Business Unit Technical Director

Calgon Carbon | A Kuraray Company currently has an opportunity where you can be a part of our growing team as we provide our customers with outstanding products that make the air we breathe and the water we use safe for generations to come.

Position: Business Unit Technical Director
Location: Headquarters – Moon Township, PA

Excellent Benefits: Medical, dental, prescription & vision, HSA & retirement savings (401k) – Generous Company Match!
Perks: Incentives/bonus plans, competitive pay, dress for your day, hybrid schedules, paid time off (vacation starting at 3 weeks), tuition reimbursement, wellness programs, fun events, learning & development opportunities.

Hours of work: Full-time position with hours Monday-Friday 9:00-5:00

The Technical Director is the Business Unit's foremost technical position. This position is responsible for ensuring effective applications engineering activities related to potential activated carbon and ion exchange projects in the municipal and specialty markets, as well as management activities. Directly or indirectly leads, mentors, and coaches applications engineers both regionally and globally. Demonstrates broad market specific knowledge (technologies, applications, channels to market, etc). As the Technical Director, the incumbent supports the sale of carbon, equipment, and services in the Americas and globally for Drinking Water and Specialty Markets, including bid and scope definition, carbon selection, equipment specification, and technical presentations. The technical role may also include applications engineering responsibility for a territory.

The incumbent is also responsible for technical application development of emerging applications within drinking water and specialty markets. This includes the development of data sets or generation of lab/field pilot work in support of the BU and company initiatives to strengthen Kuraray's market position in emerging growth markets. This role interfaces with Equipment Engineering, Research and Development, Equipment and Assembly, Product Management, Customers and Sales to provide the technical justification and design for the use of activated carbon technology in customer applications.

Manages and leads internal and external technical discussions including applications and market sharing to ensure common knowledge across the BU and Regional/Global engineering teams. This position should participate and sometimes lead the Annual Global Technical Summit and select the technical and application topics for institutional knowledge exchanges, training, and development during this forum. In addition, this role participates and/or leads the ongoing monthly knowledge transfer meetings as well as identifies and develops Subject Matter Experts within the organization.

Duties and Responsibilities (not limited to)

• Develop short- and long-term technical plans in line with BU and corporate initiatives
• Regularly review and evaluate actual results, report/troubleshoot variances; adjust strategy as appropriate
• In coordination with Executive Directors, Marketing, Business Development, and Sales Directors, develop strategies and market-specific approaches to expand existing base business and develop new business opportunities through CCC technology adoption
• This position is instrumental in defining and developing appropriate data sets by directing lab or Field piloting in support of global initiatives.
• Sponsors technical service projects with R&D to solve customer problems
• Coordinates projects with equipment engineering for customized changes to equipment to meet the requirements of customers or markets
• Works closely with engineers in other CCC global regions on projects that involves multiple geographic territories
• Direct all activities related to the Business Unit’s application engineering team
• Ensure that technical staff (applications engineers and product managers) has the appropriate training, tools, and/or support/collaboration to sell all CCC technologies (GAC, IX, UV) that are relevant to projects in the specialty and municipal drinking water markets.
• Identify and execute appropriate technical training for the technical staff
• Direct and manage the day-to-day actions of the technical team to ensure timely completion and responsiveness, technical development, and profitability according to the business plan
• Ensure continuous development of the technical staff and appropriate territory alignment/balance
• Develop and implement appropriate programs, tools, etc. required to support the long and short-term business plans
• Define the budget and compensation for the technical team within the Business Unit
• Manages and coordinates technical discussions including applications and market sharing to ensure common knowledge across the engineering team, in coordination with the global Applications Engineering team
• Leads bi-monthly Applications Engineering calls and technical /customer reporting
• Reviews workloads and TSR assignments and makes periodic recommendations for adjustments to Applications Engineering team coverage for maintaining balance within the Business Unit
• Acts as technical support and back-up contact related to specific projects for Sales team
• Serves as liaison between the sales team and the internal support teams including Product and Project Management
• Review bid specifications for clarity, accuracy, and acceptance
• Provide recommendations to improve the technical quality of bid specifications and prevent undue risk to Calgon Carbon
• Use CCC’s computer design programs to predict the performance of activated carbon in liquid and vapor applications
• Drive the set-up and monitoring of pilot trials in the field to provide design information for future full-scale systems.
• Interpret data from lab and field trials for both pilot and full-scale systems to provide technical design and operational recommendations
• Develop and present technical presentations/trainings to engineering consultants, clients, regulators, legislators, and others to influence selection of GAC / IX treatment solutions
• Coach, motivate, and lead the technical staff through changes in business conditions to prevent obsolescence technical expertise and to retain technical leadership position for Calgon Carbon in the key markets

Qualifications

• A bachelor’s degree (B.A. or B.S.), or equivalent from four-year college or university is required (Degree in Chemical Engineering is preferred)
• A master’s degree (M.A.) or equivalent is preferred
• 10 years of liquid and/or air treatment/purification experience working directly with customers, (municipal or environmental).
• Preferred Experience:
  • 5 years of experience in the application of carbon adsorption technology to address customer requirements in liquid and gas purification, including carbon modeling, equipment design and development, and equipment functionality or related academic studies.
  • 5 years of experience in the use and troubleshooting of adsorption and purification technology needs at customer sites or related academic studies. Must be able to work under general supervision with a high degree of creativity and latitude.

More about Calgon Carbon, A Kuraray Company

We are a company of scientific innovators with over 205 patents. For over 75 years, we’ve been innovating solutions to the world’s emerging challenges. Since creating the first activated carbon products from bituminous coal in the 1940s, Calgon Carbon has been a pioneer in developing advanced products, systems and services for air and water purification. Calgon Carbon’s product portfolio now encompasses more than 700 direct market applications.

Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Calgon Carbon employs approximately 1,350 people and operates 20 manufacturing, reactivation, innovation and equipment fabrication facilities in the U.S., Asia, and in Europe, where Calgon Carbon is known as Chemviron.

Calgon Carbon was acquired by Kuraray in March of 2018. With complementary products and services, the combined organization will continue to focus on providing the highest quality and most innovative activated carbon and filtration media products, equipment, and services to meet customer needs anywhere in the world.

Calgon Carbon is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.
Minorities/Females/Individuals with Disabilities/Protected Veterans
VEVRRA Federal Contractor