Director Global Packaging Development - Jo Malone London
Estée Lauder Companies · London
Description
The Director leads a team of Packaging Development professionals while establishing technical direction, portfolio priorities, organisational capability and resource strategies that enable successful commercialisation across the Jo Malone London brand. This role will be responsible for, creating an enviroment where innovation, technical excellence, collaboration and continuous improvement become organisational strengths rather than individual accomplishments. The role will partner closely with Brand Leadership, Marketing, Design, Product Development, R&I, Brand Value Chain (BVC), Global Supplier Management (GSM), Manufacturing, Quality, Regulatory, Sustainability, Material Science, Package Testing, and supplier partners to align Packaging Development strategy with category objectives.
Brand & Business Leadership
- Lead Packaging Development across assigned global brand(s) and/or categories, ensuring alignment of packaging strategy, innovation, commercialisation, sustainability and brand equity objectives.
- Develop packaging strategies that support category growth, innovation, commercialization, and long-term brand equity.
- Act as the senior technical guardian of brand packaging execution, ensuring creative intent, luxury standards, consumer experience and global consistency are translated into robust, manufacturable solutions.
- Align Packaging Development priorities with business objectives, consumer expectations, sustainability commitments, manufacturing capability, and financial performance.
- Partner closely with R&I on new product forms and innovations as well as the Packaging Inspiration lab to assist in thought provoking sessions for new packaging concepts and designs.
- Serve as the senior Packaging Development representative within category leadership discussions.
- Balance innovation, quality, manufacturability, speed to market, investment, sustainability, and total cost of ownership across the category portfolio.
- Establish Packaging Development priorities that maximize business value and organizational effectiveness.
Innovation & Technical Strategy
- Develop category packaging innovation roadmaps in partnership with Brand Leadership, Design, Product Development, R&I, and suppliers.
- Promote simultaneous product and package development to reduce commercialization timelines while protecting brand identity.
- Guide strategic decisions regarding materials, manufacturing platforms, dispensing technologies, sustainability, refillability, supplier capabilities, and commercialization strategies.
- Encourage innovation that strengthens consumer experience while improving operational efficiency and business performance.
- Utilize AI-enabled technologies to improve innovation evaluation, competitive benchmarking, technical research, strategic planning, portfolio visibility, and executive decision support.
- Build strong partnerships with Packaging Innovation and R&I organizations to accelerate new technology adoption.
Digital & AI Leadership
- Drive effective adoption of ELC digital platforms and responsible AI-enabled tools to improve portfolio visibility, technical workflows, knowledge management, decision quality and organisational productivity.
- Establish proportionate, responsible AI-enabled ways of working where they add clear business or technical value.
- Lead responsible adoption of AI that improves organisational productivity while maintaining engineering rigour and appropriate governance.
- Develop team capability through AI education, coaching, and best-practice sharing.
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Category & Portfolio Leadership
- Balance organizational resources across brands, innovation initiatives, business priorities, and commercialization requirements.
- Monitor portfolio health including technical risk, commercialization readiness, supplier performance, resource allocation, timing, quality, and investment.
- Lead organizational decision-making regarding project prioritization, staffing, and technical direction.
- Ensure Packaging Development teams consistently deliver projects that achieve quality, functionality, manufacturability, sustainability, regulatory compliance, and commercial objectives.
- Drive portfolio-level value engineering, simplification, platform strategies and cost optimisation. Remain accountable for value engineering opportunities, technical investment recommendations and packaging development expenditure within delegated authority, while influencing broader supplier commercial and cost strategies through cross-functional partnership.
Technical Excellence & Engineering Governance
- Ensure consistent application of Company engineering standards, PPWR expectations, sustainability objectives, technical governance, commercialization requirements, and quality expectations.
- Lead complex technical decision-making across multiple brands and programs.
- Remain actively engaged in the most complex, strategic or business-critical technical initiatives, providing direct expert guidance, technical governance and decision support while maintaining accountability through the broader Packaging Development organisation.
- Sponsor continuous improvement initiatives that improve engineering capability, portfolio performance, development speed, technical consistency, and supplier collaboration.
- Own continuous improvement of the Packaging Development operating model, including risk management, technical documentation, decision rights, project governance, cross-functional interfaces and lessons learned.
- Promote sharing of best practices across Packaging Development teams and technical communities.
- Strengthen engineering capability through investment in learning, technology, supplier partnerships, and organizational development.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Packaging Science
- Experience in Packaging Engineering
- Mechanical Engineering
- Industrial Design, Materials Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
- 10-12 years minimum of Experience
- Ability to lead and develop team
- Commercial planning