# Senior/Chief Scientist R&D -1471

> SP Associates · Virginia, United States · — · Posted 2026-08-24

**Workplace:** on_site

## Description

We are seeking a pioneer researcher and scientific leader who works best at the frontier of a field, defines their own questions, and is energized by the absence of a roadmap.

Your mandate will be to identify, investigate, and de-risk platform-level opportunities in porous media materials and mechanisms that could define entirely new product categories. You will report directly to senior R&D leadership and operate with genuine scientific autonomy. Title will depend on experience and track record in the industry.

### Essential Functions and Responsibilities

-   Scan the porous media landscape nonwovens, polymer membranes, metamaterials, and other fibrous structures for convergence zones and white-space opportunities invisible from within a single material class.
-   Formulate original research hypotheses, design experiments to de-risk them, and execute at TRL 1-3 with full scientific independence.
-   Build and maintain an active presence in the external scientific community: publish, present, collaborate with academic partners, and serve as the scientific antenna in your domain.
-   Apply computational and AI-assisted tools, including high-throughput experimentation, design of experiments, and Bayesian optimization, to accelerate discovery cycles.
-   Communicate findings clearly to senior R&D and executive leadership: what you found, what it means, and, just as importantly, what you killed and why.
-   Identify opportunities to connect emerging platform concepts to existing technical and manufacturing capabilities where genuine synergy exists.
-   Lead or support the commercialization of platform concepts.

### Education and Experience

-   PhD in a STEM discipline - Chemical, Mechanical, Materials Science, or another porous-media-related discipline or BS/MS degree with equivalent work experience.
-   A track record of originating research and successful commercialization.
-   First-author publications in peer-reviewed journals and/or named inventorship, not just assignee.
-   10+ years of product development experience.
-   Cross-domain literacy across the porous media landscape, with deep expertise in at least one material class.
-   Computational and AI fluency: proficiency in design of experiments and Bayesian optimization required; Python or equivalent scripting for data analysis strongly preferred; familiarity with high-throughput experimentation platforms or closed-loop optimization systems is a real differentiator.
-   An active, generative external scientific network, demonstrated through conference participation, invited presentations, peer-review activity, or academic collaborations.
-   The intellectual disposition to propose ideas that contradict current product logic and defend them with data.
-   Previous technology scouting experience.

## Apply

[Apply at SP Associates](https://apply.workable.com/sp-associates/j/44F9961A3D/apply)

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