Description
The Associate Fellow, Platform, Scale & Innovation Packaging is a senior technical leader responsible for identifying, developing, connecting, and scaling packaging technologies and capabilities that enable innovation across The Estée Lauder Companies.
Operating across brands, categories, suppliers, Research & Innovation (R&I), the Packaging Inspiration Lab, Technical Centers, and Manufacturing sites, this role connects consumer desire, emerging trends, technical capability, and enterprise scale to create packaging solutions that can be leveraged broadly across ELC.
The Associate Fellow serves as a technical authority and innovation catalyst, translating emerging consumer needs, technologies, supplier capabilities, and internal engineering expertise into product-and-package systems, packaging platforms, technology engines, menu/stock packaging solutions, and shared cross-brand capabilities.
A critical responsibility of this role is connecting innovation across the organization. The Associate Fellow maintains a strong understanding of technical work, equipment, engineering capability, pilots, trials, materials, manufacturing technologies, and emerging solutions within the Melville Technical Center and ELC manufacturing sites, identifying opportunities to connect these capabilities to current and future brand needs.
The role also champions new digital and AI-enabled ways of working, applying artificial intelligence to technical simulations, concept development, engineering problem-solving, knowledge management, and the automation or simplification of historically time-intensive packaging development activities.
Key Success Measures
Leadership Mindset
Connect. Invent. Scale.
Associate Fellows create impact through deep technical expertise, enterprise thinking, curiosity, and influence.
They look beyond individual brand programs to identify technologies and capabilities that can solve broader business needs. They connect consumer and market insights with R&I, Packaging Development, suppliers, engineering, manufacturing, and technical capabilities to accelerate the development of meaningful packaging innovation.
They are recognized as technical thought leaders who anticipate where packaging is going, identify opportunities before they become immediate business needs, and translate emerging capabilities into practical solutions that can be commercialized and scaled across ELC.
Their success is measured not simply by the programs they support, but by the technologies, platforms, systems, capabilities, and new ways of working they create and enable for the broader organization.
Consumer-Led Innovation & R&I Partnership
The Associate Fellow closely partners with Research & Innovation and the Packaging Inspiration Lab to translate consumer desires, emerging behaviors, cultural trends, product innovation, and marketplace shifts into differentiated packaging opportunities.
• Partner closely with R&I and the Packaging Inspiration Lab to identify emerging consumer needs and translate them into innovative product-and-package systems.
• Explore packaging not as an isolated component, but as part of the complete product + formula + delivery system + consumer experience.
• Connect consumer insights, emerging trends, competitive activity, materials, formats, dispensing technologies, application experiences, and product science to inspire new packaging solutions.
• Collaborate with R&I, Product Development, Design, Packaging Development, Marketing, Consumer Insights, and other partners to translate early-stage ideas into technically viable concepts.
• Identify emerging technologies and packaging experiences that may create future opportunities across prestige beauty categories.
• Assist in building a forward-looking pipeline of packaging concepts, technologies, and systems that can support future brand innovation.
• Bring external inspiration into ELC while connecting it to internal technical capabilities and business opportunities.
Packaging Platforms, Technology Engines & Scale
The Associate Fellow develops packaging technologies and platforms that can be leveraged across brands and categories to improve innovation capability, scale, efficiency, and speed to market.
• Develop and advance packaging technology engines that create reusable technical foundations for future product launches.
• Identify opportunities to create shared packaging solutions across brands, while allowing appropriate differentiation in design, decoration, materials, consumer experience, and brand expression.
• Evolve ELC menu and stock packaging solutions that provide brands with technically proven, commercially viable options for accelerated development.
• Establish scalable packaging architectures that can support multiple brands, categories, product forms, fill volumes, markets, or manufacturing locations.
• Identify opportunities to leverage common components, technologies, tooling strategies, manufacturing processes, and engineering knowledge across the enterprise.
