Chemical or Materials Engineer/Scientist

Exponent is the only premium engineering and scientific consulting firm with the depth and breadth of expertise to solve our clients' most profoundly unique, unprecedented, and urgent challenges.

Our vision is to engage multidisciplinary teams of science, engineering, and regulatory experts to empower clients with solutions that create a safer, healthier, more sustainable world. For over five decades, we've connected the lessons of past failures with tomorrow's solutions to advise clients as they innovate technologically complex products and processes, ensure the safety and health of their users, and address the challenges of sustainability.

Join our team of experts with degrees from top programs at over 500 universities and extensive experience spanning a variety of industries. At Exponent, you'll contribute to the diverse pool of ideas, talents, backgrounds, and experiences that drives our collaborative teamwork and breakthrough insights. Plus, we help you grow your career through mentoring, sponsorship, and a culture of learning. Thanks for your interest in joining our team!

Key statistics:

950+ Consultants
• 640+ Ph.D.s
• 90+ Disciplines
• 30+ Offices globally

We are currently seeking a Chemical Engineer or Materials Engineer/Scientist for our Polymers and Chemistry Practice in Seattle. In this role you will work as part of an interdisciplinary team contributing to a diverse range of projects from industries such as construction materials, consumer products, energy, and infrastructure. Projects will range from technical failure analysis in the context of litigation to troubleshooting products in the design phase.

The ideal candidate is intellectually curious, resourceful, and eager to take on unfamiliar problems. Successful candidates will be comfortable working with incomplete or imperfect information, quickly identifying the underlying technical question that needs to be answered, and developing practical ways to answer it. This may involve laboratory testing and materials characterization, analyzing large datasets, developing code or other tools to make existing analytical approaches more efficient, reviewing complex industrial processes, or reviewing extensive technical records to identify relevant details.

Candidates should have an advanced degree (Ph.D. or equivalent), with related industrial experience considered a plus. The successful candidate will possess practical knowledge of the physical, chemical, and mechanical behavior of macromolecules and experience with analytical and experimental techniques such as DSC, FTIR, TGA, SEM, Raman, and UV-Vis. Experience with manufacturing processes, mechanical characterization, chromatography, and other analytical techniques will be considered a plus. Collaboration with Exponent personnel in other practices and offices is crucial to success in this role, and some travel will be required. A long-term goal for successful candidates will be to develop business by obtaining new projects and bringing new clients to the firm.

• Conducting inspections, scientific analyses, and testing to address real-world challenges involving polymeric material performance.
• Performing root-cause analyses of failures arising during product development, process design, manufacturing, installation, and end use.
• Analyzing technical data from diverse sources and developing efficient, reproducible approaches to extract useful information from large or complex datasets.
• Reviewing and synthesizing technical literature, project records, test data, process instrumentation data, and other large bodies of information to identify facts and patterns relevant to the problem at hand.
• Conveying technical findings and results to broad audiences in engineering, business, law, and industry.
• Working collaboratively across disciplines and readily taking on new technical challenges outside your immediate area of expertise.

• Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Chemistry, or a related field.
• Strong theoretical and practical background in macromolecules and associated chemistry and physics.
• Experience with sampling techniques and analysis of data generated by FTIR, DSC, TGA, microscopy, and related techniques.
• Experience designing and validating novel or non-standard testing approaches.
• Proficiency with Python or another programming language and an interest in using code to automate, analyze, visualize, or otherwise simplify technical work.
• Industrial experience with chemical process design, management, and optimization considered a plus.
• Strong analytical judgment and the ability to identify the important question or observation within large amounts of information.
• Curiosity and initiative, including a willingness to learn new technical areas and develop new approaches when established methods are insufficient.
• Ability to quickly contribute to unfamiliar projects and enthusiasm for taking on a wide variety of assignments.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex technical subjects to nontechnical audiences.
• Ability to work effectively within interdisciplinary project teams and a strong desire to contribute.
• Experience managing budgets, projects, and timelines considered a plus.
• Strong educational and publication credentials.

Applicants are encouraged to submit a CV (Curriculum Vitae) with publications (feel free to include publications that are in review or pending) [not restricted to 1 page].

To learn more about life at Exponent and our impact, please visit the following links:
https://www.exponent.com/careers/life-exponent
https://www.exponent.com/company/our-impact

Attracting, inspiring, developing, and rewarding exceptional people with diverse backgrounds and expertise are central to our corporate culture. Our diverse team allows us to provide better value to our clients and enjoy an enriched work environment.

Our firm is committed to offering a variety of programs and resources to support health and well-being. We believe that providing competitive benefits as well as compensation and recognition programs empowers our staff to do work that makes a difference.

At Exponent, we have found that in-person interactions deepen employee engagement and are crucial for development, for realizing the full potential of our talented and diverse teams, and for building a more inclusive workplace where all have a sense of belonging. In our offices, you can expect a supportive culture and a collaborative, dynamic, multi-disciplinary work environment. Our consultants engage in-person in the office unless they are traveling for client work or other business activities.

We value the rich lives our colleagues enjoy outside of work and understand that work/life balance is critical to our employees and their well-being. Consultants have the autonomy to balance their work and personal schedules so you can meet with clients, visit inspection sites, attend conferences, and make time for priorities outside of work, too. It is this flexible, agile work style and working hours that allow our teams to drive innovation and results in their own ways, while meeting the needs of clients. #LI-Onsite

Our consultants are rewarded for their technical and business contributions and have an opportunity to plan for future success and career growth. Exponent's total compensation plan is consistent with its expectations of the quality and quantity of work performed and with the professional standards set by Exponent. At the Associate and Senior Associate level, total compensation includes base salary, bi-weekly bonuses for high-intensity efforts, annual bonus and 401(k) employer contribution of 7% of base salary.

The base salary range for this position is dependent on experience and capabilities which will be assessed during the interview process.