Director of Equipment Engineering

Making machines last a lifetime. Tammo is making it real.
Sometimes a tiny tweak changes everything. In July 2024, new EU rules required plastic caps to stay attached to their packaging. For Tammo Zorn, Director of Equipment Engineering, this meant a massive undertaking. A large share of Elopak’s active filling machines across Europe needed an upgrade. His team redesigned parts, created rebuild kits, and updated software – ensuring every machine already out in the field was ready for the new standard.
Tasks like this represent the core of what Tammo’s team of 35 engineers does. They are responsible for keeping more than 500 filling machines running smoothly throughout their lifespan, while also engineering Elopak’s aseptic machines—embedding real‑world reliability right from the first design.
‑ We take care of all our released products. Because our core business relies on selling cartons, it’s vital that our equipment keeps performing at a high level. So we work closely with our customers, service and sales colleagues, supporting the machines throughout their life cycle.The requests landing on Tammo’s desk come from many different directions. Sometimes service engineers notice a part that isn’t performing as expected, prompting a redesign with the supplier. Sometimes the issue comes from a supplier, like a discontinued component that the team must replace, test, and adapt the machine for. Other times, it’s a specific customer need – like a product that foams a lot during filling, requiring a new algorithm or extra hardware.
An engineering hub at the heart of Elopak
Because engineering touches so much of the business, Tammo’s team sits at the center of a wide network within Elopak, collaborating with everyone from service and procurement to legal, food science experts and customers.
That same spirit of collaboration applies inside the team, where mechanical, process, software, and electrical engineering all need to come together before a machine can run. None of them can solve the puzzle alone.
‑ If you have a software engineer without a mechanical designer, it just doesn’t work. It’s the same if you have a process engineer without an electrical engineer. In the end, the filling machine is what unites us and brings us together in close cooperation.
A different path to engineering leadership
Tammo’s own journey started in software. Long before taking on his current role, he built his career as a software and controls engineer – experience he brought with him when joining Elopak’s team in Mönchengladbach in 2013. In Germany’s machine‑building industry, leaders traditionally come from mechanical engineering. Tammo took an unconventional route, and that experience helps lead a team spanning so many technical fields.
‑ As a controls engineer, you’re at the center of multiple disciplines. You have to understand the mechanical design, process engineering, and how an operator will handle the machine – and then translate all of that into code.
When Tammo joined Elopak’s plant in Mönchengladbach, the site was building up its engineering department and preparing to launch the company’s first aseptic filling machine. It had a startup feel: a small, diverse team all working toward one goal. More than a decade later, he says that same freedom to move quickly is still part of what motivates him and his team.
‑ Elopak gives us a clear direction and framework, but also flexibility. Once a project is aligned with our goals and approved, we have the trust to find the best technical solutions and execute projects in the way that makes the most practical sense.
The possibility to make a real difference is in your hands