Senior Director – Design Engineering & Materials Family Care

Senior Director – Design Engineering & Materials Family Care

Job Description

About Us

Cottonelle®. Scott®. Kleenex®. Kotex®. Poise®. Huggies®. Depend®. Kimberly-Clark Professional®. You already know our legendary brands—and so does the rest of the world. In fact, millions of people use Kimberly-Clark products every day. We know these amazing Kimberly-Clark products wouldn’t exist without talented professionals, like you.

At Kimberly-Clark, you’ll be part of the best team committed to driving innovation, growth and impact. We’re founded on more than 150 years of market leadership, and we’re always looking for new and better ways to perform – so there’s your open door of opportunity. It’s all here for you at Kimberly-Clark.

What You’ll Do (Role Purpose)

• Lead the Materials and Design Engineering team to deliver innovative materials, equipment/machine, process, packaging and technology solutions. This role provides leadership for delivering disruptive and transformational technology platforms for the Family Care and Professional businesses.
• The incumbent is accountable for driving ongoing improvements in breakthrough engineering, process technologies, and materials innovation to drive accelerated business growth. To be successful in this role, the leader will manage a team of 70+ Process, Materials, Machine Innovation, and Product Design experts.
• Additionally, this role will focus on developing external partnerships, particularly with 2nd tier suppliers, and will partner closely with R&E peers to seamlessly transfer validated new technologies to their development teams.
• This leader will build a strong management team and also collaborate closely with cross-functional peers managing Central Research, Global R&E Teams, Supply Chain, and Regional and Global Procurement teams. 

The Impact You can Make

• Design and Materials Engineering: Develop and execute strategies for materials, equipment/machine, process, packaging and new or emerging technology solutions.
• Leadership: Build and lead a high-performing team of engineers and scientists. Provide ongoing coaching and feedback, and create opportunities for growth and development.  Manage a team of 70+ Process, Materials, Machine Innovation, and Product Design experts.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborate with R&E leadership, product developers, and cross-functional teams to align on goals and drive initiatives.
• Technology Integration: Ensure the integration of new materials and technologies into product development processes.  Maintain and build our scientific competitive advantage in fabrics, tissue manufacturing platforms, chemistry and treatments.
• First-of-a-Kind Asset Design: Lead the design, development, and deployment of first-of-a-kind assets to drive innovation and business growth.  Deliver programs in 2025-2027 summing >$100M in capital.
• Long-Term Innovation: Develop and guide long-term innovation pipeline opportunities, focusing on a 3+ year horizon.  Build strategy for next generation tissue manufacturing to support growth agenda.
• Pipeline and Technology Integration: Ensure connectivity between materials and design engineering initiatives and long-term technology development teams and corporate research initiatives.
• External Partnerships: Develop and strengthen partnerships with preferred suppliers and 2nd tier suppliers to enhance innovation capabilities.
• Capital Team Collaboration: Partner with global and KCNA capital teams to ensure alignment and successful execution of engineering projects.
• Culture of Innovation: Foster a culture of open and end-to-end innovation across the organization, introducing new ways of working. Build a culture of bringing the outside in, speed/agility, and experimentation.
• Technical Expertise: Maintain technical and scientific expertise in relevant areas and communicate the impact of developments on Kimberly-Clark. Implement strategies to protect novel technology solutions to sustain identified advantages in the market.
• Safety and Compliance: Maintain best practices for engineering design that leads to leading edge safety and compliance for technology solutions.

About You:

You’re driven to perform at the highest level possible, and you appreciate a performance culture fueled by authentic caring.  You want to be part of a company actively dedicated to sustainability, inclusion, wellbeing, and career development.

Experiences We’re Looking For

• Bachelor’s Degree
• Minimum of 15 years of R&D/R&E experience, with at least 10 years management experience
• Proven experience building an innova