R&D Laboratory Manager

Balcan Innovations is a leading North American manufacturer of technical films, flexible packaging, and reflective insulation with five brands at its core: Balcan Packaging, Plastixx FFS Technologies, NELMAR Security Packaging Systems, rFoil, and Reflectix.

• Full time and permanent position
• Group Insurance Coverage (life, disability, medical, dental and vision)
• Free on-site parking
• Dynamic work environment

Reporting to the VP Innovation, the R&D Laboratory manager will be responsible to manage our QC and R&D laboratory testing capabilities across all our sites including our extrusion pilot line and any future application testing capabilities. In addition, the person may be responsible to lead some exploratory R&D projects in terms of new potential raw materials and/or technology.

Laboratory Testing & Equipment

• Maintain all the testing equipment in our laboratory and operations functional and calibrated in all sites (Canada and USA).
• Ensure that, in case of an unexpected equipment failure, a solution is found to avoid or minimize disruption to daily testing needs and a corrective action is identified.
• Maintain and manage a dashboard of active and future equipment with location, cost, consumables, calibration requirements, etc.
• Ensure that all testing carried out in the labs and operations have a standardized, up-to-date procedure for testing and calibration.
• Monitor and audit that Lab technicians are capable and trained adequately to carry out testing.
• Perform regular round robin testing to ensure that we monitor our testing reproducibility within a lab and between labs for all critical to quality properties.
• Help develop new testing capabilities or test method.
• Commissioning of any new or update lab equipment to capture its reproducibility and statistical correlation with existing data.

Extrusion Pilot Line

• Maintain the pilot line in an operational status: preventing maintenance and repair.
• Capable of operating the extrusion pilot line to run some experiment.
• Manage the tooling and raw materials required to run the pilot line.
• Responsible to keep the pilot line area safe, clean and organized.
• Manage the log and planning of experiments to be run on the pilot line.
• Ensure that multiple people remain trained and capable of operating the line.

R&D Projects

• Lead R&D or exploratory projects or activities based on specific business needs
• Help evaluate potential newer raw material or technology as identified by procurement, engineering, or business opportunities
• Maintain a list of projects with timeline, milestones, and budget
• Other duties as assigned

• Engineer Degree in chemical, materials or mechanical
• 5 years hands-on experience in a laboratory, managing testing and equipment
• 3 to 5 years of experience in the manufacturing industry (asset)
• Work Experience in the flexible packaging industry (asset)
• Advanced Excel and Statistical Analysis skills.
• Ability to effectively prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment.
• Ability and willingness to travel to any of the Company’s work locations in Canada and United States.
• Fluent in French and English
• Excellent interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills.

Please take note that a pre-selection of applications is made and that only selected candidates will be contacted.
The use of the masculine to designate person is only intended to lighten the text.