JOB TITLE: Senior R&D Chemist - Agricultural Formulations
REPORTS TO: Chief Product Officer
STATUS: Full time, Exempt
LOCATION: On-site, Bellingham, WA
SALARY RANGE: $95,000-$135,000/year.
BENEFITS: Medical, dental, and vision insurance, optional FSA/HSA, 401k with 6% employer match, life and AD&D insurance, Employee Assistance Program, short & long term disability, tuition reimbursement, 21.67 days of paid time off + 10 holidays
JOB SUMMARY:
We are seeking an experienced R&D Chemist to develop, optimize, and scale agricultural formulations for commercial use. This role will focus on transforming active ingredients into robust, farmer-ready products that maintain performance under real-world storage, mixing, handling, and application conditions. The ideal candidate combines strong chemistry fundamentals with hands-on experience in agricultural formulation development, including compatibility, stability, scale-up, and performance across diverse farming systems. Success in this role requires a practical understanding of how products interact with fertilizers, crop protection products, water quality, storage environments, and field equipment used in modern agriculture.
Why This Role Matters:
This position plays a critical role in bringing innovative agricultural technologies from the laboratory to the field. The R&D Chemist will help ensure products are not only scientifically sound but also stable, manufacturable, compatible with agricultural systems, and reliable for growers operating at commercial scale.
While this position is being advertised as a Senior R&D Chemist, exceptional candidates whose experience and qualifications exceed the requirements of the role may be considered for a more senior position, with title and compensation commensurate with experience and qualifications.
ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:
Formulation Development
- Design, develop, and optimize liquid and suspension formulations for agricultural, biological, nutritional, and crop protection products.
- Evaluate surfactants, dispersants, preservatives, stabilizers, rheology modifiers, and other formulation components.
- Improve product performance, shelf life, handling properties, and manufacturability.
Stability & Compatibility Testing
- Design and execute accelerated and real-time stability studies.
- Assess compatibility with fertilizers, crop protection products, adjuvants, and common tank-mix partners.
- Evaluate effects of water hardness, pH, temperature cycling, freeze-thaw exposure, and storage conditions.
- Troubleshoot phase separation, sedimentation, aggregation, viscosity drift, and other formulation challenges.
Scale-Up & Manufacturing Support
- Translate bench-top formulations into pilot and commercial-scale manufacturing processes.
- Support process validation, quality standards, and manufacturing troubleshooting.
- Work closely with operations teams to ensure repeatable production and product consistency.
Agricultural Application Systems
- Evaluate formulation performance through agricultural equipment commonly used in the field, including:
- Ground sprayers
- Fertigation systems
- Seed treatment equipment
- Bulk storage and transfer systems
- Mixing and handling equipment
- Identify formulation improvements that enhance ease of use and operational reliability for growers and retailers.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Partner with agronomy, regulatory, operations, quality, and commercial teams to support product development and commercialization.
- Provide technical expertise for customer trials, product launches, and technical documentation.
- Support intellectual property generation, technical reports, and scientific communications.
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:
- M.S. or Ph.D. in Chemistry, Formulation Science, Agricultural Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, or related discipline.
- 10+ years of formulation development experience in agriculture, crop protection, biologicals, fertilizers, specialty chemicals, or adjacent industries.
- Strong background in colloid chemistry, polymers, dispersions, emulsions, suspensions, and liquid formulation systems.
- Experience designing and interpreting stability and compatibility studies.
- Experience supporting scale-up from laboratory through commercial manufacturing.
- Strong experimental design, analytical, and troubleshooting skills.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
- Knowledge of agricultural application systems and commercial farming operations.
- Familiarity with regulatory requirements and product stewardship within the agricultural industry.
- Experience working directly with manufacturing facilities and external partners.
- Experience working in a fast-paced start up environment.
- Experience leading R&D teams.
KEY COMPETENCIES:
- Scientific rigor and data-driven decision making.
- Practical problem solving.
- Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration.
- Attention to detail and product quality.
- Ability to balance innovation with commercial scalability.
- Customer-focused mindset with an understanding of grower needs.
Licensing & Special Requirements
Incumbent is subject to a criminal background check.
WORKING CONDITIONS & PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS
Position is based on-site in Bellingham, WA. Some travel may be required for research trials, conferences, or partner engagement. The employee is frequently required to stand, talk, hear, smell, visually inspect materials, walk, etc., and sometimes needs to lift and/or move up to 30 pounds while working around crop protection products. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to use hands and fingers to handle, feel or operate objects, tools, or controls and reach with hands and arms.
The statements contained herein reflect general details as necessary to describe the principal functions of this job, the level of knowledge and skill typically required, and the scope of responsibility, but should not be considered an all-inclusive listing of work requirements. Individuals may perform other duties as assigned including work in other functional areas to cover absences or relief, to equalize peak work periods, or otherwise to balance the workload. Furthermore, they do not establish a contract for employment and are subject to change at the discretion of the employer.
