Packaging Engineer

Who We Are

The Farmer’s Dog was born from a mission to change the landscape of pet health, providing dogs and their humans with honest, smart, and simple care. We’re starting by radically improving the $90 billion pet food industry, replacing bags of highly-processed pellets with a personalized subscription service that sends complete and balanced, freshly-made dog food directly to customers’ doors. Our ultimate goal is to create innovative, delightful and personalized experiences across all aspects of pet care, and we believe our direct-to-consumer business model, holistic approach to growth, and dynamic culture uniquely position us to shepherd this backwards industry into the future.
To date, The Farmer’s Dog has delivered over 1 billion meals nationwide and raised over $150M in funding to help us build a company as healthy as the dogs who are eating those meals. Join us as we continue to develop ways of bringing peace of mind to customers, health to their companions, and much-needed change to the way people feed and care for their pets.

#LongLiveDogs

What We Stand For and Where You’ll Come In

The Packaging Engineer will be responsible for the design, development, and implementation of innovative and sustainable packaging solutions for fresh human-graded dog food products. This role requires a deep understanding of packaging technologies, materials, and processes to ensure product freshness, safety, and convenience. This role will collaborate with cross-functional teams to enhance packaging performance, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness.

One Team: We don’t think of ourselves as “Acquisition Marketers”, “Engineers”, “Data Analysts”, or “Product Managers”. Beyond denoting skill sets and areas of expertise, we don’t think departments matter. We’d rather align ourselves to the goals we’re working to achieve and make sure we have necessary subject matter expertise to drive meaningful impact. We strive to orient ourselves around customer problems TOGETHER – getting the right people, with the right context, in the right rooms/Zooms to solve problems holistically.

We are skeptical about everything and precious about nothing:  Ideas can and should come from anywhere, and we aren’t tied to our own. We proactively source input. We talk to our customers and leads regularly and are quick to change course if we know there’s a better or more impactful way to solve problems.

We consider the customer journey in all of our decisions:  We know that no interaction exists in a silo and therefore understand how important every single one is.  We ensure our strategy sets prospective and new customers up for success and drives long-term retention.  We answer questions and address problems early and proactively.  We understand the value of different channels, initiatives, and messages and know how to articulate impact and advocate for prioritization holistically.

We Execute For Impact: We don’t subscribe to “best practices” or “industry KPIs”. We’re uninterested in how we compare to “benchmarks”; instead we orient ourselves around being the best we can possibly be. Similarly, we don’t subscribe to rigid or classical expectations of roles – i.e. acquisition is hyper-focused on improving customer retention and experience.

We Are Focused and Work Without Assumption: We are not beholden to ideas. We have goals and believe everything beyond that is a series of hypotheses to validate. To that end, we seek to work in sequence and not in parallel. We constantly ask ourselves, “what’s the most important hypothesis I should be working on right now? How do I confirm or reject that hypothesis as fast as possible?”. We rarely have timelines/deadlines and are constantly taking in new information and adjusting our priorities accordingly. We don’t expect to be perfect the first time.

How You'll Make An Impact

• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams including Growth, Product Development, Design, Quality Assurance, Operations, and external vendors to support the development of innovative packaging for both new and existing products.
• Support and contribute to packaging direction by preparing and presenting clear design recommendations, while aligning with key stakeholders on project goals and timelines.
• Participate in cross-functional commercialization efforts from concept through launch by researching and assisting in the development of packaging solutions that meet product and consumer needs.
• Assist in designing packaging that ensures freshness, food safety, regulatory compliance, and convenience, particularly for fresh pet food applications.
• Help develop test protocols and conduct packaging trials to validate performance, durability, and compliance with internal and regulatory standards.
• Coordinate with internal partners and external suppliers to help keep packaging projects on track and aligned with key milestones.
• Seek opportunities to enhance packaging materials and processes for improved sustainability, performance, and production efficiency.
• Contribute to cost optimization efforts by identifying opportunities for savings at the component level and in packaging-related processes.
• Build relationships within internal and external packaging networks to support the delivery of solutions that align with brand, product, and consumer needs.
• Apply Lean Six Sigma principles and other continuous improvement tools to streamline packaging operations and increase overall efficiency.
• Foster open communication and collaboration across teams to help solve packaging challenges and encourage innovation.
• Assist in implementing sustainable packaging solutions that reduce environmental impact and support company-wide sustainability targets.
• Maintain thorough records of packaging designs, test outcomes, and project updates to support traceability and knowledge sharing.
• Support the preparation and delivery of technical documentation, findings, and packaging recommendations to leadership and stakeholders.
• Up to 30-50% domestic travel, or on an as needed basis will be required for this role.

