Executive Recruitment Consultant at Monroe Consulting Group is currently working with an established manufacturing company specializing in polyurethane-based materials and technical components for the footwear and consumer goods manufacturing industry. The company focuses on product development, material innovation, production scale-up, and quality-driven manufacturing processes for customized polyurethane applications.
Job Description
- The Chemist / Polyurethane Specialist will be responsible for conducting polyurethane compound development trials from laboratory scale, sample scale, to production scale. This includes formulation experiments, reaction parameter checks, material testing, and sample validation before mass production.
- The role will conduct and review various material and product performance tests, including drop testing, force resistance, aging, hydrolysis, tensile strength, tear strength, elongation, compression set, bonding, abrasion, color matching, hardness, density, and thickness evaluation.
- The successful candidate will operate and support sample trials using pouring machines and sample molds, while ensuring product samples meet the required physical, cosmetic, and quality specifications before further testing or customer review.
- This role will establish, review, and improve SOPs across the production process, including raw material storage, material preparation, mixing, machine setup, pouring parameters, curing time, slicing process, packing process, and related production stages.
- The Chemist / Polyurethane Specialist will work closely with Production and QC teams during first-batch production to monitor processing windows, product quality, production capacity, and any required technical adjustments before commercialization or mass production.
- The role will provide technical troubleshooting support when abnormalities occur during production, including quality issues, process deviations, material concerns, or product defects.
- The successful candidate will also support QA/QC activities by ensuring incoming material parameters, COA, lot number, shelf life, storage conditions, FIFO implementation, material preparation, and SOP adherence are properly controlled.
- This position will collaborate with the Sales team to understand customer feedback, quality concerns, and new product development requirements, while translating technical findings into practical improvement actions.
- The role will also be expected to drive innovation in polyurethane materials, machines, and processes, as well as identify cost-efficiency opportunities within polyurethane operations.
Requirements
- Minimum 10 years of experience in chemical, polyurethane, polymer, foam, rubber, plastic, footwear component, or related manufacturing industries.
- Strong hands-on experience in polyurethane compound development, formulation trials, material testing, and production scale-up.
- Good understanding of polyurethane processing, including pouring machine operation, molding, curing, slicing, and production troubleshooting.
- Familiar with laboratory and physical property testing, including tensile, tear strength, elongation, compression set, bonding, aging, abrasion, color, hardness, density, and thickness testing.
- Strong knowledge of QA/QC processes, including incoming material inspection, COA checking, lot control, shelf-life monitoring, storage condition control, FIFO system, SOP compliance, and product quality evaluation.
- Experience in developing, reviewing, and improving SOPs for manufacturing or production processes.
- Able to work closely with cross-functional teams, including Production, QA, QC, Sales, and other related departments.
- Strong analytical thinking, problem-solving ability, attention to detail, and technical judgment.
- Hands-on, structured, proactive, and improvement-oriented.
- Good communication skills with the ability to explain technical findings clearly and provide practical recommendations.
- Bachelor's degree in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Polymer Science, Material Science, or a related technical field is preferred.
- Experience in polyurethane foam, molded polyurethane, footwear components, or customer-driven manufacturing standards will be an advantage.
