Senior Chemist

We are seeking a hands-on R&D Chemist with strong experience in water-based/aqueous coatings, specialty additives, polymers, and formulation development. The role will focus on developing, testing, optimizing, and scaling coating technologies for plastics, composites, thermoset and molded polymer applications, including aqueous release systems. Key Responsibilities Develop and optimize water-based coating and release systems to meet performance and customer requirements. Formulate and evaluate polymers, binders, surfactants, crosslinkers, rheology modifiers, and specialty additives. Design and execute laboratory testing for adhesion, film formation, surface properties, stability, miscibility, crosslinking, rheology, and release performance. Apply polymer chemistry, surface chemistry, rheology, dispersion, emulsion, and formulation principles to solve technical challenges. Replicate customer and manufacturing processes in the laboratory to predict application and field performance. Support customer trials, industrial evaluations, troubleshooting, scale-up, and plant trials. Collaborate with R&D, manufacturing, quality, technical service, sales, and customers. Maintain clear documentation of formulations, experiments, test results, conclusions, and recommendations. Support new product development, raw material evaluations, continuous improvement, and scale-up activities. Required Qualifications Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, Polymer Science, Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, or a related discipline. 8–10 years of formulation experience in coatings, paints, adhesives, or related specialty chemical industries. Demonstrated experience developing and testing water-based coatings and adhesives. Strong working knowledge of polymer chemistry, surface chemistry, rheology, emulsions, dispersions, and aqueous formulation. Hands-on laboratory experience with formulation development, coating testing, data analysis, and troubleshooting. Ability to work safely with chemicals, laboratory equipment, and coating application methods. Strong communication, documentation, problem-solving, and cross-functional collaboration skills. Mackinnon Bruce International