Senior/Chief Scientist R&D -1471

Posted 8/24/2026 · last confirmed live 8/26/2026

We are seeking a pioneer researcher and scientific leader who works best at the frontier of a field, defines their own questions, and is energized by the absence of a roadmap. Your mandate will be to identify, investigate, and de-risk platform-level opportunities in porous media materials and mechanisms that could define entirely new product categories. You will report directly to senior R&D leadership and operate with genuine scientific autonomy. Title will depend on experience and track record in the industry. Essential Functions and Responsibilities Scan the porous media landscape nonwovens, polymer membranes, metamaterials, and other fibrous structures for convergence zones and white-space opportunities invisible from within a single material class. Formulate original research hypotheses, design experiments to de-risk them, and execute at TRL 1-3 with full scientific independence. Build and maintain an active presence in the external scientific community: publish, present, collaborate with academic partners, and serve as the scientific antenna in your domain. Apply computational and AI-assisted tools, including high-throughput experimentation, design of experiments, and Bayesian optimization, to accelerate discovery cycles. Communicate findings clearly to senior R&D and executive leadership: what you found, what it means, and, just as importantly, what you killed and why. Identify opportunities to connect emerging platform concepts to existing technical and manufacturing capabilities where genuine synergy exists. Lead or support the commercialization of platform concepts. Education and Experience PhD in a STEM discipline - Chemical, Mechanical, Materials Science, or another porous-media-related discipline or BS/MS degree with equivalent work experience. A track record of originating research and successful commercialization. First-author publications in peer-reviewed journals and/or named inventorship, not just assignee. 10+ years of product development experience. Cross-domain literacy across the porous media landscape, with deep expertise in at least one material class. Computational and AI fluency: proficiency in design of experiments and Bayesian optimization required; Python or equivalent scripting for data analysis strongly preferred; familiarity with high-throughput experimentation platforms or closed-loop optimization systems is a real differentiator. An active, generative external scientific network, demonstrated through conference participation, invited presentations, peer-review activity, or academic collaborations. The intellectual disposition to propose ideas that contradict current product logic and defend them with data. Previous technology scouting experience.

This role is published by SP Associates on workable. SwiftFit is not the employer and does not accept applications.