Job Description

Your Job

You’re not the person who will settle for just any role. Neither are we. Because we’re out to create Better Care for a Better World, and that takes a certain kind of person and teams who care about making a difference. Here, you’ll bring your professional expertise, talent, and drive to building and managing our portfolio of iconic, ground-breaking brands. In your Lead Materials Scientist role, you’ll help us deliver better care for billions of people around the world.

It starts with YOU.

We are seeking a Lead Material Scientist in the consumer products industry to support the Personal Care (PC) sector in Neenah, Wisconsin. Specifically, this role is for a material lead to identify, develop, and qualify materials for use in Kimberly Clark Personal Care (PC) products and projects. The scope of work is focused on the qualification and commercialization of raw materials with business unit partners. The role is a key to leading materials efforts bridged to product developers, manufacturing, procurement, and material vendors to meet the needs of the consumer.

Scientists at Kimberly Clark work as a member of the Research and Engineering (R&E) team to develop and implement a new product, process, material, or technology concept. The Scientist for this role will work with fast-moving consumer products, supporting the development of Personal Care consumable products. They will provide leadership in the design, development, and optimization of, typically, Nonwoven and Absorbent Materials for consumer product solutions, supporting the K-C brand plans.

The role requires expertise in developing and commercializing material technologies as part of a cross-functional team. Knowledge of materials and the performance relationship to hygienic product systems is a benefit. The role requires excellent communication skills including networking and partnership with product developers, process development engineers, and other materials scientists to develop and commercialize new materials. Team members typically have leadership responsibility in one or more projects as well as support roles in one or more other initiatives.  In this role, the incumbent will also be expected to manage the vendor relationship with external partners and coordinate material development activities with key suppliers and production locations mainly in North America, but also internationally, as required.

Responsibilities include identifying customer needs in both short and long term, identifying and developing material solutions to meet those needs, proving technical feasibility, and commercialization. The role also requires the capability to comply with and improve a change control process with regulated product, working with quality, regulatory, and product safety.

Scope:

The candidate reports to an R&E Manager and works closely with Technical Leaders and Senior Scientists.
The candidate should be able to develop their own working plans and manage change control associated with materials changes for FDA regulated Class I products.
This role will work in conjunction with the PC R&E Product and Process Teams, Project Teams, Supply Chain (incl. K-C Global NonWovens Teams), External suppliers, and other PC cross-functional organizations.
As the entire Personal Care (PC) R&E Materials team works as one team, there may be a need to adjust accountabilities and flow to work in order to meet business priorities.

Key Responsibilities:

Develop and lead material qualification plans in partnership with Product, Process, Manufacturing, and Supply teams.
Collaborate with Product teams to understand consumer needs and product performance targets.
Collaborate with PC project teams and ensure development/commercialization work for material qualification is effectively progressed.
Collaborate with key material suppliers to develop relationships and technologies to accelerate innovation to our consumers
Mentor junior scientists.
Ensure all work complies with corporate safety, regulatory, product safety, and sustainability requirements.