Senior/Chief Scientist R&D -1471

Job description

# Senior/Chief Scientist R&D -1471 > SP Associates · Virginia, United States · — · Posted 2026-08-24 **Workplace:** on_site ## Description 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. ## Apply [Apply at SP Associates](https://apply.workable.com/sp-associates/j/44F9961A3D/apply) --- Powered by [Workable](https://www.workable.com)