Customer Development Chemist

PPG•Springdale, AR

4d•Onsite

About The Position

As a Development Chemist - Building Materials Interior, you will be responsible for customer-facing development opportunities in UV coatings for the Building Materials market. As a chemist, you will work closely with sales managers in support of key customers while thoughtfully applying formulation expertise in a high-energy environment that encourages your growth! The development chemist plays a key role formula design, product preparation and application, and the testing of coatings against a wide range of specifications and requirements. The development chemist will build partnerships at all levels within the company and externally to resolve complex issues in effective ways.

Requirements

Bachelor's Degree in a Chemistry, Polymer Science, Coatings Science, or Chemical Engineering or global equivalent in related discipline.
5 to 7 or more years of coatings formulation experience and proven laboratory experience.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree, PhD, or global equivalent a plus.

Responsibilities

Manage water-based, solvent-based, and UV 100% solids color product lines, including all tints and tint-base formulas.
Act as a liaison to manufacturing by answering QC questions, working to maintain formula alignment, addressing problem formulas, and product quality concerns through experimental work.
Support UV customers outside of the flooring market that utilize opaque UV coatings for the window and doors, furniture and cabinetry markets.
With direction from the customer, formulate and test new ideas directed at improving coatings properties to add value through improved performance.
Maintain new or alternative pigments and/or raw materials to enable supply security and mitigate production disruptions by keeping in contact with relevant suppliers.
Design and execute the experiments for raw material testing.
Work with other professionals from variety of functions to improve turnaround time of the stain color match process, from beginning to end own process improvement efforts.
Collaborate with sales team for product attributes and build strong working relationships with new customers to increase potential business opportunities. New customer opportunities may involve color match and specification testing activities.
Create communication documents and formulation guidelines to enable easy color matching between sites and ensure best practices are followed in manufacturing, lab and at the customer.
Utilize knowledge of pigment and stain formulation chemistry to understand differences in performance and color of the stain product lines.
Ensure a timely response to color match requests and color design work for wood customers.
With feedback from technical service, address customer complaints/concerns through root cause analysis and/or formulation changes.
Communicate and ensure recordkeeping through written/verbal summaries, reports, and presentations to both internal and external customers.