We're Excited About You Because

• Have a Bachelor’s degree in Packaging Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Design, or a related field.
• Have at least 3+ years of experience in packaging engineering, preferably in the food industry.
• Have strong technical and analytical skills.
• Are proficient in CAD software and packaging design tools.
• Are an excellent problem-solver with a desire to solve big problems.
• Bring with you strong project management and organizational skills.
• Have strong and continuously developing knowledge of packaging materials, manufacturing processes, and sustainability practices, particularly in food packaging
• Have experience working in the grey space for new development, identifying risk areas and new procedures to reduce risk.
• Have experience developing, running, and supporting manufacturing projects and trials to build upon.
• You're a skilled communicator and have the ability to absorb and distill complexity into simple terms to drive decision making.
• You are able to thrive in a fast-paced and ambiguous environment, naturally curious and proactive self-starter, constantly on the lookout for new opportunities and solutions.
• Lead by example and have a “no task is ever too big or too small for us to all work together and contribute for the collective good” mentality.
• Champion the TFD mission, values and culture.

Office Guidelines

We are an in-office culture, made of in-office people who thrive on the collaboration and magnetism of working in a shared space. We are seeking individuals who excel in this type of environment, where being present fosters deeper connections and engagement.

Our Belonging Philosophy:

Our company’s mission is rooted in deep, genuine care for dogs – and for the people who love them. As an organization we are full of individuals who are unique in many ways, but all united in a mission of providing true peace of mind to dog lovers everywhere. Fixing this industry and improving the lives of pets and their people will be a difficult, decades-long endeavor. We believe the best use of our time, energy, and resources as a collective team is to focus on this mission, and on supporting our team to do their best work and be their best selves. In support of this we’re committed to hiring and supporting a diverse workforce, and investing in internal structures, opportunities, hiring/promotions processes, and training that create and sustain an inclusive team. We strive to provide an experience at TFD that will be invested, meaningful and memorable as we progress on the journey to reimagine how we feed and care for our pets.

A Few of Our Best Benefits

• Dog-friendly office in Greenwich Village
• Market-competitive compensation and equity packages
• Comprehensive Healthcare, Dental, and Vision
• Company supported mental health benefits
• 12 week paid parental leave
• Competitive 401k plan with company match
• Flexible PTO 
• Discounted fresh food for your pup
• Your pet interrupting video calls (and in-person meetings) is now a feature, not a bug

We commit to building a competitive compensation package and company environment for all individuals to thrive. We believe in competitive base compensation rooted in location specific market data and performance along with equity ownership in the company that allows every team member to build their personal wealth as the company grows, just as much as we believe in fostering a culture that supports our team members personally, professionally, and holistically. For this role the anticipated hiring base compensation range is $70,000 - $85,000 USD Annual and the compensation offered will include a robust market competitive package of base and equity. In addition to your base compensation offer you will also receive equity ownership in the company. More information about the value of this equity will be shared at the time of offer. This range is representative of NYC Market Data if you are applying to this role outside of the NYC area the range may change.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

The Farmer's Dog, Inc. is an equal employment opportunity employer and does not discriminate in hiring on the basis of sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, creed, national origin, physical or mental disability, protected veteran status or any other legally protected characteristic or status. For more information, please visit Know Your Rights.

Reasonable Accommodations

TFD complies with applicable federal, state, and local disability laws and makes reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities.  If a reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact [email protected].