• Create technical frameworks that allow Packaging Development teams to start from proven solutions rather than repeatedly developing similar technologies from the ground up.
• Balance platform scale with consumer experience, aesthetics, sustainability, technical performance, manufacturability, cost, and brand equity.
• Partner with Brand Packaging teams to transition platform technologies into brand-specific applications and commercial programs.
• Maintain a pipeline of scalable technologies at varying levels of technical readiness to support both immediate and future business needs.
Technical Solutions & Engineering Leadership
The Associate Fellow serves as a senior technical resource for packaging engineering within their area of expertise and category responsibility.
• Support Packaging Development teams in solving complex technical and engineering challenges.
• Provide technical consultation on packaging architecture, materials, dispensing systems, component design, manufacturing technologies, assembly, decoration, testing, and commercialization.
• Lead or support advanced technical investigations where traditional development approaches have not produced an effective solution.
• Apply engineering principles, modeling, simulation, prototyping, testing, and experimentation to accelerate technical learning and decision-making.
• Identify opportunities to simplify packaging systems while improving robustness, consumer experience, manufacturability, sustainability, cost, and speed.
• Partner with Package Testing, Material Science, Quality, Manufacturing, R&I, suppliers, and other technical experts to develop and validate solutions.
• Develop technical knowledge, methodologies, design principles, and engineering guidance that can be leveraged by Packaging Development teams across ELC.
• Serve as a technical advisor and thought partner for high-complexity or high-value packaging initiatives.
Supplier-Led Innovation
The Associate Fellow builds strategic technical partnerships with suppliers to identify and accelerate external innovation into ELC brands.
• Partner with Global Supplier Management and key suppliers to develop a robust pipeline of supplier-led packaging innovation.
• Establish strong technical relationships with strategic suppliers, converters, equipment manufacturers, material innovators, startups, and technology partners.
• Maintain visibility to supplier technology roadmaps, new manufacturing capabilities, emerging materials, dispensing technologies, decoration processes, and packaging formats.
• Challenge suppliers to bring forward technologies and capabilities aligned with ELC consumer, category, sustainability, and business priorities.
• Evaluate supplier innovations for technical readiness, differentiation, scalability, intellectual property considerations, manufacturing feasibility, and potential cross-brand application.
• Connect promising supplier innovations with appropriate ELC brands, R&I teams, Packaging Development teams, and business opportunities.
• Where appropriate, collaborate with suppliers to further develop or customize technologies to create differentiated or proprietary ELC capabilities.
• In partnership with GSM, create mechanisms for sharing supplier innovation across the Packaging Development organization so opportunities are visible beyond individual brand teams.
Technical Center & Manufacturing Capability Connectivity
The Associate Fellow maintains broad visibility to technical work and capability across the Melville Technical Center and ELC manufacturing network.
• Maintain a strong understanding of current and emerging technical capabilities within the Melville Technical Center, including equipment, laboratories, pilot capabilities, prototyping, testing, engineering expertise, and ongoing technical initiatives.
• Develop strong connectivity with ELC manufacturing sites to understand existing and emerging filling, assembly, decoration, automation, processing, inspection, and packaging capabilities.
• Identify opportunities to connect underutilized or emerging internal capabilities with brand and category needs.
• Bring manufacturing knowledge upstream into innovation development so concepts are designed with scale and commercialization in mind.
• Connect technical experts across sites and functions when capabilities developed in one area could solve challenges elsewhere.
• Serve as a connector across Packaging Development, R&I, Engineering, Technical Centers, and Manufacturing to ensure valuable technical knowledge and capabilities are broadly leveraged.
AI, Simulation & Digital Engineering
The Associate Fellow actively explores and applies artificial intelligence and digital technologies to transform how packaging innovation and engineering work is performed.
• Apply AI-enabled tools to packaging simulations, engineering analysis, concept generation, technical research, benchmarking, and problem-solving.
