At Royal Lactalis Leerdammer, we make cheese: Leerdammer and more! We do this with over 440 colleagues spread across three locations in the Netherlands. Behind Royal Lactalis Leerdammer is the largest dairy company in the world: Groupe Lactalis, with 85,500 employees and 270 production sites in 52 countries.

At Royal Lactalis Leerdammer, we love being good at what we do, but we enjoy even more finding ways to become more efficient, safer, higher quality or more sustainable. For our customers and consumers, but also for ourselves. If you work at Royal Lactalis Leerdammer, you can also be sure that you will be able to develop yourself. You do this by showing what you can do and by discussing your development wishes. We are currently looking for a Development Engineer Packing for our location in Schoonrewoerd, where we both produce and package cheese.

Function

As a Packaging Development Engineer at Royal Lactalis Leerdammer, you will work in the R&D team alongside Cheese Technologists, other Packaging Engineers and colleagues from our Pilot Plant. As a single team, we innovate and improve our Leerdammer products and their packaging. However, R&D is not an island within Leerdammer: we work closely with (international) colleagues from Marketing, Quality and Finance, among others, but also with our factories where the cheese is produced and packaged, thus at all levels within the organisation.

In this role, you will be one of our packaging specialists. With your knowledge and hands-on mentality, you will supervise projects in the field of packaging design, material selection and machine deployment. Examples include adapting packaging to meet recycling requirements, developing a new cheese ripening bag together with a supplier, or creating a completely new packaging concept for one of our Leerdammer products. Thanks to your national and international contacts, you will be involved in projects at an early stage. You will research ideas, carry out tests and report back on results, actively contributing to innovation. Expect to have several projects running at the same time, where your helicopter view will come in handy.

What will you do?

• Developing and improving packaging concepts, materials and processes;
• Conducting tests in our own packaging laboratory and at external laboratories to validate processability and specifications;
• Supporting production sites and ensuring the smooth implementation of new packaging, or resolving packaging issues;
• Maintaining active contact with internal stakeholders (Production, Supply Chain, Marketing) and external partners such as suppliers and subcontractors;
• Ensuring that all packaging solutions comply with current European legislation and acting as a sparring partner for all parties involved;
• Actively contributing ideas about sustainable and innovative packaging for the future.

Your profile

To be suitable for this position, you should have the following:

• Higher professional education (HBO) or university education (WO) in Packaging, Food Technology, Industrial Engineering or similar, with at least 4 years of experience.
• Preferably in FMCG and/or the food sector;
• Experience with packaging development and knowledge of materials, machines and processes;
• Strong communication skills, results-oriented and hands-on approach;
• You are able to analyse and interpret results and report and present them clearly;
• You have strong project management skills, are results-oriented and ensure that packaging projects are launched on time and with the right quality;
• Good command of English; Dutch and additional languages are a plus;
• You are aware of current (European) legislation on packaging and are a serious sparring partner for all parties involved in the development of packaging.

What we offer

• Collaboration with experts within a multidisciplinary R&D team, with room for your own ideas and innovation;
• The opportunity to work as a project leader or team member in projects with both strategic and operational partners;
• A working environment where you are challenged to innovate and experiment; just do it!
• The advantages of an international parent company;
• A competitive salary including bonus and good secondary employment conditions, including hybrid working (in consultation with your colleagues), 256 holiday hours (for full-time employment), non-contributory pension, end-of-year bonus.