Frontier Materials Scientist - Platform Discovery

SP Associates; Virginia (IL); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

SP Associates seeks a pioneer researcher and scientific leader to explore frontier porous media topics and define new product categories. You will work with autonomy, report to senior R&D leadership, and title will reflect experience.

Responsibilities include scanning landscapes, designing experiments, and engaging external communities. With a track record of research originations and commercialization, you will advance computational and AI tools, communicate insights to executives, and help

Qualifications

• PhD in a STEM discipline or BS/MS with equivalent work experience.
• 10+ years of product development experience.
• First-author publications or named inventorship.
• Cross-domain literacy across the porous media landscape.
• Fluency in design of experiments and Bayesian optimization; Python preferred.
• Active external scientific network through conferences and collaborations.

Responsibilities

• Scan the porous media landscape for convergence zones and white-space opportunities.
• Formulate hypotheses, design experiments, and de-risk them at TRL 1-3.
• Publish, present, and collaborate with external partners in the scientific community.
• Apply computational and AI-assisted tools to accelerate discovery cycles.
• Communicate findings clearly to senior leadership, including decisions to pursue or kill projects.
• Identify connections between platform concepts and manufacturing capabilities.
• Lead or support commercialization of platform concepts.

Skills

Cross-domain literacy

Computational fluency

Design of experiments

Bayesian optimization

Python scripting

High-throughput experimentation

Scientific communication

Education

PhD in STEM (Chemical/Mechanical/Materials)

BS/MS with equivalent experience

Publications or inventorship

Tools

Python

Job description

SP Associates seeks a pioneer researcher and scientific leader to explore frontier porous media topics and define new product categories. You will work with autonomy, report to senior R&D leadership, and title will reflect experience.

Responsibilities include scanning landscapes, designing experiments, and engaging external communities. With a track record of research originations and commercialization, you will advance computational and AI tools, communicate insights to executives, and help