Staff Chemist III

Staff Chemist III

Requirements

• Typically requires a University Degree and minimum 8 years prior relevant experience or an Advanced Degree in a related field and minimum 5 years of experience or in absence of a degree, 12 years of relevant experience
• U.S. Person (U.S. citizen, permanent resident, or granted refugee or asylee status) as defined here: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-22/chapter-I/subchapter-M/part-120/subpart-C/section-120.62

Responsibilities

• Evaluate and optimize pyrotechnic, and propellant formulations, and inhibitor, liner, and adhesive formulations and application methods
• Identify replacements for obsolete materials and prepare and conduct test plans to qualify new materials
• Review customer requests for proposal of energetic materials or systems and develop a technical response including a program plan and associated cost estimates. Help prepare proposals to attract new business involving development and application of energetic materials
• Communicate and meet with customer representatives, as required, to provide technical information, chemical evaluation, and verbal and/or written information regarding the program status
• Represent Collins at technical conferences, symposiums, meetings and workshops, and collect and disseminate information from the energetics community among co-workers at Collins
• Prepare or assist in preparing manufacturing procedures involving energetic materials, and develop supporting technical documents and drawings to meet in-house and contract data requirements
• Analyze failures and/or out-of-specification conditions and modify the procedures, as required, to provide solutions. Participate in failure investigations
• Perform in-process and product acceptance tests for powder processing, propellant processing, and other groups. These tests include particle size, surface area, heat of explosion, DSC, FTIR, vacuum stability and electron and optical microscopy studies
• Perform theoretical and actual chemical calculations and analyses relating to energetic materials for engineering and manufacturing
• Research and development of next generation pyrotechnic and energetic materials and propellants, including preparation of white papers, scope of work, program schedules, cost, and resource allocation with the assistance of program management and planning
• Preparation of reports, and other documentation to support engineering and manufacturing efforts
• Safely handle sensitive energetic materials and loaded parts
• Assist in conducting Process Hazard Analysis and Process Failure Mode and Effect sessions for operations involving energetic materials
• Apply personal work ethics, which result in programs being completed within stated budgets and schedules, with a primary emphasis on safety
• Communication skills (verbal as well as written), technical competence, leadership and planning skills are important to effective performance
• Originality is very important, particularly in the areas of design and problem analysis
• Initiative plays a major role in this position
• Performance under unusual or extreme pressure is often required to meet schedules, to perform analysis and implement solutions and to meet changing customer requirements
• Occasional off-site travel

Preferred Qualifications

• Previous experience with the energetic material is preferred