R&D Manager

About Chase Corporation

Founded in 1946 we have grown to become a global specialty chemicals company that is a leading manufacturer of protective materials for high-reliability applications across diverse market sectors.

Today we employ nearly 800 people and continue to grow and strengthen our business by employing a related diversification strategy that combines organic growth initiatives with strategic acquisitions.

Based in Westwood, Massachusetts, USA we operate manufacturing facilities in the United States, Europe, and Asia and continue to invest in our capabilities in order to deliver value to our global customer base demands.

Role Overview

The Manager, R&D - Electronics plays a critical role in driving product innovation, formulation development, and commercialization across Chase Corporation's Electronic Materials Solutions (EMS) business. This hands-on leadership role actively supports laboratory, pilot, and manufacturing environments to develop, optimize, and scale protective electronic materials, including conformal coatings, adhesives, encapsulants, and related system-level solutions.

Working cross-functionally with Sales, Marketing, Operations, Quality, Manufacturing, and Supply Chain, the Manager leads new product development, supports product commercialization, enables technology transfer into manufacturing, and aligns R&D priorities with commercial objectives. This role serves as the technical bridge between customer needs, product strategy, application requirements, and manufacturing execution.

The EMS portfolio includes protective materials serving high-reliability applications across Automotive, Aerospace, Defense, Renewable Energy, and Industrial Electronics.

Key Responsibilities

Team Leadership & Program Execution

• Lead, mentor, and develop the R&D team; foster accountability, execution discipline, technical rigor, and innovation.
• Align R&D portfolio priorities with business strategy, customer requirements, regulatory standards, and commercial growth objectives.
• Manage new product development projects through structured stage-gate processes, including project scope, timelines, documentation, resource allocation, and execution tracking.
• Drive cross-functional coordination for pilot trials, product validation, commercialization, and technology transfer.

Technical & Product Development

• Develop and optimize formulations and application-level solutions for electronic materials, including conformal coatings, adhesives, encapsulants, and related protective technologies.
• Translate market, customer, and application requirements into differentiated, manufacturable products.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership to accelerate innovation, improve performance, expand applications, and reduce time-to-market.
• Lead structured experimentation, validation, qualification, and testing protocols to ensure commercial viability and customer readiness.
• Support development and maintenance of technology roadmaps that connect current capabilities with future market and customer needs.

Manufacturing & Quality Partnership

• Provide technical support across multiple manufacturing sites, including scale-up, troubleshooting, cost optimization, and process improvement.
• Collaborate with Manufacturing and Operations to ensure solutions are scalable, cost-effective, production-ready, and aligned with quality requirements.
• Ensure compliance with applicable regulatory requirements and ISO 9001 standards; support internal, external, and customer audits.
• Promote and reinforce safety standards within R&D, laboratory, pilot, and manufacturing environments.

Strategic R&D Leadership

• Represent R&D in cross-functional business, product, and strategic planning forums.
• Partner with Marketing and Sales to translate customer needs, market insights, and application challenges into differentiated technical solutions.
• Develop and report KPIs tied to portfolio health, speed-to-market, project execution, cost performance, and innovation pipeline value.
• Identify and leverage synergies across business units to share technologies, platforms, processes, and best practices.
• Improve R&D effectiveness, execution discipline, and predictability through structured processes, prioritization, documentation, and performance tracking.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in product development, formulation development, application development, or new product introduction within electronic materials, specialty chemicals, protective coatings, adhesives, polymers, or adjacent industrial markets.
• 3+ years leading technical programs, managing R&D projects, or supervising technical staff.
• Strong background in electronic materials or related protective material technologies; experience with conformal coatings, adhesives, encapsulants, PCB assembly materials, or high-reliability electronics applications preferred.
• Experience implementing or working within structured product development processes, including stage-gate or similar project management tools.
• Strong collaboration skills with the ability to partner across R&D, Marketing, Sales, Operations, Manufacturing, Quality, and Supply Chain.
• Commercially aware technical leader with the ability to balance technical depth with business priorities, customer needs, and manufacturing realities.
• Results-oriented, hands-on leadership style with a track record of improving execution, developing technical talent, and delivering projects in fast-paced or change-oriented environments.
• Willingness to travel up to 25% to support manufacturing sites, customer engagement, technical collaboration, and product validation.

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Chemistry, Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, Polymer Science, or related technical discipline required.
• Advanced degree preferred.