Technical Manager, Polymer Application Development Engineering

Role details

The Technical Manager, Application Development Engineering (ADE), provides enterprise-wide leadership of the customer-facing application development engineering function across all GEON markets, including Building & Infrastructure, Power & Electronics, and Mobility. The role translates customer needs and market opportunities into technically validated, manufacturable, commercially viable polymer solutions. Working in close partnership with Sales, Business Development, Portfolio Management, R&D Scientists, Quality and Operations, the ADE Manager leads application development, technical project prioritization, customer qualification, trials, scale-up and early commercialization.

This position establishes consistent ADE processes, develops technical capabilities, deploys expertise across market boundaries and drives measurable growth through innovation, application wins and customer success.

Experience & Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Polymer Science, Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering or a related technical discipline required; advanced degree preferred.

• 8+ years of relevant experience in polymer materials, compounding, application development, technical service or customer-facing product development; prior team leadership strongly preferred.

• Demonstrated knowledge of specialty polymer compounds, engineered thermoplastics, elastomers and/or relevant formulation platforms, with ability to apply expertise across diverse end markets.

• Hands-on familiarity with compounding, extrusion, injection molding and other relevant conversion processes, plus application-specific testing and validation.

• Experience guiding new products through stage-gate development, customer qualification and commercialization.

• Experience with structured problem solving, design of experiments, statistical analysis or Six Sigma methods preferred.

• Proven ability to manage a portfolio of concurrent technical projects and influence teams without direct authority.

Skills & Competencies

• Customer and application insight: translates functional requirements, processing conditions, specifications and economics into actionable technical plans.

• Technical judgment: evaluates material-performance tradeoffs, root causes, scale-up risks and manufacturability.

• People leadership: coaches ADEs, builds succession and skills plans, sets expectations and manages performance.

• Business acumen: understands opportunity value, cost-to-serve, technical differentiation, contribution margin and commercialization economics.

• Cross-functional influence: aligns Sales, BDMs, Marketing, Product Scientists, Operations and customers around priorities and milestones.

• Execution discipline: maintains project governance, risk registers, stage-gate readiness and reliable CRM/project data.

• Clear written and verbal communication, including executive updates, customer presentations and technical documentation.

Primary Responsibilities

Leadership & Team Development

• Lead, coach and develop ADEs; establish clear objectives, accountability, performance feedback and individual development plans.

• Establish a consistent enterprise-wide ADE operating model, performance expectations, coaching, technical mentoring and development plans.

• Build and continuously refine cross-market application expertise, geographic/customer coverage, technical competency mapping and succession capabilities.

Customer Application Development

• Partner with market BDMs, Sales and Portfolio Managers to diagnose unmet customer needs, qualify opportunities and translate application requirements into technical plans.

• Guide material selection, application-specific testing, processing optimization and technical troubleshooting.

• Develop strategic technical relationships with customers across markets; provide senior-level support on complex application, processing and qualification challenges.

Innovation & Commercialization

• Consolidate market and customer requirements into clear technical briefs for R&D and Product Development, identifying common platforms and reusable solutions across markets.

• Lead technical execution of customer trials, sample evaluations, validation plans, production scale-up and initial adoption.

• Drive timely stage-gate decisions, documented qualification criteria and effective handoff to commercial and operational teams.

Portfolio & Resource Management

• Govern and prioritize the ADE project pipeline across all markets based on strategic alignment, expected value, customer urgency, technical feasibility, capacity and time to revenue.

• Deploy technical resources and specialized capabilities flexibly across market teams; resolve priority conflicts and escalate material tradeoffs to functional leadership.

• Track project milestones, technical risk, costs and resource utilization; discontinue or re-scope low-value work when appropriate.

Operational Excellence & Quality

• Partner with Manufacturing, Quality, Regulatory/Product Stewardship and Product Development to ensure product consistency, manufacturability, compliant use and successful scale-up across applications.

• Establish standard methods for trials, technical reports, test plans, knowledge capture and customer qualification.

• Support root-cause investigations and continuous improvement while maintaining EHS and product stewardship compliance.

Business Partnership & Reporting

• Maintain strong operating partnerships with market BDMs, Sales, Portfolio Management and leadership; communicate technical risks, milestones, customer commitments and commercialization readiness.

• Maintain accurate opportunity and project information in SFDC and approved technical project systems.

• Report technical conversion performance, innovation impact, resource health and lessons learned on a regular cadence.

Key Goals & Deliverables

• Cross-market opportunity conversion: improve the conversion of technically qualified late-stage opportunities into commercial wins, jointly with market BDMs and Sales.

• Commercialization: deliver annual targets for customer qualifications, successful production trials, new application wins and first commercial sales across the markets served.

• Innovation impact: quantify revenue and contribution margin from ADE-supported innovations, new products and new applications, including reuse of solutions across markets.

• Execution speed: improve on-time milestone achievement, trial effectiveness, qualification lead times and time from technical feasibility to commercialization.

• Portfolio discipline: maintain one prioritized, transparent cross-market technical pipeline with stage gates, resource plans, technical success criteria and documented decisions.

• Capability development: strengthen ADE technical skills, mentoring, competency coverage, knowledge sharing and succession readiness across markets.

• Customer partnership: implement technical engagement plans for strategic accounts and document measurable outcomes across market segments.

• Operational excellence: improve repeatability of technical trials, documentation quality, knowledge reuse, customer handoffs and resolution of recurring technical issues.

• Strategic technical leadership: directly sponsor high-impact or cross-market application programs and remove barriers to commercialization.

Annual performance targets are agreed with functional leadership. Revenue, margin and commercial win measures are shared outcomes with Sales, Business Development and Portfolio Management.

Work Environment & Physical Demands

• Works in an office and customer-facing environment, with regular travel to customer locations, GEON manufacturing sites, laboratories and pilot facilities across the markets served; occasional presence in industrial or laboratory settings is required.

• Must follow applicable safety practices and use required personal protective equipment during site visits, trials and testing.