R&D Specialist - Formulation Chemist

Looking for an outside the box thinker with a knowledge of chemistry with a passion for physically testing, experimenting and compounding or creating new products or new uses for existing products! Products/formulas and projects would span 2 industries: adhesives/sealants/tapes and natural cleaning products. A very hands on role, the work done will directly result in growth and success of the company! A fast growing company, opportunities for career advancement and increases in compensation.

 www.forzabuilt.com Forza is a leading manufacturer of industrial adhesives, tapes & sealants. Creating products & solutions that outperform, we exist to help industrial distributors and manufactures optimize their products, operations or own solutions. This includes producing and creating quality and innovative products, customized solutions tailored to each specific customer and application, and customer support that goes above and beyond.

www.formoclean.com Formoclean is a subsidiary of Forza, that manufactures safer and better for you cleaning products for consumer and industrial use. We are on a mission to develop and bring to market products that are not only better for you and the environment, but that truly do work.

Fast growing with aggressive goals and targets, we are looking to add to our small but growing team to build a core of integral team members who will help Forza & Formoclean sustain its growth and get to the next level. Today's core team will be tomorrows leaders within in the company.

R&D / Testing

• Research and test new product innovations
• Prepare reports based on testing findings
• Test products according to customer/prospect requirements to assist in sales process
• Test and further develop existing products
• Formulation Development of new products
• Reverse Formulation of competitor products
• Help prepare new product innovations for production or sale
• Test newly sourced products in comparison to existing products or product/project requirements
• Document every step of testing thoroughly
• Review and test as needed competitor products and make recommendations from existing product range or relay product requirements to sourcing team to source
• Review new applications and test products and make recommendations for best options based on criteria received from sales team
• Oversee and manage testing, certification, etc that may be required on a product by product basis
• Collaborate with operations and production on bringing production in house for products as applicable
• Test products to standards as set out by customers and or industry standards
• Test and prepare filing documents for products to be rated or certified for certain standards
• Take products from testing/lab production phase to floor production

Technical Resource

• Review of SDS and TDS for compliance
• Help with preparation of SDS and TDS
• Research and advise on questions regarding technical nature, formulations, compliance etc

Lab Work

• Ensure lab is clean and in compliance
• Ensure regular calibration of lab equipment
• Perform lab batches and tests on products as required

A day in the life might include: 

• Testing the strength of a new adhesive through pull tests etc
• Confirming viscosity of an adhesive
• Trying 3 or 4 different adhesives to determine the best fit for a specific substrate
• Tweaking an existing formula of a cleaning product to suit it better to a specific application
• Working on a formulation for a new adhesive or cleaning product
• Testing a cleaning product to determine its effectiveness
• Researching ways to improve or reduce costs of a formula by substituting different raw materials
• Comparing a competitors adhesive or cleaning product and recommending an alternative
• Providing technical assistance to the sales/marketing team on products
• Creating sample batches of cleaning products to send to potential customers
• Creating a mock up batch and transferring to full scale production
• Creating a report from testing to submit to sales, or submit to a customer
• And much more!

Requirements:

• Bachelors Degree
• Knowledge, comfort and experience with chemistry
• Experience with lab equipment used for testing
• Self motivated and self driven
• Comfortable with change and fast moving environment
• Ambitious - want to create and build a career
• Open to constructive criticism and suggestions for improvement
• Ability to identify what needs to be done and take action to complete it without it being explicitly directed or laid out in a job description or defined duties
• Not have to be micromanaged - but comfortable with having many eyes on your work. (small company plus an important role!)
• Not looking for a job that is low stakes, low pressure and easily learned or easy to slot into.