R&d Chemist

About the role

The R&D Chemist plays a key role in developing, improving, and supporting lubricant and lubricant additive products through hands-on formulation work, quality testing, and technical problem-solving. This position focuses on both long-term development projects and short-term troubleshooting initiatives, ensuring that products meet performance, quality, and regulatory requirements while successfully scaling from the lab to full production. This is a permanent position based out of New Berlin, WI.

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.

Requirements

• Hands-on experience with formulation chemistry, including developing and re-formulating products.
• Background in lubricants or lubricant additives, with familiarity in industrial lubricants and metalworking fluids.
• Experience in research and development (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.
• Competence in preparing and maintaining technical, regulatory, compliance, and quality documentation.
• Solid understanding of safety and compliance practices in an R&D and quality laboratory setting.
• Experience working with industrial lubricants and metalworking fluids in a formulation or R&D capacity.
• Background in lubrication science or lubrication-related products and additives.
• Prior exposure to quality testing processes in both R&D and production environments.
• Ability to manage a mix of long-term development projects and short-term troubleshooting assignments.
• Comfort working as an individual contributor while collaborating closely with cross-functional technical teams.
• Strong communication skills to interact effectively with operations, quality, customers, and technical services.

Benefits

• Health benefits
• Dental benefits
• Vision benefits
• 401k match
• Year-end bonuses
• Paid vacation
• Paid holiday
• Attractive benefits package

Pay

The pay range for this position is $100,000.00 - $125,000.00 per year.

Schedule

The position follows a first‑shift schedule, Monday through Friday, with flexible start and end times to support work‑life balance.