Group Leader, Applications Development

Eastman•Kingsport, TN

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

Founded in 1920, Eastman is a global specialty materials company that produces a broad range of products found in items people use every day. With the purpose of enhancing the quality of life in a material way, Eastman works with customers to deliver innovative products and solutions while maintaining a commitment to safety and sustainability. The company’s innovation-driven growth model takes advantage of world-class technology platforms, deep customer engagement, and differentiated application development to grow its leading positions in attractive end markets such as transportation, building and construction, and consumables. As a globally inclusive company, Eastman employs approximately 13,000 people around the world and serves customers in more than 100 countries. The company had 2025 revenue of approximately $8.8 billion and is headquartered in Kingsport, Tennessee, USA. For more information, visit www.eastman.com.

Requirements

BS, Masters or Ph. D. in Polymer Chemistry, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Material Science or related field is required.

Nice To Haves

Five or more years of experience in polymer-related fields
Knowledge of trends in the polymer industry and how they relate to key growth markets
Ability to work with ambiguity in a fast-paced action-oriented team.
Demonstrated customer empathy and the ability to understand customer needs.
Ability to think intuitively in order to lead to customer or industry engagements with insights.
Prior experience working at the interface of technology, commercial functions and customers.
Working knowledge of Salesforce.com databases and dashboards

Responsibilities

Understand technical and business strategies, vision, and goals related to the group, and utilize this understanding to communicate and implement priorities through appropriate resource allocation and cross-functional alignment.
Ensure every employee understands their respective assignments and impact on both short and long term financial success
Create a vision for what the group needs to become to support and guide technical and business strategies.
Develop and implement plans to assess and deliver key core competencies supporting and guiding strategies.
Partner with the business in understanding options that exist for executing or modifying business strategy.
Lead continual improvement of the group through coaching and participation in division leadership teams.
Foster effective cross-functional , inter-group and interdivisional relationships in and out of Technology
Champion proposals for needed resources, capabilities and capital projects to management to support and enable strategies
Inform and influence division leadership team, gatekeeping teams and industry teams with viable technical options to enable strategies and meet business goals.
Attract, engage, develop, and retain the talent needed to provide capabilities to execute technical and business strategies
Provide technical guidance, mentoring and support personal development plans
Ensure appropriate training and competence development in key technologies, intellectual property processes, interpersonal interaction skills, leadership skills, and business/corporate strategies.
Identify and develop key contributors and future leaders by planning growth assignments, team participation, and by execution of effective succession planning. Prepare and enable personnel to move to new assignments.
Enable individual contributors and project teams to lead and develop group members to achieve a higher level of performance.
Motivate and provide feedback to employees on a regular basis through individual discussions and based upon “in the field” experiences
Actively use performance management processes to set expectations and provide feedback.
Manage costs within limits of established budgets and ensure cost control strategies are implemented as needed
Ensure talent succession plans are established and maintained
Develop and maintain clear understanding of the market and regulatory trends as well as key drivers and barriers affecting solutions in selected industries or markets.
Identify key influencers, including trade associations and regulatory agencies, their impact on developing growth platform concepts, and strategy for engaging.
Use data and analytics to support assessments, recommendations and choices.
Ensure compliance with all legal and corporate requirements.
Promote effective teamwork by removing barriers between individuals and groups.
Ensure resources and capabilities are available and property allocated.
Ensure work is correctly documented and catalogued in salesforce.com or other appropriate databases.
Communicate the status of key projects, priorities, constraints and group capabilities to key internal partners, including technical and business management.
Ensure Eastman and customer confidential information is appropriately protected.
Development and implementation of proactive customer engagement strategies.