• Explore AI-supported modeling and simulation to evaluate packaging concepts and engineering scenarios earlier in the development process.
• Utilize AI to accelerate the evaluation of design alternatives, materials, technical architectures, manufacturing approaches, and potential failure modes.
• Apply AI to technical documentation, specification analysis, data interpretation, knowledge retrieval, competitive analysis, supplier information, and engineering workflows.
• Establish responsible methods for applying AI while ensuring engineering judgment, technical validation, confidentiality, and data integrity remain central to decision-making.
• Share successful AI use cases, prompts, workflows, methodologies, and lessons learned across Packaging Development.
• Continually evaluate emerging AI technologies for their potential application to packaging engineering and innovation.
Technology Scouting & Future Capability
The Associate Fellow maintains a forward-looking view of technologies that may reshape packaging and prestige beauty.
• Scout emerging packaging materials, dispensing technologies, manufacturing processes, automation, digital technologies, smart packaging, decoration techniques, refill systems, and other relevant innovations.
• Monitor adjacent industries for technologies that could be adapted to beauty packaging.
• Assess technologies based on consumer relevance, technical feasibility, scalability, sustainability, cost, intellectual property, manufacturing readiness, and strategic value to ELC.
• Build prototypes, demonstrations, proof-of-concepts, or technical learning programs where appropriate to advance promising technologies.
• Create visibility to emerging capabilities so Brand Packaging teams can incorporate them into future innovation pipelines.
Cross-Functional Partnership & Technical Influence
The Associate Fellow influences the organization primarily through technical expertise, collaboration, and thought leadership rather than direct organizational authority.
• Build trusted partnerships across Packaging Development, R&I, Packaging Inspiration Lab, Design, Product Development, Marketing, Consumer Insights, Manufacturing, Engineering, Quality, Material Science, Package Testing, Sustainability, GSM, and suppliers.
• Translate complex technical concepts into clear opportunities, risks, and recommendations for both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Connect teams that may be solving similar problems independently and facilitate shared solutions.
• Influence technical and business decisions by balancing consumer desirability, technical feasibility, scalability, sustainability, investment, cost, and speed to market.
• Facilitate technical workshops, innovation sessions, supplier engagements, and cross-functional problem-solving.
• Act as a technical mentor and knowledge resource for Packaging Development professionals across the organization.
• Encourage experimentation, technical curiosity, knowledge sharing, and thoughtful risk-taking.
Qualifications
• Education/Certification: Minimum BS degree in Packaging Science or Engineering.
• Direct Experience: 7+ years' experience in cosmetic package development.
• Concentrated experience in prestige beauty industry with proven development experience in color, fragrance, skin care categories and Promotional areas.
• Proficiency in computer systems including Unique Package Definition Systems, MS Excel, Word, Outlook and Timeline management systems.
Independently Responsible For
• Technical exploration and development within assigned areas of expertise.
• Packaging technology and platform recommendations.
• Technical feasibility assessments.
• Engineering methodologies and technical recommendations.
• Technology scouting and evaluation.
• Technical knowledge development and sharing.
• AI-enabled packaging engineering use cases.
• Identification of opportunities for shared and scalable packaging solutions.
• Technical connectivity across suppliers, Technical Centers, Manufacturing, R&I, and Packaging Development.
Influences
• Packaging innovation strategy.
• R&I packaging opportunities.
• Category technology roadmaps.
• Supplier innovation pipelines.
• Manufacturing capability investments.
• Menu and stock packaging strategy.
• Shared cross-brand packaging platforms.
• Engineering standards and methodologies.
• Sustainability technology strategy.
• AI and digital engineering capability.
• Commercialization approaches for emerging technologies.
Escalates
• Significant technology investments.
• Enterprise-level manufacturing or equipment investments.
• Major intellectual property considerations.
• Significant technical or commercialization risks.
• Strategic supplier capability concerns.
• Technologies requiring substantial enterprise resources or cross-functional sponsorship.