Sr. Product Development Engineer

Your Job Georgia-Pacific is seeking a Senior Product Development Engineer for the Consumer Products Group R&D team. This role will provide technical leadership for Dixie® cutlery and related foodservice products across Retail and Professional channels. The position will support existing products, product and process improvements, material and supplier qualifications, and new product innovation. It is based at the Neenah Technical Center in Neenah, Wisconsin.

This opportunity is well suited for an experienced engineer who enjoys hands-on development work and collaboration across laboratories, manufacturing locations, suppliers, and business teams. The successful candidate will turn technical uncertainty into practical development plans and strengthen organizational capability through effective documentation and knowledge sharing.

Our Team You’ll be part of a multidisciplinary R&D team focused on paper cups and food service solutions for Retail and Professional channels. The team partners closely with product development, mill operations, converting, consumer research, suppliers and 3rd‑party manufacturers to mitigate technical risk, run pilot and mill trials, and move winning concepts from pilot to commercial scale.

What You Will Do

• Provide technical leadership for product development, commercialization, and lifecycle support for cutlery and related foodservice products.
• Apply plastics processing, product design, materials, tooling, and manufacturing knowledge to develop and improve products.
• Plan and execute experiments, prototypes, trials, and data analysis to guide technical decisions.
• Lead or support qualifications of products, materials, tools, suppliers, and manufacturing processes while balancing performance, quality, cost, and supply needs.
• Diagnose and resolve product, process, quality, and customer-use issues using structured problem solving and practical experimentation.
• Collaborate with business, innovation, sourcing, quality, operations, engineering, product stewardship, suppliers, and customers.
• Support the development of sustainable and regulatory-relevant product and material solutions.
• Maintain appropriate technical documentation, specifications, test methods, and development records.
• Share expertise and help build R&D capability through coaching and knowledge transfer.
• Travel as needed to support suppliers, manufacturing, customers, and commercialization activities.
• Work safely and effectively in laboratory, pilot, manufacturing, and supplier environments.

Who You Are (Basic Qualifications)

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Plastics Engineering, Polymer Engineering, Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, or a related discipline, with at least 7 years of relevant experience; or an equivalent combination of education and directly relevant experience.
• Hands-on experience with injection molding and thermoforming, including product development, tooling, materials, process optimization, troubleshooting, and commercial scale-up.
• Experience developing or commercializing high-volume consumer, foodservice, packaging, or molded products.
• Experience leading product, material, supplier, tooling, or manufacturing qualifications using clear test plans and acceptance criteria.
• Demonstrated ability to solve complex technical problems through data analysis, experimentation, root-cause analysis, and cross-functional implementation.
• Experience working directly with suppliers and manufacturing operations.
• Ability to communicate technical information clearly and influence decisions across technical and non-technical audiences.
• Willingness and ability to travel and work in laboratory and manufacturing environments.

What Will Put You Ahead

• 10+ years in R&D or manufacturing with demonstrated results in product development, qualification, commercialization, and scale-up.
• Advanced expertise in high-volume plastics processing, tooling, or molded product development.
• Experience with formed plastic products, packaging, or related foodservice components.
• Knowledge of conventional and sustainable polymer or alternative-material platforms.
• Experience developing products that interact with equipment, packaging, or dispensing systems.
• CAD, rapid prototyping, design for manufacturability, statistical experimentation, or dimensional analysis.
• Quality systems, specifications, test-method development, complaint investigation, or commercialization governance.
• Leadership across multiple projects, suppliers, technical disciplines, and business stakeholders.
• Coaching, mentoring, technical knowledge transfer, or supervision of engineers and technicians.
• Experience with product-lifecycle or project-documentation systems.

At Koch companies, we are entrepreneurs. This means we openly challenge the status quo, find new ways to create value and get rewarded for our individual contributions. Any compensation range provided for a role is an estimate determined by available market data. The actual amount may be higher or lower than the range provided considering each candidate's knowledge, skills, abilities, and geographic location. If you have questions, please speak to your recruiter about the flexibility and detail of our compensation philosophy. Hiring Philosophy All Koch companies value diversity of thought, perspectives, aptitudes, experiences, and backgrounds. We are Military Ready and Second Chance employers. Learn more about our hiring philosophy here.

Who We Are As a Koch company and a leading manufacturer of bath tissue, paper towels, paper-based packaging, cellulose, specialty fibers, building products and much more, Georgia-Pacific works to meet evolving needs of customers worldwide with quality products. In addition to the products we make, we operate one of the largest recycling businesses. Our more than 30,000 employees in over 150 locations are empowered to innovate every day –to make everyday products even better.

At Koch, employees are empowered to do what they do best to make life better. Learn how our business philosophy helps employees unleash their potential while creating value for themselves and the company.

Our Benefits Our goal is for each employee, and their families, to live fulfilling and healthy lives. We provide essential resources and support to build and maintain physical, financial, and emotional strength - focusing on overall wellbeing so you can focus on what matters most. Our benefits plan includes - medical, dental, vision, flexible spending and health savings accounts, life insurance, ADD, disability, retirement, paid vacation/time off, educational assistance, and may also include infertility assistance, paid parental leave and adoption assistance. Specific eligibility criteria is set by the applicable Summary Plan Description, policy or guideline and benefits may vary by geographic region. If you have questions on what benefits apply to you, please speak to your recruiter.

Additionally, everyone has individual work and personal needs. We seek to enable the best work environment that helps you and the business work together to produce superior results.

Equal Opportunities Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability and protected veteran status. Except where prohibited by state law, some offers of employment are conditioned upon successfully passing a drug test. This employer uses E-Verify. Please click here for additional information. (For Illinois E-Verify information click here, aquí, or tu).