R&D- Sr. Group Leader

Sherwin-Williams•Grove City, OH

15h•Onsite

About The Position

The Senior Group Leader manages a team of colorists, technicians, and contractors responsible for supporting coating applications—including color matching for new Sales opportunities, development of new colors for current and new customers, supporting Sales with panel and sample requests, color quality improvements, and testing of final products —in Sherwin-Williams’s North America General Industrial Business. This position is part of the Global General Industrial R&D technology leadership group and works closely with the North America Leadership Team throughout the US and Canada. Job duties include contact with other employees and access 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 of employment without needing sponsorship for employment work visa status now or in the future (e.g., OPT, CPT, H1B, EB-1,etc.)
Bachelor’s degree in a Science, Technology, Engineering or Math field.
Must be at least 18 years of age.
Minimum 5 years of coatings formulation and performance testing.
Minimum of 3 years of project leadership/management experience with teams of 5-10 people.
Strong industrial market knowledge, customer experience, and demonstrated relationships with R&D, Sales, Marketing, and Manufacturing, groups.
Knowledge of related regional markets, product stewardship, safety, and regulatory requirements.
English Speaking, strong communication skills, both orally and written.
Technical understanding and knowledge in industrial coatings formulation and color matching.
Coatings application methods and evaluations
Coatings formulation skills
General computer skills – word, excel, PowerPoint, emails

Nice To Haves

Master’s or higher degree
At least 3 years in a supervisory/management role of 5-10 people.
5-7 years’ experience in powder coatings formulation, color formulation, color matching, and manufacturing of powder coatings.
Powder coatings formulation and color matching.
Lean Six Sigma, quality, Design for Six Sigma skills
Color Software – Datacolor or X-Rite Color iMatch

Responsibilities

Leading, developing and managing a team of 8 -12 colorists, technicians, contractors, and admin with color matching and formulation expertise in powder coatings.
Partnering with Marketing, Sales, and Manufacturing (production, maintenance, QA/QC) teams to identify customer needs that are critical for customer success.
Working with Sales, Marketing, and R&D leadership to prioritize projects and allocate resources to drive new colors to market for New Product Sales and Maintenance of Business projects.
Utilizing, coaching, and reinforcing formulation, process, pigment/color characterization, continuous improvement, and quality improvement tools during color-matching and powder process activities.
Align departmental activities to deliver on new business goals for the Company.
Support the transfer of color and powder coating formulation knowledge and information throughout General Industrial and Sherwin-Williams.
Identify opportunities and build strategic internal and external relationships.
Hire, onboard, and develop team members and use a flexible style, along with an open environment, to build a cohesive, accountable, and productive team.
Coordinate individual and group efforts across functional boundaries and function as a technical liaison.
Able to influence cross-functional teams in Manufacturing, Sales, Quality, and R&D in order to move projects and products forward.
Able to use personal influence and credibility to gain acceptance of ideas and plans from direct team and cross-functional teams.
Effectively manage time and resources to ensure that work is completed efficiently, with sufficient quality, and on time.
Set and meet project deadlines through effective planning and execution.
Prioritize projects and resources, assess and communicate progress relative to goals.
Must be able to manage and monitor multiple projects and programs.
Identify and understand project issues. Determine and implement best alternative course of action.
Support and lead continuous improvement activities.
Communicate conflicts on priorities and escalate to drive action.
Build cases to leadership for team resources (headcount and equipment) when business demand exceeds team capacity.
Facilitate the professional and technical growth of Team Members and Leaders.
Supervise, shift, and optimize manpower resources and allocation based on business needs.
Facilitate open sharing of knowledge and ideas to promote employee engagement.
Drive high performance by conducting formal performance reviews and address performance concerns.
Create a culture of diversity and inclusion and a positive cooperative work environment.
Written and verbal communication of team and project related info to key stakeholders and Senior Management.
Communicate/interface and influence other departments and divisions.
Effective communication of projects, goals, and deliverables to Team.
Communicate proactively to sales and marketing to drive collaboration and prioritization.
Ensure and reinforce Safety, Housekeeping, and ISO practices.
Actively seek to improve overall safety through proper training and implementation of corrective actions as necessary.
Identify and address quality issues through the implementation of product and/or process improvements.