Role OverviewThe Manager, R&D - Electronics plays a critical role in driving product innovation, formulation development, and commercialization across Chase Corporation's Electronic Materials Solutions (EMS) business. This hands-on leadership role actively supports laboratory, pilot, and manufacturing environments to develop, optimize, and scale protective electronic materials, including conformal coatings, adhesives, encapsulants, and related system-level solutions.
Working cross-functionally with Sales, Marketing, Operations, Quality, Manufacturing, and Supply Chain, the Manager leads new product development, supports product commercialization, enables technology transfer into manufacturing, and aligns R&D priorities with commercial objectives. This role serves as the technical bridge between customer needs, product strategy, application requirements, and manufacturing execution.
The EMS portfolio includes protective materials serving high-reliability applications across Automotive, Aerospace, Defense, Renewable Energy, and Industrial Electronics.
Key ResponsibilitiesTeam Leadership & Program Execution- Lead, mentor, and develop the R&D team; foster accountability, execution discipline, technical rigor, and innovation.
- Align R&D portfolio priorities with business strategy, customer requirements, regulatory standards, and commercial growth objectives.
- Manage new product development projects through structured stage-gate processes, including project scope, timelines, documentation, resource allocation, and execution tracking.
- Drive cross-functional coordination for pilot trials, product validation, commercialization, and technology transfer.
Technical & Product Development- Develop and optimize formulations and application-level solutions for electronic materials, including conformal coatings, adhesives, encapsulants, and related protective technologies.
- Translate market, customer, and application requirements into differentiated, manufacturable products.
- Provide hands-on technical leadership to accelerate innovation, improve performance, expand applications, and reduce time-to-market.
- Lead structured experimentation, validation, qualification, and testing protocols to ensure commercial viability and customer readiness.
- Support development and maintenance of technology roadmaps that connect current capabilities with future market and customer needs.
Manufacturing & Quality Partnership- Provide technical support across multiple manufacturing sites, including scale-up, troubleshooting, cost optimization, and process improvement.
- Collaborate with Manufacturing and Operations to ensure solutions are scalable, cost-effective, production-ready, and aligned with quality requirements.
- Ensure compliance with applicable regulatory requirements and ISO 9001 standards; support internal, external, and customer audits.
- Promote and reinforce safety standards within R&D, laboratory, pilot, and manufacturing environments.
Strategic R&D Leadership- Represent R&D in cross-functional business, product, and strategic planning forums.
- Partner with Marketing and Sales to translate customer needs, market insights, and application challenges into differentiated technical solutions.
- Develop and report KPIs tied to portfolio health, speed-to-market, project execution, cost performance, and innovation pipeline value.
- Identify and leverage synergies across business units to share technologies, platforms, processes, and best practices.
- Improve R&D effectiveness, execution discipline, and predictability through structured processes, prioritization, documentation, and performance tracking.
Qualifications- 7+ years of experience in product development, formulation development, application development, or new product introduction within electronic materials, specialty chemicals, protective coatings, adhesives, polymers, or adjacent industrial markets.
- 3+ years leading technical programs, managing R&D projects, or supervising technical staff.
- Strong background in electronic materials or related protective material technologies; experience with conformal coatings, adhesives, encapsulants, PCB assembly materials, or high-reliability electronics applications preferred.
- Experience implementing or working within structured product development processes, including stage-gate or similar project management tools.
- Strong collaboration skills with the ability to partner across R&D, Marketing, Sales, Operations, Manufacturing, Quality, and Supply Chain.
- Commercially aware technical leader with the ability to balance technical depth with business priorities, customer needs, and manufacturing realities.
- Results-oriented, hands-on leadership style with a track record of improving execution, developing technical talent, and delivering projects in fast-paced or change-oriented environments.
- Willingness to travel up to 25% to support manufacturing sites, customer engagement, technical collaboration, and product validation.
Education- Bachelor's degree in Chemistry, Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, Polymer Science, or related technical discipline required.
- Advanced degree preferred.
