R&D Professional, Milliken Research Operations

About the Company

Milliken & Company is a global manufacturing leader focused on materials science, delivering innovative solutions today. From industry-leading molecules to sustainable innovations, Milliken creates products that enhance lives and provide solutions for customers and communities. With thousands of patents and applications across textile, flooring, chemical, and healthcare businesses, the company leverages integrity and excellence to positively impact the world.

About the Role

Internal analytical leader within the Research Operations Analytical group, partnering across business units and chemistry platforms to solve material and chemistry problems and define appropriate analytical strategies. This role supports polymers, chemicals, materials, and emerging technologies and is located at the corporate headquarters in Spartanburg, SC.

Responsibilities

• Use chemical and materials science principles, GC/LC/MS/HRAM, and complementary techniques to determine why products perform, fail, or change and recommend actionable solutions.
• Own GC, LC, and MS instruments and HRAM workflows, including readiness, documentation, queue discipline, data quality, method stewardship, maintenance, troubleshooting, repair coordination, and capability development.
• Define critical measurements, develop first-principles analytical strategies when the correct approach is not known, lead technical discussions, and establish testing programs.
• Solve R&D, raw material, quality, regulatory, and high-throughput analytical challenges across diverse platforms.
• Identify unknowns, monitor reactions, quantify knowns, and characterize materials from small molecules to high molecular weight polymers.
• Develop, optimize, validate, transfer, maintain, and troubleshoot sample preparation, chromatography, MS, interpretation, and reporting methods using hypothesis-driven root-cause analysis.
• Manage workstreams from sample intake through analysis, interpretation, reporting, follow-up communication, and technical recommendations.
• Partner with product development, manufacturing, regulatory, research, and business teams; communicate results in reports, tables, charts, presentations, and project discussions.
• Learn, support, and help establish complementary capabilities including separations, wet chemistry, elemental analysis, spectroscopy, microscopy, thermal analysis, and physical testing.
• Comply with all safety requirements.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree plus 4 years’ experience, Master’s degree plus 2 years’ experience, or Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry or related technical field.
• Demonstrated hands-on proficiency with chromatographic separations and mass spectrometry, including GC, LC, column selection, mobile phase design, sample preparation, method development/optimization, troubleshooting, repairs, instrument function, and HRAM analyses.
• Proven ability to develop, troubleshoot, validate, document, transfer, maintain, and steward analytical methods.
• Ability to operate effectively when the correct analytical approach is not known and analytical strategy must be developed from first principles.
• Demonstrated ability to assess data quality, recognize technique limitations, and determine when conclusions are sufficiently supported for technical or business decisions.
• Demonstrated ability to influence technical direction, mentor others, communicate across organizational levels, and/or lead when required.
• Hands-on chemical laboratory experience, including safe handling, documentation, equipment operation, and safety compliance.
• Self-motivated ability to learn complementary techniques and establish, transfer, or sustain capabilities as business or staffing needs require.
• Scientific judgment to balance strategy, rigor, speed, and cost.
• Curiosity, initiative, thoughtful questioning, creative problem solving, and effective use of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Clear technical, written, and presentation communication.

Skills

• Familiarity with complementary analytical techniques and adjacent methods that strengthen GC/LC/MS capabilities.
• Leadership potential with long-term interest in people management.
• Ability to apply data analytics or statistics to analytical chemistry problems.
• Ability to manage technical workstreams, mentor others, and support cross-training across analytical capabilities.

Schedule

Typical hours are Monday-Friday, 8:00 am-5:00 pm.