Filtration R&D Engineer & Project Lead

Rush & Company; Texas; On-site; USD 75,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Rush & Company seeks a Technical Engineer / Project Manager for its Tennessee and Texas facilities with 2–5 years of experience, to support the development, scale-up, and commercialization of high‑performance filtration media and engineered nonwoven materials.

This role targets a technically curious, early‑career professional who can contribute in a team while owning defined projects, experiments, and deliverables.

Qualifications

• Required: Bachelor’s degree in Chemical, Materials, Polymer, Textile, Mechanical, or related engineering discipline, or equivalent work experience
• Required: 2-5 years of relevant experience in product development, process engineering, materials engineering, filtration, nonwovens, textiles, polymers, or manufacturing technical support
• Required: Demonstrated ability to manage project tasks, timelines, test plans, action items, and follow-through with minimal supervision
• Required: Strong technical foundation in materials, polymers, filtration concepts, process development, or engineered media performance
• Required: Comfortable working hands-on in lab, pilot, or manufacturing environments while also communicating project status to cross-functional teams
• Required: Strong communication, organization, teamwork, and problem-solving skills
• Preferred: Experience in nonwovens, filtration media, air filtration, liquid filtration, HVAC filtration, meltblown, spunbond, needlepunch, electrospinning, coating, lamination, or related converting processes
• Preferred: Familiarity with filtration performance metrics such as efficiency, pressure drop, dust holding capacity, durability, airflow, permeability, or media uniformity
• Preferred: Experience with project tracking tools, stage-gate processes, design of experiments, lab testing, data analysis, technical reporting, or customer-focused development projects.

Responsibilities

• Project Management - Primary Focus: Own defined workstreams within R&D and product development projects from concept through prototype, pilot trial, scale-up, and launch
• Build and maintain project timelines, milestones, action-item lists, test plans, and deliverable trackers
• Coordinate with Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, Commercial, and external suppliers to keep projects moving forward
• Identify technical, schedule, material, and operational risks and elevate issues with recommended solutions
• Lead regular project updates and prepare concise summaries, data reviews, and presentations for internal stakeholders
• Balance collaborative team execution with independent ownership of assigned project tasks and technical deliverables
• R&D / Technical: Support design, development, and optimization of nonwoven filtration media for air, liquid, HVAC, and industrial filtration applications
• Plan and execute lab evaluations, media trials, pilot runs, and material comparisons using structured test methods and clear documentation
• Analyze filtration and media performance metrics such as efficiency, pressure drop, airflow, permeability, durability, basis weight, uniformity, and processability
• Translate test results into practical recommendations for formulation, media construction, process conditions, and scale-up decisions
• Partner with manufacturing and operations teams to troubleshoot trials, improve process stability, and support successful transfer to production
• Maintain organized project records, test data, technical reports, and development summaries for internal and customer-facing use

Skills

Project management

Cross-functional communication

Lab & pilot work

Data analysis

Education

Bachelor's degree in Chemical, Materials, Polymer, Textile, Mechanical, or related engineering

Job description

Rush & Company seeks a Technical Engineer / Project Manager for its Tennessee and Texas facilities with 2–5 years of experience, to support the development, scale-up, and commercialization of high‑performance filtration media and engineered nonwoven materials.

This role targets a technically curious, early‑career professional who can contribute in a team while owning defined projects, experiments, and deliverables.