Materials Engineer jobs in La Crosse, WI

City Brewing Company – Who We Are

With our roots in La Crosse, WI, we are proud to be North America’s largest co-packager of alcoholic beverages with four locations across the United States. Through our focuses on Safety throughout our facilities, Quality of products produced for our customers, Communication at all levels, Growth of not just our locations but also of our employees in their careers, and Performance with our ability to meet deadlines and goals for ourselves and our customers, we pride ourselves on the brand we have created and continue to grow.

Job Summary

As a Packaging Materials Engineer at City Brewery, you will provide Packaging Engineering support for packaging materials and continuous improvement initiatives. You will work closely with cross-functional teams to drive continuous improvement, troubleshoot issues, and implement best practices in our packaging operations. Ranging from packaging material development, packaging material specification creation and updating, packaging material line trials and qualification, packaging supplier visits, support investigation of new packaging innovation, and gross margin projects and support of capital project implementation. This position reports to the Vice President of Supply Chain.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Quality Assurance: Monitor, evaluate, and maintain the quality of all packaging materials, including bottles, cans, labels, and packaging equipment. Utilize data analysis techniques to identify trends, patterns, and anomalies related to packaging materials, supplier performance, and lead times.
• Root Cause Analysis: Work closely with sites to investigate and identify root causes of packaging defects, work on corrective and preventive actions, and implement solutions to prevent reoccurrence.
• Material Trial Qualification: Support of packaging material line trials, packaging material qualification and gross margin initiatives for cost saving opportunities. 
• New Package Format Requests: Work with plant engineering teams to investigate new processes/equipment to support new formats from business development.  This will include basic engineering, project management, and project execution.
• Supplier Collaboration: Collaborate with suppliers to ensure the quality and consistency of packaging materials, and establish strong relationships to address any quality issues. Develop supplier scorecards and performance improvement plans.
• Continuous Improvement: Continuously identify opportunities for process improvement to enhance the efficiency and quality of packaging operations. Lead or participate in cross-functional teams to implement lean manufacturing and Six Sigma principles to optimize packaging processes.
• Quality Control: Work with Quality group to develop standards and procedures to conduct quality control checks on finished products to ensure they meet established standards for appearance, integrity, and shelf life. 
• Training and Education: Train packaging and production personnel on quality standards, procedures, and best practices to maintain consistent quality.
• Documentation: Maintain accurate records of quality test results, inspections, and any non-conforming materials or processes. Generate reports and communicate findings to relevant teams.

Minimum Qualifications 

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Packaging, or related field
• 3-5 years experience in quality assurance and packaging within the consumer packaged goods space; beverage or brewing industry at high-speed canning/bottling operation, preferred
• Deep understanding of packaging in larger scale beverage packaging operations. Candidate must be hands-on and willing to get intimately involved in packaging operations and interaction with packaging materials
• Understanding of quality control and statistical analysis tools
• Excellent problem-solving and root cause analysis skills
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills
• Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment
• Detail-oriented and highly organized
• Capability of traveling between locations 33% of time

City Brewery is an Equal Opportunity Employer and all applicants will be considered without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran, or disability status.