Product Engineer, Home Fragrance

Job ID: 13764 

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Newell Brands is a leading consumer products company with a portfolio of iconic brands like Graco®, Coleman®, Oster®, Rubbermaid®, Sharpie® and Yankee Candle® - and 24,000 talented teammates around the world. Our culture is built on values in action: Integrity, Teamwork, Passion for Winning, Ownership, and Leadership. We work together to win, grow, and make a real impact—supported by a high-performing, inclusive, and collaborative environment where you can be your best, every day.

The Home Fragrance Product Engineer is responsible for leading the development, engineering, validation, and commercialization of innovative home fragrance products across candle, wax melt, liquid fragrance, and emerging delivery systems. This role blends material science, mechanical engineering, and consumer insights to deliver best‑in‑class performance, safety, and manufacturability. The Product Engineer serves as a technical expert throughout the product lifecycle—driving feasibility assessments, risk mitigation, design refinements, and scale-up readiness.

Responsibilities:

• Lead end‑to‑end technical development of new home fragrance products, components, and delivery systems.
• Translate consumer and marketing requirements into engineering specifications and performance criteria.
• Conduct material selection, component design, prototype development, and iterative testing.
• Partner with fragrance, packaging, quality, safety, and regulatory teams to ensure compliant and optimized formulas and structures.
• Develop and execute robust test plans, including performance, stability, safety, and reliability testing.
• Analyze data quantitatively to determine root cause of failures and drive corrective actions.
• Define and maintain engineering specifications, tolerances, and acceptance criteria across product lines.
• Lead DOE (Design of Experiments), DFMEA and PFEMA activities for optimization of wick systems, wax blends, diffusion rates, airflow dynamics, and vessel interactions.
• Collaborate with operations, suppliers, and contract manufacturers to ensure successful scale-up and mass production.
• Review and approve manufacturing drawings, tooling requirements, and process controls.
• Troubleshoot production issues and drive continuous improvement initiatives for yield, cost, and quality.
• Support PFMEA, process validation, and line trials.
• Work with Marketing, Consumer Insights, Procurement, and Program Management to deliver against project timelines and cost targets.
• Communicate technical risks, development progress, and mitigation strategies to leadership.
• Provide engineering input on claims, substantiation, and product positioning.
• Ensure products comply with global safety standards and industry regulations (IFRA, ASTM candle safety, CLP/GHS labeling, etc.).
• Partner with Safety and Quality on hazard assessments, burn testing, and risk analysis.
• Maintain documentation for design history files, specification repositories, and change management.
• Evaluate new technologies, materials, and processes that enhance performance, sustainability, or cost efficiency.
• Benchmark competitive products and emerging technologies in the home fragrance space.
• Drive IP creation in partnership with legal teams (patent disclosures, prior art reviews).
• Develop the analysis of how sub-assembly level decisions impact the overall business strategy to facilitate design-for-cost and uses results to influence product design.
• Assist in developing detailed project plans including cost, timing, and resource requirements.
• Recommend and present solutions and opportunities in forums to encourage ideation and technical sharing.
• Reviews relevant competitive products and patents to provide benchmarking and analysis of technical specifications.
• Applies Six Sigma and other statistical methodologies throughout the product development process to influence product design.
• Writes and maintains technical specifications and documentation for the development and implementation of new products
• Recommends tools and techniques for automating, simplifying, and enhancing product testing
• Supports material and component selection based on target requirements. Identifies key issues involved with different types of manufacturing materials
• Some travel may be required.

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Chemical, Materials Science, or related discipline).
• 2-4 years of product development—home fragrance, beauty, CPG, or adjacent fields preferred.
• Strong understanding of thermodynamics, material behavior, fluid dynamics, and/or combustion science.
• Hands-on experience with laboratory testing, prototyping, and data analysis.
• Ability to write detailed test protocols, reports, and engineering documentation.

Preferred:

• Experience in candles, air care, or fragrance technologies.
• Familiarity with fragrance interactions, wax systems, wicks, polymers, and diffusion mechanics.
• Experience working with domestic and international suppliers or contract manufacturers.
• Knowledge of statistical tools (Minitab, JMP), DOE, and Six Sigma methodologies.
• Comfort with CAD (SolidWorks, CREO) and rapid prototyping.

Key Competencies:

• Technical problem-solving
• Data-driven decision-making
• Project management & prioritization
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Attention to detail and documentation rigor
• Curiosity and innovation mindset
• Strong verbal and written communication

*The base pay range for this position is from $83K-$93K. Salary will be based on prior experience related to the skills required for this position.

Newell Brands (NASDAQ: NWL) is a leading global consumer goods company with a strong portfolio of well-known brands, including Rubbermaid, Sharpie, Graco, Coleman, Rubbermaid Commercial Products, Yankee Candle, Paper Mate, FoodSaver, Dymo, EXPO, Elmer’s, Oster, NUK, Spontex and Campingaz. We are focused on delighting consumers by lighting up everyday moments. Newell Brands and its subsidiaries are Equal Opportunity Employers and comply with applicable employment laws. EOE/M/F/Vet/Disabled are encouraged to apply.