What are the responsibilities and job description for the Director, Materials Science position at 1014 United States of America?
Change is everywhere at Convatec . It’s transforming our business, and helping us improve millions of lives. And we’re nowhere near finished. Across every part of our business, we’re pushing for better.
Join us on our journey to #ForeverCaring as a Director, Materials Science, and you’ll do the same.
The Director of Materials Science is a senior leader within Technology and Innovation (T&I)’s Applied Research organization, responsible for the organization’s materials science capabilities. This individual is charged with building and managing a world class Materials Sciences team, comprising adhesives technologies, plastics engineering, and process science. The Director of Materials Science develops and drives a talent strategy, defines performance expectations and ways of working, allocates resources, and leads the team to deliver Convatec’s strategic priorities across front-end innovation, product development, and lifecycle management.
The Director of Materials Science is also responsible for delivering technology development programs. The Director of Materials Science is accountable for structuring multi-faceted research programs aimed at addressing identified needs, working in collaboration with partners throughout Convatec and externally to advance innovation in a structured, milestone-driven process. This individual is expected to partner with a wide range of stakeholders, including Applied Research, New Product Development, Marketing, Medical and Clinical Affairs, Market Access, and External Innovation to develop innovative and differentiated technologies that can be taken into product development.
As a direct report to the Vice President, the Director of Materials Science, also has an important role as part of the leadership team for the Applied Research organization.
ABOUT THE ROLE:
Key Responsibilities:
Lead and Manage the Materials Science Team
- Translate business strategies into clear, actionable goals and plans for a team.
- Align team with strategy and set measurable performance expectations.
- Allocate resources across near- and long-term priorities, maintaining flexibility to adapt to changing needs.
- Anticipate challenges and opportunities to optimize team performance.
- Build relationships with peers, senior leaders, and direct reports to foster collaboration and shared goals.
- Enhance team effectiveness by fostering both individual growth and building collective capability.
- Develop and manage annual budgets aligned with business goals.
- Optimize resources (personnel, equipment, and other assets) to support objectives.
- Conduct talent reviews, performance evaluations, and drive succession planning.
- Track and meet KPIs such as project timelines, training completion, and operating metrics.
Lead Research Programs
- Develop clear research aims aligned with stakeholder expectations and identify sequential project milestones to measure against.
- Foster an open innovation approach, exploring multiple paths to achieve research goals.
- Matrix-manage cross-functional teams, ensuring collaboration and alignment.
- Partner cross-functionally, e.g. with Marketing, Medical and Clinical Affairs, Market Access, and External Innovation, to develop business cases for research programs.
- Cultivate relationships with external partners (academic institutions, contract labs, vendors) to support strategic innovation.
- Collaborate with project managers on resource planning, timelines, and milestone tracking to ensure seamless execution.
- Provide clear progress updates, recommending data-driven decisions on project continuation or pivoting.
- Lead efforts to secure intellectual property, ensuring IP aligns with Convatec’s strategic priorities.
ABOUT YOU:
Education:
- Doctoral degree in a relevant science or engineering field, such as Materials Science, Physics, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Materials Engineering, and the like.
Skills & Experience:
- 10 years of experience in biomedical research and development, with at least 3 years of significant management experience
- Experience developing medical devices under quality systems compliant with ISO 13485 and FDA requirements
- Strong interpersonal and leadership skills, with a track record of effective collaboration across both internal and external stakeholders.
- Creativity and intellect to seek out novel solutions, remaining agnostic to the source of innovation.
- Reslience and agility to adapt to changing prioriites, and/or pivot in response to new learnings.
- Ability to effectively communicate with both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Understanding of intellectual property (IP) and ability to collaborate on patent landscapes, searches, and filing of new applications.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office suite
Travel Requirements
- Position may involve travel, up to 25% of the time, within the UK / Europe and overseas. Most trips will include overnight travel.
Working Conditions
- Hybrid working: typically, 3-5 days per week in the office and driven by business requirements as Convatec has a flexible approach to office working.
Our ambitions will bring the very best out in you. You’ll be pushed to aim higher and really own your work. You’ll be encouraged and supported to make things happen, too. It can be challenging. But, as the progress you make will help improve the lives of millions, it’ll be worth it.
This is stepping up to a challenge.
This is work that’ll move you.
#LI-Hybrid
#LI-PPS
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Convatec provides equal employment opportunities for all current employees and applicants for employment. This policy means that no one will be discriminated against because of race, religion, creed, color, national origin, nationality, citizenship, ancestry, sex, age, marital status, physical or mental disability, affectional or sexual orientation, gender identity, military or veteran status, genetic predisposing characteristics or any other basis prohibited by law.
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