Corporate Estimating Manager - Printed Packaging

Opportunity Profile

Location: Remote, United States

Position Title: Estimating Manager, Enterprise Projects & Strategy

The Opportunity:

This is a unique opportunity to move beyond a traditional plant, regional, or site-level estimating role and step into a position that influences the direction of estimating strategy across an entire North American packaging organization.

Reporting directly to enterprise estimating leadership, this individual will serve as a trusted partner and right hand to the leader of the estimating organization, helping drive critical initiatives that often struggle to gain momentum amid the demands of day-to-day operations. Rather than being tied to a specific region or facility, the successful candidate will operate at the enterprise level, leading initiatives that impact estimating performance, operational alignment, equipment standardization, reporting visibility, training development, acquisition integration, and large-scale commercial opportunities.

The role offers a rare combination of analytical responsibility, project leadership, and organizational influence. One day may involve coordinating a complex multi-site RFQ with commercial and finance leadership, while another may focus on developing KPI reporting tools, implementing new estimating standards, or facilitating collaboration between operations, supply chain, customer service, and plant leadership.

Success in this position will be measured by the ability to create meaningful improvements across the enterprise. Early wins may come through enhancing reporting tools, improving project coordination, and assuming ownership of significant bid opportunities. Longer-term accomplishments will include helping standardize estimating practices, improving enterprise visibility, supporting acquisition integration efforts, and establishing processes that can scale as the organization continues to grow.

For an estimating professional who has mastered the technical side of the function and wants broader exposure, increased strategic impact, and a pathway toward senior leadership responsibilities, this position represents a significant career advancement opportunity. Leadership views this role as a position with considerable long-term growth potential and possible succession opportunities within the enterprise estimating organization.

The Company:

Our client is a leading North American provider of label and packaging solutions serving regulated, consumer, industrial, healthcare, pharmaceutical, medical device, retail, and commercial markets. The organization operates an extensive manufacturing network across the United States and has built a broad portfolio that includes pressure-sensitive labels, flexible packaging, folding cartons, inserts, commercial print, and specialized engineered print solutions.

What makes the organization particularly compelling is its current stage of evolution. Having grown significantly through acquisitions, the company is now focused on integrating its manufacturing network through shared systems, common operating standards, stronger data visibility, and greater collaboration across facilities.

This transformation creates a significant opportunity for employees who want to influence enterprise-level change. Major corporate priorities include improving KPI visibility, aligning equipment and estimating practices, strengthening regional leadership, developing repeatable acquisition-integration processes, and creating common training resources across the organization.

The company combines the scale and resources of a large national platform with the technical expertise and customer intimacy of local operations. Employees have the opportunity to work across functions, broaden their business exposure, and contribute to initiatives that directly impact the company's next phase of growth.

The Boss:

The Estimating Manager will report directly to the enterprise leader responsible for estimating across all company facilities.

Her leadership philosophy is centered on collaboration, support, continuous improvement, and building enterprise-wide capabilities. She describes the organization as highly team-oriented and emphasizes creating an environment where employees are supported, challenged, and given opportunities to grow professionally.

This manager is looking for a true partner who can help advance critical strategic initiatives while bringing structure, analytical thinking, and project leadership to enterprise priorities. She values professionals who can view challenges from multiple perspectives, understand the needs of different functions, and effectively influence stakeholders across sales, operations, finance, supply chain, and customer service.

Importantly, she views this role as more than an individual contributor position. She believes the scope, visibility, and exposure associated with this opportunity can prepare the right individual for significantly broader leadership responsibilities over time, including potential succession into senior estimating leadership.

The Position:

The Estimating Manager, Enterprise Projects & Strategy will serve as a strategic resource focused on driving consistency, visibility, and continuous improvement across the estimating organization. Unlike regional managers who focus on local facilities and personnel management, this role operates across the enterprise, leading initiatives that create value at the organizational level.

The position combines project leadership, advanced data analysis, cross-functional collaboration, and commercial support responsibilities. The successful candidate will coordinate initiatives involving operations, sales, finance, estimating, supply chain, customer service, and plant leadership while helping the organization standardize processes and improve decision-making capabilities.

Essential Functions (Other duties may be assigned):

• Lead multiple enterprise estimating and pricing projects simultaneously.
• Coordinate complex RFQs, bid packages, and commercial opportunities.
• Analyze data from multiple ERP and estimating systems and develop actionable business recommendations.
• Develop and enhance KPI reporting and analytical tools.
• Standardize estimating processes, equipment assumptions, and reporting methodologies.
• Support enterprise equipment and asset standardization initiatives.
• Create training materials, implementation tools, and operational resources.
• Assist with acquisition integration and enterprise process alignment.
• Establish project plans, communication routines, milestones, and accountability measures.
• Facilitate cross-functional meetings and manage project execution.
• Represent the estimating function in enterprise initiatives.
• Partner closely with regional estimating managers and key business stakeholders.
• Travel to company facilities as needed for implementation, training, collaboration, and operational understanding.

Qualifications:

• Strong estimating, pricing, cost analysis, or related manufacturing experience.
• Demonstrated analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel proficiency.
• Experience managing multiple, concurrent projects.
• Ability to influence stakeholders across a matrixed organization.
• Strong communication, presentation, and meeting facilitation skills.
• Sound commercial and operational judgment.
• Ability to collaborate effectively across multiple business functions.
• Ability to work successfully in a remote environment while maintaining strong relationships across numerous facilities and stakeholders.

Education and Experience:

• Professional experience in estimating, pricing, cost analysis, or related functions within labels, packaging, printing, or manufacturing.
• Experience within pressure-sensitive labels is highly desirable.
• Exposure to flexible packaging, folding cartons, commercial print, or related packaging sectors is beneficial.
• Experience leading complex RFQs, pricing projects, or enterprise initiatives is preferred.
• Experience building dashboards, KPI reporting, or business analytics tools is advantageous.
• Familiarity with Radius, Label Traxx, CERM, PACE, or comparable ERP platforms is preferred.
• Bachelor's degree in business, finance, engineering, operations, supply chain, analytics, or a related field is preferred.

Work Environment:

This is a remote, home-based position located within the United States. Preferred candidate locations include the Chicago and Dallas markets; however, exceptional candidates elsewhere in the country will be considered. The role requires periodic travel to manufacturing locations and corporate meetings, generally averaging approximately 25% travel, with somewhat heavier travel expected during onboarding and relationship-building activities.

The environment is highly collaborative and cross-functional. Team members regularly interact with sales, finance, operations, supply chain, customer service, pricing, and plant leadership. The ideal candidate thrives in an environment that values data-driven decision making, teamwork, continuous improvement, and enterprise-wide collaboration.

Compensation:

Our client offers a highly competitive compensation package that includes base salary, performance-based incentive opportunity, and a comprehensive benefits program. The organization seeks to attract high-caliber professionals by offering meaningful responsibility, enterprise-level visibility, professional development opportunities, and long-term career growth within a large and evolving packaging platform.