Technical Director

Job summary

Lead the development and commercialization of household and consumer chemical products from laboratory formulation to full-scale production. Manage a technical team while personally contributing to complex formulation work and troubleshooting manufacturing processes.

Job details

Technical Director – Product Development & Commercialization Location: Etobicoke, Ontario We are recruiting a Technical Director – Product Development & Commercialization for a large North American CPG manufacturer of household and consumer chemical products. This is a senior, formulation-led technical leadership role for an accomplished product-development chemist who understands not only how to develop high-performing formulations, but how to successfully take those formulations from the laboratory through scale-up and commercial manufacturing. This is not a purely administrative R&D leadership position. The successful candidate will remain technically engaged, personally contributing to complex formulation work, troubleshooting and commercialization while leading and developing a broader technical team. What You'll Do Lead the development and reformulation of laundry detergents, dishwashing products, surface cleaners and other household and consumer chemical products. Translate customer requirements, performance targets and cost objectives into commercially viable formulations. Apply deep knowledge of surfactants and other functional ingredients, including builders, enzymes, polymers, solvents, rheology modifiers, fragrances and preservatives. Personally contribute to complex formulation, experimentation and technical troubleshooting. Lead products from laboratory formulation through testing, pilot trials, plant scale-up and full commercial production. Establish critical processing parameters including mixing, temperature, shear, order of addition, processing time and finished-product specifications. Troubleshoot stability, viscosity, separation, foaming, ingredient interactions, processing conditions and packaging compatibility. Work closely with Operations and Engineering to ensure formulations can be manufactured safely, consistently and economically. Identify raw-material and formulation opportunities that reduce cost without compromising performance or quality. Serve as a senior technical contact for customers throughout product development and commercialization. Partner with Quality and Regulatory on ingredient compliance, product claims, SDS documentation, registrations and technical specifications. Lead, mentor and develop product-development chemists and technical laboratory personnel. Help shape longer-term product, technology and innovation strategy. What We're Looking For Bachelor's degree in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering or a related scientific discipline. An advanced degree is an asset. 10+ years of progressive, hands-on formulation and product-development experience. Significant experience developing surfactant-based formulations. Strong understanding of raw-material functionality and ingredient interactions. Demonstrated experience taking formulations from laboratory development through scale-up and successful commercial manufacturing. Experience troubleshooting complex formulation and manufacturing problems. Strong understanding of formulation economics, including balancing performance, raw-material cost and manufacturing feasibility. Experience leading and developing chemists, scientists or other technical personnel. Experience within chemical manufacturing, CPG, private-label or contract manufacturing environments. Working knowledge of Canadian and U.S. regulatory requirements affecting household and consumer chemical products. Particularly Valuable Experience Candidates with direct experience in one or more of the following areas will be especially relevant: Laundry detergent and fabric-care chemistry Automatic and manual dishwashing formulations Household and institutional cleaning products Concentrated cleaning products PVA-based unit-dose systems and pods Liquid and powder formulations Surfactants, builders, enzymes and polymers Major-brand or private-label product development Contract manufacturing Sustainable chemistry and ingredient substitution Raw-material and formulation cost optimization The Successful Candidate You are a technically accomplished formulator who is equally credible in the laboratory, on the manufacturing floor, with a customer's technical team and in discussions with senior leadership. You understand that the best formulation is not simply the one that performs best in the lab. It must also be stable, scalable, manufacturable, compliant and economically viable. Success in this role will be measured by your ability to turn chemistry into commercially successful products: accelerating development, achieving reliable scale-up, solving difficult technical problems, improving formulation economics and building a strong technical organization.

What you’ll do

Lead the development and commercialization of household and consumer chemical products from laboratory formulation to full-scale production. Manage a technical team while personally contributing to complex formulation work and troubleshooting manufacturing processes.

Requirements

Requires a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering with over 10 years of hands-on experience in surfactant-based formulation and product scale-up. Must have a proven track record of leading technical teams within a CPG or chemical manufacturing environment.

Listed skills

• Regulatory Compliance · Preferred
• Quality Control · Preferred
• Troubleshooting · Preferred
• Product Development · Preferred
• Project management · Preferred

Other relevant skills

Identified from the job description. Confirm important requirements above.

• Product Development
• Chemical Formulation
• Scale-up
• Commercialization
• Surfactant Chemistry
• Technical Leadership
• Troubleshooting
• Regulatory Compliance
• Cost Optimization
• Project Management
• Laboratory Management
• Process Engineering
• Quality Control
• R&D Strategy
• Mentoring
• CPG Manufacturing

Job areas

• Science & Research
• Manufacturing
• Engineering
• Management & Leadership