Application Engineer - The Chatham Group

Title: R&D Technical Director - Powder Coatings

Location: Minneapolis, MN, United States

Job Description

The Company is seeking a strategic and influential R&D Technical Director to lead product and platform development activities for powder coating systems and sales support for the company’s General Industrial Division. As a member of the R&D leadership team, the Technical Director plays a crucial role in cultivating a customer centric, high-performance culture built on mutual trust and integrity. Through partnership and collaboration with Sales, Marketing, Global Supply Chain, and other groups to support and secure new and existing business. The ideal candidate thrives with building cross-functional partnerships in a matrix environment while driving strategic initiatives supporting growth, efficiency, cost savings, and innovation. The Technical Director should have strong knowledge and experience with the development and formulation of powder-based coatings, regional markets, product stewardship, and regulatory requirements.

Responsibilities

The Powder Technical Director is a member of the Global General Industrial R&D technology leadership team and is responsible for leading all sales support and product and platform development activities for powder-based coating systems for The Company’s General Industrial Business in the NA region and collaborates with other members of the Global Leadership Team on projects applicable to multiple regions and for global customers.

• Works collaboratively with Sales and Marketing to support and secure new business as well as maintain current customer base.
• Shepherds key programs that drive significant strategic regional growth.
• Drives and capture intellectual property developments.
• Partners with Regional Purchasing, GI Product Management and PCG Raw Materials Manager to support raw material selection and cost saving projects for the region.
• Is a member of the global Technical Leadership team; coordinates global technical activities in conjunction with technical leaders in other regions to ensure development and translation of technology from and into region, alignment with global strategic plans and best practices sharing.
• Identifies, institutes and manages external technology and innovation partnerships with regional companies and institutes for regional and global advantage in support of overall PCG strategy.
• Builds organization capability and drives efficiency of resource utilization, e.g., champions and drives best practices, institutes project management and portfolio management with business leaders and R&D teams, reviews infrastructure requirements, hires, trains, and guides people development.
• Develops key customer and supplier relationships that support business maintenance and growth.
• Promotes a safe work environment by driving safety practices, safe equipment utilization and maintenance in the laboratories.
• Manages internal/external relationships within a matrix environment.
• Enables and influences internal/external connectivity to drive strategic initiatives and projects.
• Coordinates regional powder technical activities in conjunction with global technical leaders to ensure product development and technical transfer to and from the regions in alignment with the global strategic product plans.
• Manages and deploys resources across region and/or cross business or functional teams to efficiently and effectively deliver all product and technology goals and services.
• Acts as the subject matter expert on regional or cross-functional project teams or technology committees.
• Leads, develops and shapes a market and customer centric workplace culture for innovative solutions, execution excellence and continuous improvement.
• Holds the technical management teams in the region accountable for implementing and achieving technology, product development, and service-related goals and objectives.
• Identifies and prioritizes skills, expertise and processes needed to build organizational capabilities to deliver on the business unit’s goals.
• Leads the integrated talent management activities to attract, develop, provide performance feedback and retain employees and to ensure optimum level of workforce engagement.
• Completes, delivers and oversees individual performance management reviews, succession planning and establishes employee professional development goals to support future business needs

  BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

• 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).
• Bachelor’s degree in a Science, Technology, Engineering or Math field.
• Minimum 10 years industry experience in the development of formulated coatings, plastics or inks products and polymer development or materials science and intellectual property management
• Laboratory management of teams >20 staff at multiple sites for >3 years
• Demonstrated ability to work within and lead major cross-functional and global programs/groups
• Strong strategic perspective and ability to deal with complex requirements and set priorities
• Structured, data-based rational thinker and strong execution skills
• Strong market knowledge, customer experience and demonstrated relationships with Sales and Marketing groups
• Knowledge of related regional markets, product stewardship and regulatory requirements
• Excellent leadership, organizational and interpersonal skills
• Excellent project management and problem-solving skills
• English Speaking, strong communication skills, both orally and written
• Technical understanding and knowledge in industrial coatings chemistry
• Coatings formulation skills
• Coatings application testing
• General computer skills – word, excel, PowerPoint, emails

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Six Sigma certification and practical experiences desired
• Experiences in quality related management desired
• Design of Experiments (DOE)
• Math and Statistic Software – JMP or Minitab
• IP Management and Patenting
• Polymer resin experiences

Travel Requirements: 40% Domestic and International Travel