Senior Materials Scientist

Kimberly-Clark • Neenah, WI

13h • Hybrid

About The Position

Join the team behind iconic brands like Huggies®, Kleenex®, Cottonelle®, Scott®, Kotex®, Poise®, Depend®, and Kimberly-Clark Professional®. At Kimberly-Clark, it’s all here for you—innovation, growth, and the chance to make a real impact. You were made to create Better Care for a Better World: exploring uncharted questions, engineering innovative solutions, advancing scientific understanding, and constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. You want to be part of a performance culture dedicated to solving real-world problems with purpose and precision. You want to work in an environment that promotes sustainability, inclusion, wellbeing, and career development. In this role, you’ll help us shape the future and improve lives for billions of people around the world. It starts with YOU. In one of our professional roles, you’ll focus on winning with consumers and the market, while putting safety, mutual respect, and human dignity at the center. The Senior Materials Scientist will provide materials functional leadership in Personal Care Research and Development (R&D) for Diapers, Wipes and Specialty Pants Discovery for KCNA. The primary focus will be on materials development for innovation projects ranging from early materials exploration through viability and optimization. The incumbent will provide materials leadership through development and execution of learning plans focused on enabling exploration and Minimum Viable Product and Technology for the existing product forms and new product forms, as dictated by technology or product innovation. Activities will be focused across our North American Personal Care, Global manufacturing facilities, and external contract manufacturers and internal and external suppliers. This role will work in conjunction with R&D project team members and cross-functional partners. The incumbent reports to an R&D Manager and receives work direction from the Manager and Technical Leader and will give work direction, coaching, and mentoring to junior team members.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in materials, engineers or relevant scientific discipline
• 5+ years of experience in non-woven materials in personal care products
• Strong technical expertise, communication, and problem-solving ability
• Effective leader and implementer of projects and developments
• Demonstrated ability to provide technical direction and long-term strategy related to materials, paired with strong ability to document technical knowledge

Nice To Haves

• Experience in BCC products and materials
• Ability to work in a matrix organization and collaborate across functions/departments
• Experience with external technical service, sourcing, and supply vendor partners
• Experience in materials and technology scouting

Responsibilities

• Identify material innovation aligned to meet consumer and business needs within the Personal Care business.
• Seek and understand competitive technologies and innovation.
• Provide leadership within a team environment to drive innovation from initial product/material prototype, BVs, and helping support the FEI process through MVC, MVP, MVT.
• Collaborate broadly inside the organization with R&E, BG&I Marketing, I&A, pilot plant, and cross-functional disciplines.
• Develop knowledge and skills to be recognized as an effective materials scientist across Personal Care
• Acquire and transfer technical knowledge in the area of materials with a focus on developing solutions for both existing and future products and processes.
• Ability to coach and mentor junior engineers.

Benefits

• Kimberly-Clark relocation benefits available!
• flexible work model that blends remote work with intentional in-person collaboration
• eligibility for a target bonus
• comprehensive benefits suite, including our 401(k) and Profit Sharing plan

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees