R&D Director

CK Science are seeking an R&D Director to join a Cutting-Edge, Super-Exciting, Advanced-Materials-Based start-up in the Heart of Miami on a permanent full-time basis.

Location : Miami, FL

Salary : $160,000 (may be some flexibility for the right candidate)

This position will have huge involvement in the science work in a hands-on role, alongside providing leadership and mentoring the team of bright junior scientists.

Role & Responsibilities

• Lead and manage a growing team of research scientists across all product lines.
• Ensure safe conditions and operation of laboratory.
• Ensure project plans are developed and implemented; assist team to overcome obstacles and adjust plans as needed; communicate progress against milestones.
• In collaboration with management, develop capital and expense budget to support project plans; monitor spending against budget.
• Manage portfolio of projects across team to ensure balancing of resources and progress against plans.
• Collaborate with scientific team, business development, and management in the development of business cases for new projects, go to market strategies, supplier relationships, and other key commercial activities.
• Actively participate and direct scale-up and product development efforts interacting with external partners.
• Collaborate with management team on developing go-to-market strategies, supplier relationships, and other key commercial activities.
• Director of R&D will report to the President Materials

Requirements

Candidates should be highly motivated and hard-working individuals who will thrive in a collaborative and fast-paced work environment.

Candidates should have experience directly supervising and managing teams in a lab environment and proven leadership skills.

Demonstrated capabilities to progress R&D through scale-up and prototyping, such as process engineering or comparable experience. Candidates should be able to anticipate scale-up / prototyping challenges and formulate strategies to efficiently resolve barriers to scale-up.

Candidates should also be capable of independent research, data analysis, critical thinking and next step experimental design.

Excellent spoken and written communication skills are critical as our candidate must be able to present results to technical and non-technical strategic partners in a concise and compelling manner.

Candidates should have a PhD (or equivalent) preferred from a leading university. Academic studies or equivalent experience should include a focus in chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science and / or physics.

5+ years experience in a related field, including 2+ years experience in a supervisory capacity.