Staff Chemical Engineer - Water Systems and Chemistry

Jacuzzi Group•Chino, CA

10d•Hybrid

About The Position

Jacuzzi Group is seeking a Staff Chemical Engineer to serve as the technical leader for water chemistry, water treatment, and water-system development across Jacuzzi Group's hot tub product portfolio. This role sits within the cross-functional Engineering department and partners daily with mechanical, electrical, controls, and manufacturing engineers, as well as Product Management, Quality, Regulatory, and external technology partners. This role owns the science behind how Jacuzzi hot tubs keep water clean, clear, and safe — from first-principles chemistry through field validation and post-launch monitoring. This is a hybrid role based at our Chino, CA facility, with time split between office, engineering lab, and manufacturing/test floor on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, and offers the ability to work remotely on Wednesdays and Fridays. Occasional domestic and international travel (up to ~15%) is expected to support supplier visits, contract labs, partner facilities, and trade events.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Environmental Engineering, or a closely related discipline from an ABET-accredited program.
5+ years of progressively responsible experience in water testing, water-system development, and water-chemistry management, ideally within the pool and spa or drinking-water filtration industry.
Demonstrated, hands-on expertise with sanitizer chemistry (chlorine, bromine, mineral, UV, ozone, AOP, electrolytic systems), water balance, scale and corrosion control, and microbial control.
Proven ability to design, write, execute, and document formal test protocols (DOE, accelerated life, efficacy, compatibility) and draw defensible conclusions from data.
Strong working knowledge of analytical methods and instrumentation for water quality (spectrophotometry, titration, ion chromatography, ORP/pH/conductivity probes, microbial assays).
Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Demonstrated ability to manage competing priorities with strong attention to detail.

Nice To Haves

Experience in a private equity-backed, high-growth, or global manufacturing environment.
Direct experience developing or qualifying products to NSF/ANSI 50, 60/61, 53/42/55/58, or APSP/PHTA standards.
Working knowledge of EPA pesticide registration (FIFRA) and familiarity with relevant state and local health-department spa regulations.
Experience with electrolytic chlorine generation, AOP, membrane filtration, or IoT-enabled water-monitoring platforms.
Experience designing or qualifying test cells, flow loops, and lab automation.
Prior experience working with external R&D partners, chemistry suppliers, contract labs, or academic institutions on joint development programs.

Responsibilities

Own the technical roadmap for water sanitization, balancing, and treatment technologies — including chlorine, bromine, mineral systems, UV, ozone, AOP, salt/electrolytic chlorination, and emerging alternatives — across current and future spa platforms.
Design and develop water-treatment subsystems in collaboration with mechanical and controls engineering, including filtration, dosing, circulation, and sensor integration.
Translate water-chemistry science into engineering requirements, design inputs, and acceptance criteria that mechanical, electrical, and firmware teams can build to.
Evaluate and recommend chemistries, media, and treatment technologies, balancing performance, cost, user experience, regulatory compliance, and long-term reliability.
Build rigorous, repeatable test protocols for water quality, sanitizer efficacy, oxidation performance, scale and corrosion behavior, filter loading, and long-term system durability under realistic bather-load conditions.
Stand up and run lab and field studies, including accelerated aging, microbial challenge testing, sensor accuracy, and chemical compatibility with materials used in spa construction.
Document test results in clear, audit-ready technical reports — protocols, raw data, statistical analysis, conclusions, and recommendations — supporting engineering decisions, regulatory submissions, and marketing claims.
Define and maintain water-quality KPIs and the methods, instrumentation, and tolerances used to measure them.
Partner with Product Management to shape the water-experience roadmap, defining features, claims, and consumer benefits grounded in defensible chemistry and validated data.
Collaborate with Mechanical, Electrical, Controls, and Firmware engineering on plumbing layouts, sensor placement, dosing hardware, automated control strategies, and user-facing water-management features.
Work with Manufacturing and Supply Chain to ensure chemistries and components transition smoothly from prototype to production, including supplier qualification and incoming-quality criteria.
Support Customer Care, Warranty, and Field Service on water-related issues, providing root-cause analysis, diagnostic guidance, and corrective action.
Lead innovation projects with outside technology partners, universities, and chemistry suppliers to evaluate next-generation water-treatment platforms, including advanced oxidation, novel sanitizers, smart-sensing, and sustainability initiatives.
Monitor and interpret the external landscape, including competitor approaches, emerging research, regulatory shifts, and consumer trends.
Serve as the in-house subject-matter expert on water chemistry; coach engineers, technicians, and product managers; and represent the company in technical forums and with key customers.
Support intellectual-property strategy by identifying novel approaches, contributing to invention disclosures, and providing technical depth for patent filings.