Sr. Materials Scientist

Elinor Coatings, LLC.; Fargo (ND); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Elinor Coatings, LLC. seeks a Safety & Laboratory Manager to oversee lab safety, QA/QC, and analytical testing across incoming materials and finished coatings. You will lead qualification efforts, establish testing protocols, and drive root-cause investigations for material failures.

The role requires collaboration with scientists and management, mentoring of staff, and ensuring audit-ready documentation and compliance with AS9100 standards.

Qualifications

• Experience maintaining safety, QA/QC, and compliance in a laboratory.
• Ability to lead analytical testing and material qualification.
• Strong collaboration with scientists and management on investigations.

Responsibilities

• Maintain laboratory activities in accordance with safety, quality, and operational requirements.
• Promote a safe, clean, organized, and compliant laboratory environment.
• Lead analytical testing and qualification of incoming raw materials.
• Establish protocols for aging, volatile, and humidity-sensitive inventory.
• Review CoAs, data, submittals, and certifications against internal specs.
• Evaluate materials for degradation, moisture ingress, and other quality concerns.
• Investigate batch failures and off-spec product performance.
• Oversee incoming material inspection and documentation traceability.
• Perform advanced analytical testing using FTIR, UV-Vis, DSC, TGA, rheology, GC/MS, and microscopy.
• Lead coating and material failure investigations to identify root causes.
• Develop and refine analytical methods for consistency and rigor.
• Lead thermomechanical and environmental stress testing (aging, UV, humidity, etc.).
• Interpret data and provide recommendations for formulation and process improvements.
• Maintain independence per AS9100 requirements; communicate objective findings.
• Serve as technical resource and mentor staff across analytical practices.
• Prioritize and lead multiple QC programs and cross-functional initiatives.
• Develop and maintain QA/QC SOPs and controlled documents.

Skills

Quality assurance

Analytical leadership

Collaboration

Mentoring

Documentation

Tools

FTIR

UV-Vis

DSC

TGA

Rheology

GC/MS

Microscopy

Spectroscopy

Job description

Safety & Laboratory Management

• Maintain laboratory activities in accordance with established safety, quality, and operational requirements.
• Promote a safe, clean, organized, and compliant laboratory environment consistent with Elinor protocols.

Material Characterization & Quality Control

• Lead analytical testing and qualification of incoming raw materials, including resins, polymers, binders, solvents, pigments, extenders, and functional additives.
• Establish and execute protocols for evaluating aging, volatile, and humidity-sensitive chemical inventory.
• Review CoAs, technical data, material submittals, and manufacturer certifications against internal specifications.
• Evaluate materials for degradation, contamination, cross-linking, phase separation, moisture ingress, and other quality concerns.
• Investigate batch failures, nonconforming materials, and off-spec product performance.
• Oversee incoming material inspection, testing documentation, and traceability records.

Independent Analytical & Failure-Mode Evaluation

• Perform advanced analytical testing using FTIR, UV-Vis, DSC, TGA, rheology, GC/MS, microscopy, spectroscopy, and environmental/mechanical methods.
• Lead coating and material failure investigations to identify root causes and recommend mitigation strategies.
• Develop and refine analytical methods to ensure consistency, repeatability, and scientific rigor.

Stress Testing & Reliability Assessment

• Lead thermal cycling, humidity, UV, abrasion, chemical resistance, accelerated aging, and other reliability testing.
• Interpret analytical and performance data and provide recommendations for formulation, process, and product improvements.

Quality Oversight & AS9100 Independence

• Maintain required independence from formulation, product modification, and disposition decisions in accordance with AS9100 requirements.
• Generate and communicate objective analytical findings, quality assessments, and technical recommendations.
• Provide independent analytical evidence supporting corrective-action and nonconformance investigations without exercising disposition authority.

Technical Leadership & Collaboration

• Serve as a technical resource for material performance, degradation, substrate interactions, analytical methods, and quality-control matters.
• Collaborate with scientists, managers, leadership, and customers on analytical investigations, testing programs, and quality requirements.
• Mentor scientists and technicians in analytical techniques, data interpretation, and quality-control practices.
• Prioritize and lead multiple QC evaluation programs and cross-functional analytical initiatives.

Documentation & Compliance

• Develop and maintain QA/QC SOPs, controlled documents, testing records, and supporting documentation to ensure traceability and audit readiness.

Other Duties

• Perform other duties as assigned.

Elinor Coatings, LLC accelerates custom development of chromate-free anti-corrosion and specialty coatings and metal protection systems for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). We pioneer metal-rich solutions for aluminum, magnesium and titanium and the latest universal primers to protect against galvanic corrosion where steel and lightweight substrates meet. We address the toughest corrosion issues and provide longer-lasting readiness for vehicles, communication systems, superstructures, weapon systems and general deployment with agile surface solutions in convenient packaging designed for safer, cleaner, hassle-free application on land and at sea in all types of climates.