Materials Scientist

The Materials Scientist supports the development and commercialization of a wide variety of composite materials and processes to drive profitable business growth working closely with others in the Research and Development Center and Business Segment as well as externally with suppliers and customers. The candidate should have a deep understanding of the chemical and physical properties of materials and how they behave and interact.

Responsibilities And Duties

• Drive and independently lead projects associated with thermoset composites, including new product development, study of material interactions, and fundamental resin chemistry.
• Work closely with each market segment to ensure alignment with strategic goals.
• Lead and support process changes, raw material changes, and quality issues related to existing and new products across multiple manufacturing locations.
• Complete technical reports with analysis and findings.
• Analyze experimental data, summarize key findings, and report out in team settings.
• Work with the sales team to leverage technical findings and product properties for share gains.
• Establish relationships with customers to capture VOC and product application insight
• Stay current in latest technology in the composites industry and seek out new materials, ideas, and concepts to develop differentiated, innovative prototypes with potential for scale-up.
• Work on advanced, complex technical projects or business issues requiring state-of-the-art technical or industry knowledge.

Qualifications And Competencies

• Minimum of 8 years of experience with materials development specifically in composites, resin formulation, or other polymer applications. Significant experience in project leadership.
• BS in Materials Science, Chemistry, Engineering or other suitable technical field required, advanced degree preferred.
• Communicate and work cross-functionally to understand materials requirements and provide feedback based on materials expertise.
• Entrepreneurial in nature.
• Extensive hands-on experience with mechanical testing and physical and chemical properties of materials
• Experience with composites manufacturing preferred, including but not limited to: open molding and close molding, pultrusion, extrusion, injection molding, compression molding
• Formulation and compounding with a wide variety of materials, including but not limited to:

thermoset resins, thermoplastics, fibers, films and coatings, nanocomposites, composites additives, “Green” materials and processes including recycling

• Experience with commercial continuous manufacturing processes.
• Process development experience, including small scale to large commercial scale.
• Experience with Matlab, Minitab, Python, R, or other programming tools
• Development of intellectual property
• Desirable technical skills other than strong polymer chemistry skills include: analytical instrumentation, statistics, design of experiment, mathematical modeling methods, finite element analysis

Company Summary

Crane Composites Inc. is the world’s leading provider of fiber-reinforced composite materials. We manufacture fiberglass-reinforced plastic (FRP) panels and coils used primarily in the manufacturing of recreational vehicles, truck bodies and truck trailers, and commercial and industrial buildings.

Since 1954, Crane Composites has pioneered numerous patented technologies for industrial and commercial product applications. We have built a proven reputation for industry leadership by partnering with customers and suppliers to deliver advanced, industry-leading solutions.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity. Our goal is to have a diverse workforce representative of the communities where we are located. All employment decisions are based on qualifications, merit, and business needs.