Sr. Chemist

Job Description

Company Information

RPM Industrial Coatings Group is home to 11 industry-leading coatings and finishing brands. Our dynamic portfolio includes liquid coatings, powder coatings, touch-up and repair products, sundries, adjuvants, and much more. You'll find our products around the globe in industries from architecture and automotive to farming, forestry, marine, and more.

RPM Industrial Coatings Group is part of RPM International Inc., a $7.3 billion global company with subsidiaries that are market and industry leaders in specialty coatings, sealants, building materials, and related services. From homes and workplaces to infrastructure and precious landmarks, RPM's brands are trusted by consumers and professionals alike to help build a better world.

The RPM Innovation Center of Excellence is a state-of-the-art research and development facility that was designed to foster collaboration and harness the collective expertise found across our businesses. Features include liquid and powder application labs, resin and analytical labs, a sample production area, and a formulation lab, among other resources. It also serves as a destination for onsite customer training and application trials.

At TCI Powder Coatings, we're more than a premier supplier of powder coatings - we're a team of innovators, problem-solvers, and customer champions, serving clients across North America. As an industry leader, we take pride in our people, products, and unmatched service, and we're looking for talent individuals ready to help us grow even further.

Our commitment to excellence starts with our team. From Sales to Technical Service, Manufacturing to Customer Service, we offer exciting career opportunities that align with your strengths, ambitions, and goals. Whether you're looking to kickstart your career or take it to the next level, we provide clear paths to individual growth and overall company success.

Job Description

We are looking for a Sr. Powder Chemist (Metallics/Special Effects) to join our Research & Development team and play a key role in developing, optimizing, troubleshooting, and commercializing powder coating technologies. This is an opportunity for a technical expert to have a meaningful impact on new product development, customer solutions, manufacturing performance, and the continued advancement of our powder coating portfolio.

In this role, you will work at the intersection of chemistry, formulation, processing, application, and customer performance. You will have the technical independence to solve complex formulation challenges while partnering closely with R&D, manufacturing, quality, sales, customers, and raw material suppliers.

Main Responsibilities

• Develop and optimize powder coating formulations for a variety of performance requirements, applications, substrates, and end-use markets.
• Select and optimize resins, curing agents, pigments, fillers, additives, and other raw materials to achieve targeted coating properties, appearance, durability, and processing characteristics.
• Design and execute laboratory experiments to evaluate formulation variables, identify root causes, and efficiently solve complex technical problems.
• Formulate bases required to color match metallic standards.
• Perform in-house metallic bonding to provide powder samples to customers.
• Develop an expert understanding of the relationship between formulation chemistry, powder processing, application conditions, and final coating performance.
• Work with powder manufacturing processes-including premix, extrusion, cooling, grinding/classification, and powder handling-to optimize product quality and consistency.
• Evaluate coating performance through laboratory testing, including properties such as adhesion, hardness, impact, flexibility, chemical resistance, corrosion resistance, weatherability, gloss, color, appearance, cure response, and other application-specific requirements.
• Troubleshoot coating and manufacturing issues and determine appropriate formulation or process adjustments.
• Support scale-up from laboratory development through pilot and commercial production, ensuring formulations are robust, reproducible, and commercially viable.
• Lead technical aspects of new product development and commercialization projects, establishing project scope, experimental plans, milestones, and technical deliverables.
• Translate customer and market requirements into practical formulation and product-development strategies.
• Provide technical support to manufacturing, quality, sales, customer service, and other internal teams.
• Partner with customers and suppliers to investigate technical issues, evaluate new raw materials, and develop solutions to challenging coating applications.
• Maintain accurate laboratory records, formulation documentation, test results, and project information.
• Communicate technical findings and recommendations clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Mentor and provide technical guidance to less-experienced laboratory personnel.
• Promote a culture of safety, technical excellence, continuous improvement, and disciplined experimentation.

Key Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Chemistry, Polymer Science, Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, or a related scientific discipline.
• 5+ years of relevant experience in coatings, powder coatings, polymers, or a closely related field.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree or Ph.D. in Chemistry, Polymer Science, Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, or a related field.
• Direct experience developing thermoset powder coatings.
• Experience with metallic bonding process and expertise with various metallic and special effect pigments.
• Experience with epoxy, polyester, hybrid, acrylic, polyurethane, or other powder coating chemistry.
• Experience with powder coating extrusion and manufacturing processes.
• Knowledge of powder coating application technologies, including electrostatic spray application and curing behavior.
• Experience with architectural, industrial, automotive, general industrial, protective, or other powder coating applications.
• Experience with accelerated weathering, corrosion testing, chemical resistance, and other coating-performance evaluations.
• Experience working with customers and raw material suppliers on technical development or troubleshooting projects.
• Demonstrated experience with coatings formulation and product development.
• Strong understanding of coating chemistry, raw materials, formulation principles, and coating performance testing.
• Ability to independently design experiments, interpret data, troubleshoot problems, and make sound technical decisions.
• Strong understanding of the relationship between raw materials, formulation, processing, application, and finished-product performance.
• Demonstrated experience taking formulations from laboratory development through scale-up and commercialization.
• Strong analytical, mathematical, problem-solving, and technical communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively across R&D, manufacturing, quality, sales, and other functions.

Why Join Us?

This is an opportunity to join an R&D organization where your technical expertise can directly influence the products we develop and the customers we serve. You'll work on challenging chemistry and have the opportunity to collaborate across the organization while helping advance our powder coating technologies.

If you're a coatings chemist who enjoys solving complex problems, developing new technology, working directly with customers and manufacturing, and seeing your formulations become commercial products, we'd like to hear from you.