Lubricants R&D Chemist — Formulation & Scale-Up

Actalent; New Berlin (WI); On-site; USD 100,000 - 125,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Dental benefits

Vision benefits

401k match

Year end bonuses

Paid vacation

Paid holidays

Job summary

Actalent in New Berlin, WI is seeking a hands-on R&D Chemist to lead formulation and re-formulation efforts and to drive product improvements.

The role focuses on lubrication chemistry, scale-up from lab to production, and maintaining rigorous documentation and safety compliance while collaborating with cross-functional teams. This permanent, onsite position offers competitive pay and a comprehensive benefits package.

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience with formulation chemistry, including developing and re-formulating products.
• Lubricants or lubricant additives background, with familiarity in industrial lubricants and metalworking fluids.
• Experience in R&D within a chemistry or related technical environment.
• Ability to support scale-up activities, transitioning formulas from lab development to production.
• Strong analytical chemistry and wet chemistry skills for evaluating product performance and quality.
• Proven ability to troubleshoot product formulas, customer issues, and batch-related problems.
• Capability to perform root cause analysis (RCA) for quality and performance issues.
• Capability to prepare and maintain technical, regulatory, compliance, and quality documentation.
• Solid understanding of safety and compliance practices in an R&D and quality laboratory setting.

Responsibilities

• Perform research and development activities, including formulation and re-formulation, to create new products and improve existing formulas.
• Investigate, evaluate, and qualify new raw materials for use in existing and new product formulations.
• Troubleshoot customer product issues and internal batch issues as they arise, providing timely and effective technical solutions.
• Collaborate with operations, customers, and technical support staff to scale up formulations from the laboratory into full operations and production environments.
• Evaluate product performance through testing and analysis, and implement corrective actions to ensure product conformance to specifications and customer requirements.
• Prepare and maintain comprehensive technical documentation for all projects, including regulatory and compliance information, formula and batch records, and quality-related documentation.
• Perform quality testing at all stages of product development and production, and investigate quality concerns using root cause analysis (RCA) to identify and correct issues.
• Maintain up-to-date safety and compliance information related to products, raw materials, and laboratory activities.
• Balance longer-term development projects, such as new products for specific customers or industries, with shorter-term projects focused on troubleshooting and raw material qualification.
• Work effectively as an individual contributor while partnering closely with quality, operations, customers, and technical services teams to support product performance and customer satisfaction.]
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Skills

Formulation chemistry

Lubricants

R&D experience

Scale-up

Analytical chemistry

Troubleshooting

Root cause analysis

Documentation

Safety & compliance

Job description

Actalent in New Berlin, WI is seeking a hands-on R&D Chemist to lead formulation and re-formulation efforts and to drive product improvements.

The role focuses on lubrication chemistry, scale-up from lab to production, and maintaining rigorous documentation and safety compliance while collaborating with cross-functional teams. This permanent, onsite position offers competitive pay and a comprehensive benefits package.