The Shepherd Chemical Company manufactures metal-based chemicals that are essential to technologies for consumer safety, environmental sustainability, advanced product performance and industrial process efficiency. Partnering with industries from fragrance and personal care to petrochemicals and polyurethanes, we are working to solve some of our customer’s most complex problems through the synthesis, scale up, and commercialization of inorganic and organic metal compounds.

Our employees scale projects from “concept to container”, travel the world to visit customers, attend industry conferences, and participate in community initiatives for health, wellness, safety and philanthropy. Doing meaningful work with trusted, talented colleagues is our formula for success and being a great place to work. Every day, our employees relentlessly pursue Shepherd’s core purpose of Creating Value and Brightening Lives.

The R&D Department at Shepherd Chemical exists to develop processes and commercialize products that help our customers create value and grow. Our customers love working with our team as their metal chemistry partners. Our team members love working together to solve challenging problems, to create innovative solutions and learn more about our field. Our new products are preferred by our customers as evidenced by improving margins and increasing market share. The goal of our process development is to provide robust, scalable procedures that work the first time and every time thereafter by having large and well-defined windows of successful operating parameters.

We are seeking a motivated, self-directed Chemist to join our R&D team working with characterization and instrumentation. The person in this role will maintain the characterization lab, including an SEM with EDS, powder X-ray diffractometer, TGA-DTA, FTIR, GC-MS, NMR, Karl Fisher auto titrator, and a laser scattering particle size analyzer. You will work with other R&D chemists, R&D engineers, QC technicians, QC chemists, and management to develop characterization, analysis, and release test strategies for new and existing products. You will also research the structures and properties of new and existing products to contribute to efforts to optimize product function through product and process improvement.

Job Responsibilities:

• Maintain and operate the instruments and physical facilities of the characterization lab
• Analyze samples and report results to project leaders and production
• Understand and deploy appropriate methods to understand the chemical compositions and physical properties of new and existing products
• Develop effective and efficient analytical methods to support product development projects
• Contribute to development of product release test plans and methods
• Develop, maintain, and manage relationships with 3^rd party labs as needed
• Utilize 3^rd party labs for analysis and characterization when appropriate
• Monitor and support activities necessary for compliance with ISO9001:2015, Responsible Care and all other applicable regulatory standards and requirements.
• Assist with shared R&D responsibilities. These may include regulatory activities, managing consumables, procurement/purchasing, reporting, and inspections/audits.

Education/Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in chemistry required, PhD in analytical chemistry is preferred
• Minimum of five (5) years R&D experience in industry

Required Skills

• Working knowledge of fundamentals of analytical chemistry, including:
  • Elemental analysis
  • Diffraction
  • Electron microscopy
  • GC-MS
  • Vibrational spectroscopy
  • Wet chemical methods (titrations)
  • Statistical analysis
  • Thermal analysis
  • Physical property measurement (viscometry, etc.)

• Ability to use various software applications essential to technical performance
• Experience in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

Preferred Skills

• Chemical manufacturing experience
• Experience in laboratory and facility management
• Record of method development for manufacturing
• Experience with statistical tools (Minitab, for instance)

Benefits

Full-time team members receive:

• Competitive Pay
• Health and Life Insurance (eligibility date of hire)
• Employee Assistance Program
• Short and Long-Term Disability
• Paid Parental Leave
• Company 401K Contribution (eligibility date of hire)
• Company Bonus eligibility
• Fitness Membership subsidy
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Paid Time Off
• Paid Holidays
• Career Development

EEO Statement

The Shepherd Material Science Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age (40 or over), disability, veteran status or other characteristics protected by law.