Research & Development Formulation Chemist II

McKenna Labs is a full-service contract manufacturing company that specializes in hair, skin and body care products. We've been in the personal care development and manufacturing industry since 1998.

We are seeking a highly skilled and detail-oriented Formulation Chemist to join our innovative team. The ideal candidate will play a critical role in product development, formulation, and manufacturing processes, ensuring compliance with industry standards and regulations. This position offers an exciting opportunity to contribute to cutting-edge product development within a dynamic environment focused on innovation excellence and regulatory adherence.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES include but are not limited to the following:

• Formulate world class Personal Care and OTC products while ensuring that formulas align to project briefs, adhere to prescribed timetables, and fall within required cost targets.
• Oversee project activities, including experiment design, data analysis, and outcome interpretation.
• Modify existing formulations to improve product performance, stability, and cost-effectiveness.
• Conduct experiments to analyze and determine physical and chemical properties of ingredients and final products.
• Evaluate formula design and performance of competitive products.
• Provide technical support to other members of the R & D team.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to scale-up formulations.
• Execute high-level project assignments within R & D.
• Collaborate with Quality Control to establish and maintain product quality standards.
• Ensure compliance with relevant safety and environmental regulations while maintaining a safe and clean laboratory environment.
• Actively formulate to anticipate and avoid potential scale-up and manufacturing challenges by establishing batch making procedures and define product specifications for transfer to scale up pilot line testing.
• Engage with customers to understand their needs and developing or improving products.
• Continue to gain knowledge of new ingredients, clean beauty trends and technologies in the industry and applies them into formulation.
• Prepare and maintain accurate documentation including formulation records, technical data sheets, batching instructions, and SOP's.
• Manage multiple projects simultaneously, delivering high quality products on time.
• Onsite position.

REQUIREMENTS

• Minimum Bachelor of Science or related fields is required.
• Minimum of 3 - 5 years formulation experience, with very strong emphasis on formulating Personal Care, OTC, or Cosmetic products.
• Experienced with tech transfers, including scaling up to large scale manufacturing equipment.
• Deep understanding of key active ingredients, raw materials, product efficacy/performance, and regulatory compliance.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, negotiation, and influencing skills to work effectively with all internal stakeholders.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to think creatively.
• Strong project management skills and the ability to prioritize tasks effectively amongst multiple ongoing projects.
• Experience with mentoring others is a plus.

Key Physical Demands and Work Environment:

The physical requirements described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

• Movement: Sit, stand, and walk for several hours daily; occasional bending, stooping, and reaching above shoulder level.
• Lifting: Frequent lifting/carrying of small amounts (under 10 lbs.); occasional lifting/carrying of 11 - 30lbs.
• Hand Use: Frequent fine dexterity and simple grasping, occasional firm grasping (both hands) for detailed work.
• Vision Abilities: Clear near/far vision, and color perception. required by this job include close vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.
• Smell Ability: Keen sense of smell (olfactory acuity).

The noise level in the work environment is generally quiet and may include shared workspace.

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

The salary range for this role is $80,000 - $105,000 annually. Compensation is commensurate with level of knowledge, education, skills, and experience applicable to the position.

We understand that each team member’s situation is unique, and so it is our intent to offer an overall benefits package that can be shaped and molded by each individual to fit their family’s needs. Our current benefits package, which is available to all full-time team members, includes medical, dental, vision insurance, 401k retirement plan, flexible spending accounts, life and disability coverage, and other voluntary benefits.

We want everyone to feel welcome, respected and we are committed to providing the best space, experience and workplace for our teams – no matter what race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identify, national origin, veteran or disability status and all the other fascinating characteristics that make us different.