to-value, and effective external spend management.
Ensure appropriate technical governance, compliance, and risk management across the packaging portfolio.