Senior R&D Chemist – Technical Lead

Senior R&D Chemist - Technical Lead

What You Will Own

• Lead personal-care and consumer-product development programs from concept and feasibility through scale-up, validation, and commercialization.
• Formulate and troubleshoot products, initially working hands-on to develop practical expertise in aerosol systems, packaging, processing, and manufacturing.
• Own technical decisions, experimental strategy, risk assessment, and recommendations for assigned development programs.
• Establish and standardize R&D best practices, SOPs, technical procedures, documentation standards, and structured product-development methods.
• Apply disciplined experimental design and data-based decision-making to improve development speed, robustness, and technical confidence.
• Mentor chemists through technical coaching, project guidance, review of experimental work, and practical problem-solving.
• Lead customer-facing development projects, technical presentations, product and process assessments, and feasibility evaluations.
• Support proposals and technical sales by translating customer needs into credible development plans, resource requirements, risks, and commercialization pathways.
• Solve complex formulation, stability, compatibility, scale-up, and manufacturing challenges in partnership with Operations, Quality, Regulatory, Sales, and customers.
• Develop product specifications, master formulas, manufacturing instructions, test methods, stability protocols, and technical transfer packages.
• Assess new technologies, raw materials, packaging systems, and development opportunities that can strengthen R&D capabilities and support growth.
• Challenge existing practices where needed and help define the longer-term technical direction of the R&D group.

What You Bring

• Bachelor's degree in chemistry, chemical engineering, formulation science, or a related scientific discipline.
• Approximately 5-10 years of progressive formulation and product-development experience in personal care, cosmetics, consumer products, or a related industry.
• Deep practical knowledge of formulation, raw-material selection, testing, stability, scale-up, manufacturing, and technical transfer.
• Demonstrated record of taking products from concept through commercialization.
• Experience leading complex technical projects and making sound decisions with incomplete or evolving information.
• Ability to mentor other technical professionals and raise the quality of their experimental work, documentation, and problem-solving.
• Strong customer-facing communication skills and ability to explain technical issues, trade-offs, risks, and recommendations clearly.
• Commercial awareness and ability to balance technical performance, manufacturability, timing, cost, regulatory requirements, and customer expectations.
• Comfort working in a fast-moving contract manufacturing environment where priorities may shift and practical execution matters.

Assets

• Experience with aerosols, pressurized packaging, pumps, or other specialized delivery systems.
• Experience developing hair care, skin care, styling, grooming, or other personal-care products.
• Knowledge of GMP, quality systems, stability programs, regulated consumer products, or North American cosmetic requirements.
• Experience creating technical procedures, implementing design-of-experiments approaches, or improving R&D systems.

What Success Looks Like

• Quickly establish credibility through strong technical judgment and hands-on contribution.
• Develop the aerosol and manufacturing knowledge needed to lead projects confidently within the organization's environment.
• Improve the consistency, rigor, and speed of product development through better methods, standards, and documentation.
• Become a trusted technical partner to customers, colleagues, and leadership.
• Expand the capability of the R&D group-not simply the number of projects it can manage.

Why Join

• Visible technical leadership role with meaningful influence over how R&D operates and grows.
• Direct exposure to customers, commercialization decisions, manufacturing, and a broad range of consumer-product technologies.
• Annual bonus eligibility and comprehensive health, dental, and vision benefits.
• Paid vacation and holidays, professional-development support, and opportunities for career growth.
• Collaborative, practical environment where innovation, strong ideas, and technical ownership are valued.