Senior Development Chemist

Job Title: Senior Formulation Chemist / Chemical Development Engineer

Salary: £47,000 – £59,000, depending on experience

Location: Bishop Auckland

Benefits

• Early finish every Friday.

• Ongoing training and professional development.

• Opportunity to lead new product development and formulation projects.

• Collaborative working environment with significant input into product development.

• Long-term career progression within an established manufacturing business.

The Company

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced chemistry professional to join an innovative and well-established manufacturing business specialising in advanced materials and surface technologies.

The business is looking for someone with a strong background in chemical formulation, laboratory testing and product development, particularly someone who has successfully taken formulations from small-scale laboratory batches through to larger-scale manufacturing.

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced Chemist or Chemical Development Engineer who enjoys hands-on laboratory work but also wants to see their formulations developed into commercially manufactured products.

Job Description

As a Senior Formulation Chemist / Chemical Development Engineer, you will take responsibility for developing, testing, optimising and scaling up chemical formulations for new and existing products.

A key part of the role will involve taking formulations developed in the laboratory and successfully transferring them into larger production volumes, ensuring consistency, performance, quality and manufacturability.

Responsibilities will include:

• Developing and improving chemical formulations for new and existing products, with a focus on performance, stability and commercial viability.

• Designing and carrying out hands-on laboratory experiments, formulation trials and material testing.

• Taking formulations from small laboratory batches through pilot trials and into full-scale manufacturing.

• Identifying and resolving challenges associated with scaling up formulations, including mixing, viscosity, processing conditions and product consistency.

• Conducting physical, chemical and performance testing to validate formulations against required specifications.

• Analysing test results and adjusting formulations to improve product performance, durability and manufacturing efficiency.

• Working closely with production and engineering teams to successfully introduce new formulations into manufacturing.

• Investigating formulation issues, product defects and manufacturing challenges through structured testing and root cause analysis.

• Supporting raw material selection, supplier trials and the introduction of alternative materials.

Skills & Experience

To be considered, you will ideally have:

• A degree in Chemistry, Applied Chemistry, Polymer Chemistry, Materials Science, Chemical Engineering or a related scientific discipline.

• Approximately 5–10 years' experience in a hands-on formulation, R&D, chemical development or product development role.

• Strong practical experience developing and modifying chemical formulations within a laboratory environment.

• Proven experience conducting laboratory testing, analysing results and improving formulations based on product performance.

• Demonstrable experience scaling formulations from small laboratory batches into larger production volumes.

• A good understanding of how formulation properties and processing conditions can change during manufacturing scale-up.

• Experience working closely with production teams to troubleshoot formulation and manufacturing issues.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to independently plan and deliver development projects.

Desirable Experience

Experience in any of the following areas would be particularly beneficial:

• Coatings, inks, paints, resins, adhesives, polymers, laminates or surface treatments.

• UV-curable coatings, radiation-cured inks or specialist chemical formulations.

• Rheology, viscosity, adhesion, curing behaviour and material compatibility.

• Pilot-scale trials, production validation and new product introduction.

• Testing material properties such as abrasion, scratch, chemical resistance, durability and adhesion.

• Design of Experiments (DoE), formulation optimisation and statistical analysis.

The Ideal Candidate

We are particularly interested in speaking with experienced chemists who have spent a significant part of their career developing formulations, testing products and solving practical challenges in the laboratory.

You will be someone who understands the chemistry behind a formulation but can also appreciate the challenges of manufacturing that product at scale.

Most importantly, you will have real hands-on experience taking a formulation from an initial laboratory batch through testing, development and ultimately into larger-scale production