Senior R&D Engineer

Senior R&D Engineer

Avient Corporation

Assesse, Belgium

We are seeking an experienced Senior R&D Chemist/Engineer to join Avient’s research and development team. The Senior R&D Chemist/Engineer will be responsible for the research and development of polymer-enhancing solutions that create value for our customers. The role requires strong expertise in chemistry and molecular interaction principles to design and optimize polymer systems.

Essential Functions

• Conduct work in a safe, ethical and collaborative manner;
• Lead the development of products and technologies within existing and new markets;
• Leverage advanced chemistry knowledge to create novel polymer solutions and contribute to patentable innovations;
• Use statistical methods to drive experimentation and data interpretation;
• Apply technical project management skills to support platform development;
• Communicate and engage with internal and external stakeholders;
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams (marketing, regulatory, operations) to align technical solutions with business objectives;
• Other duties as and when required.

Responsibilities

Essential Duties & Responsibilities:

• Develops and/or leads development of products adhering to customer specifications, quality, and operational goals and standards;
• Conducts literature and patent search to guide experimentation;
• Conducts and troubleshoots materials testing, developing new testing/approaches if needed;
• Contributes to product platform development through application of statistical experimental design, product testing, and data analysis;
• Identifies material and other functional specifications to meet customer requirements;
• Supports marketing and sales through development of product and application data;
• Serves as technical resource across businesses;
• Partners with manufacturing resources to establish quality and testing conditions for new materials;
• Presents technical work to customers and various levels of management as needed.

Qualifications

Education and Experience:

• MSc./PhD. in either Chemistry, Polymer Science/Engineering, Material Science;
• At least 5+ years of industrial or academic research experience in the fields of either chemistry, petrochemicals, plastics, coatings, adhesives, rubber, polymer formulation, composites or polymer processing;
• Experience of working in a laboratory/material processing environment;
• Knowledge & experience of polymer characterization/analysis;
• Deep understanding of molecular interactions and structure–property relationships to support innovative material design;
• Ability to interpret molecular-level data and translate insights into practical solutions for cross-functional projects;
• Strong team working and communication skills;
• Strong skills in the scientific method and use of design of experiments for data-driven research;
• Effective use of varied literature sources to design experiments and progress new product development;
• Experience of designing and conducting experiments.

Desirable:

• Knowledge & experience of analytical characterization techniques for rheological, mechanical and thermal properties of polymers;
• Prior experience in a technical role within a corporate innovation/R&D environment;
• Knowledge of the chemistry underpinning polymer structure modification and reactivity;
• Working knowledge of polymer processes including compounding with twin-screw extruders, injection molding, and extrusion-blow-molding;
• Experience in executing DOEs, and knowledge of relevant statistical software (Minitab, or similar);
• Strong knowledge of organic chemistry principles and reaction mechanisms, applied to polymer development;
• Ability to influence and lead technical discussions across global teams;
• Experience of new product development.

Essential Competencies:

• The candidate will be required to present data and concepts to internal and external stakeholders regularly. Therefore, they must possess excellent presentation and communication skills and be comfortable with public speaking;
• The candidate must demonstrate excellent project management and organizational skills required to develop detailed project timelines with key milestones and deliverables;
• The candidate must be collaborative and work effectively across cross-functional teams to drive projects from lab-to-commercial scale;
• The ideal candidate is an independent thinker and self-motivated to address technical challenges;
• The candidate speak English fluently (B2 min). French is an asset.