R&D- Senior Chemist (Beverage Can Product Development)

Sherwin-Williams•Pittsburgh, PA

About The Position

The Senior Chemist, Beverage Inside Spray Development, provides advanced technical expertise in the formulation, development, testing, scale-up, commercialization, and ongoing support of interior spray coatings for beverage cans. This role combines a strong understanding of polymer chemistry with hands-on coating formulation and application knowledge, creativity, and scientific curiosity to develop differentiated coating technologies and optimize coating systems that meet customer, manufacturing, and business requirements. The Senior Chemist independently leads product-development and commercialization projects of moderate to high complexity, coordinates cross-functional and global stakeholders, and serves as a technical resource for spray-coating formulation and application. The position translates customer and end-use requirements into robust, commercially viable coating solutions and clearly communicates technical findings, risks, and recommendations to internal and external stakeholders. Job duties include contact with other employees and access to confidential and proprietary information and/or other items of value, and such access may be supervised or unsupervised. The Company therefore has determined that a review of criminal history is necessary to protect the business and its operations and reputation and is necessary to protect the safety of the Company’s staff, employees, and business relationships.

Requirements

Must be legally authorized to work in the country for which you are applying for employment (without now or in the future needing sponsorship for employment work visa and/or permanent residence status)
Must be at least 18 years of age
Must have a bachelor’s degree in a Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (“STEM”) field
At least 5 years of experience in industrial chemistry, coatings formulation, polymer development, or related product-development experience.
Experience designing experiments, analyzing technical data, and independently solving complex formulation or application problems.
Experience working on technical projects through product development, scale-up, qualification, or commercialization.
Experience operating laboratory equipment and perform hands-on formulation, application, and testing work with or without reasonable accommodation
Experience communicating technical findings and recommendations clearly through written reports, presentations, and cross-functional discussions.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, Polymer Science, Chemical Engineering, Material Science, or related fields
Advanced degree in STEM related field
Experience as a Lead Chemist
Experience interacting with Commercial team, customers, and brand owners
Strong working knowledge of polymer chemistry and polymer structure-property relationships.
Experience in the paint, coatings, packaging, adhesives, sealants, or specialty-materials industry.
Direct experience formulating beverage can, food can, metal-packaging, or other protective industrial coatings.
Experience formulating beverage can interior spray coatings or other high-pressure industrial spray-applied coating systems.
Knowledge of relevant coating chemistries, including epoxy, acrylic, polyester, latex, polyurethane, or other thermoset or thermoplastic systems.
Demonstrated success advancing new or reformulated products through development, validation, customer qualification, and commercialization readiness
Experience in developing innovative solutions and test methods
Experience working with international colleagues
Familiar with DFLSS and DMAIC approaches, comfortable setting up DOE’s and evaluating outputs in Minitab

Responsibilities

Formulate, develop, test, and optimize beverage can interior spray coatings to meet customer, performance, regulatory, quality, cost, sustainability, and manufacturing requirements.
Apply advanced knowledge of polymer chemistry, resins, crosslinkers, additives, solvents, waterborne technologies, and structure-property relationships to solve complex formulation and coating-performance challenges.
Design and execute laboratory experiments; analyze and interpret technical data; document results; and recommend formulation, raw-material, processing, or application changes.
Partner with Polymer Development to evaluate and incorporate new or modified resin technologies, including participation in resin synthesis, resin-cook, scale-up, and related technical activities.
Develop, improve, validate, and document fit-for-purpose laboratory and application test methods that reliably differentiate coating performance and correlate with manufacturing, customer-line, pack, and end-use conditions.
Identify limitations or gaps in existing test methods and partner with other SW groups to establish improved approaches.
Use emerging technologies, technical literature, competitive insights, and external collaboration to strengthen innovation and accelerate learning.
Develop hands-on expertise with beverage can inside-spray equipment and application methods, including equipment setup, operation, cleaning, calibration, and maintenance.
Evaluate and optimize the interaction among polymer design, coating formulation, solvent system, application (spray equipment settings and set-up, film weight), can geometry, and end-use performance.
Diagnose whether application issues such as blistering, wetting, or coverage are driven by polymer design, formulation variables, equipment settings, or a combination of factors.
Independently lead multiple technical projects from concept through formulation, testing, scale-up, customer qualification, commercialization, and transfer to manufacturing.
Balance technical performance, customer requirements, regulatory considerations, manufacturing capability, product cost, project risk, and speed to market when developing solutions and making recommendations.
Serve as a technical interface for strategic customers and external partners; support visits, trials, qualification activities, commercialization, and technical issue resolution.
Collaborate closely with Product Development, Polymer Development, Analytical, Manufacturing, Quality, Regulatory, Customer Technical Service, Marketing, and other partners to achieve project objectives.
Coordinate clear, timely communication among stakeholders located in different functions, organizations, geographies, and time zones.
Prepare and communicate clear technical reports, project updates, presentations, conclusions, and recommendations to technical and nontechnical audiences.
Provide technical guidance and mentoring to chemists, technicians, and other laboratory personnel; coordinate project activities and share formulation, application, and problem-solving knowledge across the team.
Perform all work in accordance with established safety, environmental, quality, housekeeping, product-development, change-management, and documentation requirements.
Apply creativity, scientific judgment, and independent problem-solving to advance technical solutions in areas where established paths may not exist