Associate R&D Principal Packaging Engineer - E-Commerce Pet
General Mills · Minneapolis, MN
- Level
- Senior
- Team
- Manufacturing
- Base pay
- $111k–$166k
- Degree
- Required
- Experience asked
- 5+ years
- Industry
- Food & beverage
- Posted
- 30+ days ago
The role in 30 seconds
A senior manufacturing role at General Mills (food & beverage) in Minneapolis, MN.
- They ask for
- 5+ years · degree required
- Base pay
- $111k–$166k
- Day to day
- relocation help
Read from the posting. The full description is below.
From the plant jobs report · week of October 19, 2026
Manufacturing Engineer roles in Minnesota: typical posted base $101k–$155k. This one lists $111k–$166k.
Median of the low and high ends of 22 live postings that list pay, out of 37 manufacturing engineer openings in Minnesota, read from manufacturers' own careers sites.
Minnesota plant jobs report →Pay by team and state →What moves pay →
How this role compares
Against 36 other live manufacturing postings in Minnesota.
- Base pay
- About 20% above similar roles
- Experience asked
- Typical (5+ years)
Typical $89k–$141k, from 19 postings that list pay.
Similar roles usually ask 5+ years.
Skills these teams ask for most
- Tooling 46%
- Lean 41%
- Team leadership 38%
- New product launch 30%
- EHS / safety 27%
- Root cause 24%
✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention it.
Stands out: this posting asks for Union environment, which few similar roles mention. If you have it, lead with it.
At a glance
Pulled from the posting text. If it's not listed here, the posting didn't say.
How to get in at this plant
Five moves over a week or two. The first one takes ten minutes.
- 1
Pick 2–3 people on the Manufacturing team at General Mills
Engineers who joined in the last year or two reply the most. Use the team search on this page to find them.
- 2
Send a short, curious note
One real question about their work. No favors yet. Each person gets a different note, written for this role.
- 3
Turn a reply into a short call
Questions worth asking about this team:
- What does a normal week look like on your team?
- Is the work mostly new product launches or sustaining existing lines?
- How much time do you spend on the floor versus at a desk?
- How did you land the job? What stood out in your interviews?
- 4
Apply with someone vouching for you
If the call went well, ask whether they’d pass your résumé to the hiring manager. Send your résumé link, apply that day, and let them know.
- 5
Bring proof to the interview
One page of before-and-after numbers from projects you led: scrap, OEE, cycle time, cost. Plant managers hire on results.
This plant: General Mills in Minneapolis
1 other open role at this site.
- Pilot Plant Maintenance Electrician · Reliability · Technician
Full description from General MillsAs posted on their careers site.ShowHide
Key accountabilities
- ◆Develop a flexible technology framework through new digital ways of working across the entire Pet portfolio.
- ◆Act as a mentor to a high-performing team of packaging developers with diverse expertise across key materials, brands, and technical areas to deliver research and develop new products, cost savings, and core innovation plans and pipeline sufficiency
- ◆Support and activate a packaging strategy to unlock fewer and bigger end-to-end cost savings initiatives.
- ◆Drive key business initiatives to drive growth for our business in a variety of formats and business sectors, including e-commerce partnerships and non-traditional bag formats
- ◆Steer the activation of functional and business strategies by driving moments of truth levers, tapping into subject matter experts, external partners, and brand remarkability tools to drive a packaging growth agenda.
- ◆Advance a Circular Future through business management and collaboration with central technology resources on new packaging material technologies to drive the advancement of Global Responsibility commitments for packaging sustainability.
Qualifications
- ✓Bachelor's Degree in Packaging Engineering or other related degree fields
- ✓5 years of packaging experience working in CPG packaging or other relevant industry, with 3+ years working on e-commerce packaging.
- ✓Experience and technical acumen across a variety of packaging materials, including flexible films and thermal rigid plastics.
- ✓Demonstrated knowledge of business processes and ability to develop relationships with cross-functional partners.
- ✓Demonstrated strong people skills, strategic planning, and leadership skills
- ✓Desire to challenge assumptions, identify new opportunities, and create new ways of working & capabilities.
- ✓Effective communication skills to influence internal and external stakeholders
Preferred qualifications
- ✓Takes accountability to win, has a bias for action, and can deliver results through others.
- ✓Depth and experience in designing, qualifying, and commercializing dry pet food packaging across an array of size offerings for all channels.
- ✓Mentoring and coaching others for growth.
- ✓Experience in mentoring and developing other packaging engineers or team members.
- ✓Comfortable navigating ambiguity and organizational complexity.
- ✓Demonstrated strong agile leadership & ability to pivot quickly.
- ✓Exceptional multi-tasking, follow-up, and prioritization skills.
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Company overview
We exist to make food the world loves. But we do more than that. Our company is a place that prioritizes being a force for good, a place to expand learning, explore new perspectives and reimagine new possibilities, every day. We look for people who want to bring their best — bold thinkers with big hearts who challenge one another and grow together. Because becoming the undisputed leader in food means surrounding ourselves with people who are hungry for what’s next.
Job overview
General Mills is seeking an E-Commerce Packaging Engineer in their Pet Segment Operating Unit. This role will have Packaging R&D accountability for iconic brands, including BLUE Buffalo and EdgardCooper. You will serve as the direct Packaging R&D business interface across these key brands to deliver the current plan and partner on growth strategies, and build packaging capability to enable the future growth for Pet. This role will coordinate across a talented team of technical leaders, execute against innovation growth ideas, core renovation levers, and advance our digital transformation capabilities for our e-commerce channel.
This role will create and translate a Packaging modeling framework to help accelerate our flexible format across all of Pet with an emphasis on e-commerce. This responsibility spans across a large raw material cost of goods sold and requires strong activation and leadership to deliver against innovation and cost savings goals.
You will manage a portfolio of products through a complex manufacturing network, temperature states, and channels, providing opportunities to lead new ways of working with a variety of cross-functional partners.
Additional considerations
- •Applicants for this position must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis, and General Mills will not sponsor applicants for this position for work visas.
- •This role is open to relocation, and General Mills would provide relocation support if the selected candidate meets organizational standards, but international relocation and remote assignments will not be considered.
Eligibility
Applicants must meet a minimum 18-year age qualification.