Chemical Product Development Engineer

---

Job description

The Company

Located between Martinsburg and Inwood WV, Chem-Pak, Inc is a privately owned and operated local aerosol and chemical manufacturing business that continues to be a stable, growth-oriented, employee friendly organization. Our employees take pride in our clean, safe, well-organized, and environmentally responsible company.

Chem-Pak is a full-service packager of aerosol and liquid products with over 50 years of chemical manufacturing experience. We partner with national brands to develop and produce new and current products in their aerosol and liquid product portfolio. We also specialize in formulating and manufacturing specialty plastic coatings for the automotive industry and our in-house lab creates and tests products built specifically to our customers' specifications.

Chem-Pak is a friendly, flexible, and supportive family-owned company with great employees and a great working atmosphere. We offer employees stable year-round employment and excellent competitive pay. In addition, employees also enjoy education, retirement, medical, visual and dental benefits.

Position Overview

The Product Development Engineer will assume ownership of the product development process, which includes ushering projects from concept to production. In this role, you will ensure exceptional innovative product development and supporting processes. You will also participate in customer pre-product development, new raw material review and developing new product concepts.

You will collaborate daily with our Business Development team and work with customers to understand their concerns and challenges. You will be a trusted leader throughout the technology evaluation stage of the sales cycle and showcase Chem-Pak's cutting-edge technology. You will also participate in pre-sales meetings, understand prospective customers' data and pain-points, and strategize how to deliver our product suite to them.

The candidate will work with cross-functional teams to capture requirements and convert them to product specifications, create prototypes, verify designs, and successfully transition products from development to manufacturing.

Job Duties

Manage all aspects of Product Development Projects, including:

Customer Interaction:

• Work with customers to understand their product needs
• Usher customers through all aspects of the product development lifecycle, including:
• Guiding customers through technical challenges
• Coordinating prototypes for customer testing
• Sourcing and preparing components for customer products
• Preparing preliminary price estimates to assess project viability

Technical Expertise

• Develop strong understanding of aerosol and liquid technology - through formal and on the job training - to guide customers through the development process, including:
• Product chemistry and formulation
• Appropriate product component and packaging selection
• Regulatory requirements such as MIR and VOC
• Manufacturing requirements, capabilities, and constraints
• Provide technical guidance to other team members, including best practices in manufacturing and product design

Project Management

• Capture product vision in product requirements
• Work cross functionally to develop product specifications
• Lead development teams to create project plans
• Conduct internal meetings as required with the project team
• Provide Continuous follow up & communication on project status
• Maintain accurate records of project details
• Track & report project status to all cross-functional partners
• Establish performance metrics and product qualification plans
• Work with manufacturing to ensure a smooth transition from product development to production

Qualifications and Education

• B.S or M.S. in Chemical Engineering or related science required
• Three or more years of experience chemical product development or a related field
• Experience with chemical engineering in a manufacturing or R&D environment
• Ability to collaborate with others and lead technical discussions concerning projects and/or schedules
• Experience leading cross functional engineering teams to achieve design, specification, schedule, and cost goals
• Outstanding interpersonal skills, innovation, and the ability to motivate, inspire, and lead cross group/functional teams with a high degree of independence and success
• Enthusiastic, attention to detail, results oriented, organized, motivated and self-driven