Sr Engineer R & D

The Polymer Modified Asphalt Engineer (PMA Engineer) is critical to the Owens Corning Roofing Business as modified asphalt materials represent a significant and growing portion of our product portfolio, including our Duration Flex® Impact Resistant shingles, sealants and adhesives, and other applications. As a PMA Engineer, you will be responsible for designing, implementing, and optimizing manufacturing process solutions for new or improved PMA formulations, and you will collaborate with our operations, capital delivery, and quality teams to ensure our existing PMA materials are manufactured efficiently and with the highest quality. You will also be responsible for delivering supply security and margin enhancement through PMA formulation development, qualification trials, and optimization by integrating strong material science and process fundamentals to our polymer modified asphalt applications. The work will include process development, operations support, formulation optimization, lab testing and prototyping, improving scale-up capabilities, pilot and plant trials, data collection and analysis, cross-functional project management, and partnership with external vendors.

The position is located at Owens Corning’s Asphalt R&D Lab in Summit, IL with regular travel to our Science & Technology Center in Granville, OH and various manufacturing plant locations in North America. The PMA Engineer will work closely with other team members on the Asphalt R&D Team, and with a range of stakeholders from Components R&D, Shingle R&D, Commercial Asphalt Business, Operations, Quality, Sourcing, Product Management, Legal, and our customers. Owens Corning is a leader in the building materials industry with a $4.4 billion Roofing Business operating asphalt and roofing manufacturing locations across the US and globally.

Reports to: Asphalt R&D Leader

Span of Control:  Individual contributor who works across PMA-based processes and products within the Roofing business

PMA Process Development and Operations Support (50%)

• Support the design and optimization of PMA manufacturing processes to improve efficiency, quality, and safety in partnership with Operations, Stable Ops, and Capital Engineering
• Development and implement improved process control systems and quality control testing to monitor and improve process performance
• Provide technical leadership and collaborate with other PMA Scientists, Product Developers, and Process Engineers to develop new products and improve existing ones during scale-up and plant trials, and provide oversight on all third-party operations
• Work with the Roofing operations teams in Asphalt, Shingles, and Components to troubleshoot and resolve PMA process issues
• Develop innovation capabilities by introducing new or improved scale-up and pilot plant processes which enable better, faster and cheaper iterations of formulation designs that translate from lab to production
• Support the development and maintenance of process documentation, including standard operating procedures, batch records, and process flow diagrams
• Perform process simulations and analysis to identify areas for improvement
• Partner with Operations and Quality to monitor and analyze key process and batch parameters to identify trends and potential issues
• Stay current with industry developments and trends, and incorporate new technologies and practices into our processes
• Collaborate with Operations and Sourcing to ensure supply security of raw material for our roofing products that lever PMA materials to mitigate supply chain management risks 

Development of PMA Formulation Science and Technology (45%)

• Evaluate and optimize PMA formulations to enhance manufacturing productivity, ensure quality, and/or mitigate supply risks for current PMA-based products based on a fundamental understanding of material science and manufacturing processes leveraging lab characterization methods and scale-up capabilities
• Participate in project teams in the development of new or improved PMA products including project reviews and stage-gate processes
• Lead scale-up pilot and production trials to ensure laboratory properties of PMA are translated into our manufacturing processes and finished product
• Collaborate with operations and sourcing to ensure supply security of raw material for our PMA-based products to mitigate sourcing and supply chain management risks
• Support the development of more defined scale-up and mimic tests to ensure end-product baseline and differentiated performance requirements are obtained
• Support ongoing needs of the business as we grow our position in the asphalt roofing business

Industry and External Collaboration (5%)

• Participate as a representative of Owens Corning in industry activities including asphalt industry meetings, technical conferences, ASTM, and vendor/supplier related activities
• Provide periodic updates to the business and other Roofing R&D Team members on trends in the industry from technical process and material innovation
• Spot industry trends and leverage external resources to provide new insights, resources, and technologies where needed to advance our capability and competitive advantage in this area

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in chemical engineering, material science, polymer science, or related field
• 5 or more years of industry experience in chemical engineering, polymer or polymer modified asphalt manufacturing, or related position
• Strong knowledge of material science and chemistry
• Experience in process design, optimization, or similar continuous improvement process projects
• Demonstrated project management skills with ability to work independently and in a team
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills to effectively translate data, knowledge, and insights to multifunctional audiences to provide operations support, technical leadership, and project direction
• Demonstrated commitment to workplace safety: our safety stand is all accidents are preventable; safety is everyone’s responsibility and working safely is a condition of employment
• Demonstrated commitment to Inclusion & Diversity: our I&D aspiration is that all employees are heard and appreciated for the value each distinct voice brings to the team; it doesn’t matter where you are on the I&D journey, as long as you are on the journey
• Up to 50% travel is needed to deliver project work and process support

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Experience in manufacturing operations with polymer-related or material conversion processes
• Experience in developing, optimizing, or second-sourcing formulations based on benchtop material characterization and scale-up from pilot to production
• Experience translating operations-defined needs and product specifications to optimized process designs and material formulations
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to troubleshoot complex issues
• Innovative mindset and the agility to adapt to and mitigate risks in an ever-changing business

Join an organization that believes that every employee owns a piece of our bold growth goals and ultimate success. We are a market-leading innovator that has placed on the Fortune 500®. Owens Corning is devoted to delivering sustainable solutions across our three business segments while striving to ensure our people and products make the world a better place. We take pride in having an inclusive and diverse workplace with employees around the globe. A holistic sense of community exists across our entire organization as our talent grows globally. We are a company that fully recognizes the importance of paving a path to a sustainable and safe enterprise through investing in our people. Our desire to make an impactful difference in the world flows from top down to all levels of the organization. By being a company that instills pride within each and every employee, we aspire to build market-leading businesses; global in scope - human in scale.