Manager, R&D

About the position

RDC Coatings is a division of Apogee's Large Scale Optical (LSO) business segment. It is where the technology for energy cured industrial coatings is developed and produced. What makes our coatings successful in not our size but our team's passion for creating solutions where no one else can, it is how we win. Our R&D team is an extension to our technical service and sales team bringing customized solutions to customer's coatings line needs. In this position the R&D manager will lead a group of six or more chemists and technicians with a hands-on approach while managing priorities in alignment with business growth goals. The R&D manager will report directly to the division's R&D Vice President.

Responsibilities

• Work closely with segment leadership to establish R&D goals and priorities.
• Manage and develop technical team with varying levels of experience and education.
• Oversee NPI related process and content activity for the LSO segment. Fine tune and execute against a stage gate process.
• Support the team in generating reports and discussing project status on technical learnings, coaching, trouble shooting, and root cause analysis.
• Initiate, drive, and support continuous improvement eliminating waste and variation in processes.
• Maintain a deep understanding of our coatings, processes, and capabilities.
• Develop and leverage strong relationships with industry partners and technology leaders to keep current on industry trends.
• Partner with Sales, Marketing, and Technical Service to develop product specification documents.
• Help to develop and maintain electronic project documentation (TaskRay).
• Help to create a system to manage internal and external insights and information.
• Support and drive compliance to Apogee's safety standards and initiatives.
• Develop and manage department budget.
• Ability to travel up to 25% of the time.

Requirements

• Previous experience with new product introduction (NPI) processes.
• Hands-on solution-oriented leadership style with an entrepreneurial spirit and sense of urgency.
• Demonstrated team leadership and development.
• Excellent problem solving and root cause identification.
• Demonstrated experience managing projects with a disciplined process across functional areas and delivering outcomes on time with expected results.
• Strong communication skills.
• Experience with or knowledge of wet coating and application methods (for example: roll, spray, dip, spin, etc.).
• Knowledge and experience with film characterization and surface analysis techniques.
• Computer literacy with proficiency in the use of Microsoft Office and database information flow.
• Budget and forecast management.

Nice-to-haves

• Master's degree in a technical field.