Independent packaging engineering · United States
A packaging engineer on your team, not on your payroll.
Bring in 20 years of packaging engineering for a project, a launch, or a standing day each week. No headcount, no recruiting cycle, and nothing to sell you but the answer.
Two ways to work together
By the week, or by the deliverable.
Most packaging needs are one of two shapes. Either there is more work than the team can carry and it never stops, or there is one specific problem with a date on it.
Fractional engineering
A standing block of days each week, held for you. I work inside your systems, talk to your suppliers as part of your team, and write everything down so it survives the engagement. Priced by the week, with no minimum term.
Project engineering
One scoped problem, one written deliverable, one date. A package developed and specified, a damage investigation closed out, a cost-out study with the savings validated, or a second supplier qualified. Priced by the deliverable.
Services
What I am usually brought in to fix.
Fractional Packaging Engineer
Ongoing engineering bandwidth by the week — embedded in your team, on your systems, in your meetings.
Packaging Development and Specification
New packages taken from a concept to a released, buildable specification a supplier can quote against.
Packaging Cost Reduction
Cost taken out of the package and the freight bill, with the protection proven before the change ships.
Damage Reduction and Transit Testing
Damage diagnosed at the cause, then designed out and proven with a test protocol that matches your real route.
Supplier Qualification and Spec Control
Specifications you own, suppliers qualified against them, and a second source so price is a negotiation.
Specification Systems and PLM
Specification templates, part numbering, and change control built to survive a PLM or ERP migration.
Sustainable Packaging and EPR
Material reduction and plastic replacement that runs on the line, plus the specification data EPR reporting needs.
Why this is different
I have sat on both sides of the table.
Most packaging consultants come from one side. Brand-side engineers know what the specification is supposed to do but not what it costs a converter to hold. Supplier-side engineers know what the equipment can actually make but not why the brand asked for it.
I have done both. Packaging engineering inside consumer products companies, then technical leadership inside a folding carton converter — including running the national account relationship on the selling side. That is why a recommendation from me tends to come with the reason the supplier will resist it, and what it will take to get it made.
What independence actually buys you
- I do not sell materials, machinery, or containers, and I take no supplier commissions. The recommendation is the deliverable.
- No preferred supplier list, no referral fees, and no ownership interest in a converter.
- No percentage of savings, so no reason to prefer the change that books the biggest number.
- Every drawing, specification, and protocol produced is yours, in an editable format.
- When the answer is that your incumbent is already right, that is what the report says.
Industries
Where the experience is deepest.
Food, Beverage, and CPG
Retail and co-packed products, where the package has to survive the line, the pallet, the shelf, and the audit.
E-commerce and Distribution
Direct-to-consumer and marketplace shipping, where the carrier bills for air and the customer sees the box.
Personal Care and Household
Bottles, tubes, pumps, and dispensing, where the portfolio is wide and the consumer judges the closure.
How it works
Four steps, and the first one is free.
A 30-minute call
You describe the package, the line, or the failure. I tell you whether this is a problem I can solve, and roughly what it takes. No charge, and no obligation on either side.
A written scope
One page: the question being answered, the deliverable, the dates, and the fee. Fractional work is priced by the week; project work is priced by the deliverable.
The work
You get progress in the form you already use — drawings, specifications, trial reports, and supplier correspondence — rather than a slide deck at the end.
The handoff
Everything is written down so it survives without me: specifications, test data, supplier contacts, and the reasoning behind each decision.
Questions people ask first
What does a packaging engineering consultant do?
A packaging engineering consultant designs and qualifies the packaging that protects a product through distribution, and does it as an outside contractor rather than an employee. The work covers structural design, material selection, specifications, transit and compression testing, supplier qualification, and cost reduction — the technical side of packaging, as distinct from the graphic design an agency provides.
When should a company hire a packaging engineer instead of asking a supplier?
Whenever the right answer might be to buy less, buy differently, or buy from someone else. Supplier design support is genuinely capable and usually free, because its cost sits inside the price of the material, and that model works well until your interests and the supplier's diverge. An independent engineer has no material to sell and no commission at stake, so the recommendation is the whole deliverable.
How is a fractional packaging engineer different from a staffing agency placement?
With a fractional engagement, the person you spoke to is the person who does the work, starting within days and billed by the week with no minimum term. A staffing agency introduces a candidate you interview and then contract, typically for several months, with the agency taking a margin on the placement. Fractional fits continuous work that sits below a full-time role; a staffing placement fits a confirmed full-time need.
Do you work with small companies?
Yes. Small brands are often where a packaging engineer has the most leverage, because nothing has been engineered yet and the early decisions set the cost structure for years. A short scoped project is frequently enough to fix specifications, case count, and pallet pattern before volume makes those choices expensive to change.
Where are you located and do you travel?
The practice is based in Seminole, Florida and works with clients across the United States. Design, specification, supplier management, and test protocol work is done remotely. Line trials, plant audits, and failure investigations are done on site, because a damage problem cannot be diagnosed from photographs.
Next step
Tell me what is going wrong with the package.
Describe the packaging problem and I will tell you whether I can solve it.