Senior Director, R&D Management, Specialty Chemicals

Entegris · Ambler · $186,500–$266,500 (stated in the posting)

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Job Title:

Job Description:

The Role

The Head of Specialty Chemicals R&D will serve as the technical and organizational bridge between MS R&D roadmaps, Synthesis R&D, Specialty Chemicals capabilities, and commercial manufacturing. This leader will ensure differentiated materials can be developed, scaled, sampled, qualified, reused across platforms, and transitioned into manufacturing with strong technical, safety, quality, and customer discipline.

This role will apply technical foresight, business insight, and platform thinking to support the SC strategic long-range plan, improve material and manufacturing readiness, accelerate speed-to-sample execution, and position Specialty Chemicals for growth in existing and adjacent external markets. Success will be defined by stronger MS–SC alignment, broader SC platform reuse, more reliable internal fulfillment and commercialization execution, and a clearer long-term technology path for growth.

Semiconductor innovation increasingly depends on specialty chemicals that enable advances in performance, purity, reliability, and efficiency. Building from this core Materials Solutions need, Entegris is also expanding Specialty Chemicals capabilities into high-growth adjacent markets—including Life Sciences, Advanced Catalysts, and other advanced technology applications—to support the world’s most innovative manufacturers.

To support this external growth and strengthen the connection between Materials Solutions technology priorities and Specialty Chemicals execution, we are establishing a senior Specialty Chemicals R&D leadership role focused on translating MS technology needs and external growth opportunities into executable development, scale-up, platform strategies, sample fulfillment, and manufacturing-readiness plans.

What You’ll Do

• Lead and develop the Specialty Chemicals R&D organization responsible for synthesis scale-up, customer and EnZone sample fulfillment, manufacturing readiness, strategic synthesis technology development, and external growth enablement.

• Translate Materials Solutions technology needs into executable Specialty Chemicals development programs with clear priorities, success criteria, milestones, resource needs, and delivery plans.

• Establish robust synthesis scale-up practices that improve process safety, yield, quality, cost, manufacturability, supply continuity, and transfer efficiency from development to production.

• Partner with Product Management and business leadership to identify external applications, non-competing market adjacencies, and growth paths for Specialty Chemicals-developed technologies and platforms.

• Support customer-facing technical engagement, as needed, to connect Specialty Chemicals capabilities with qualification needs, application requirements, and external growth opportunities.

• Build reliable sample fulfillment processes for internal validation, application testing, customer sampling, qualification activities, and EnZone growth needs, with improved speed and documentation discipline.

• Develop specialty materials platforms and technical capability roadmaps that support internal differentiation, cross-BU platform reuse, material readiness, and growth in existing and adjacent external markets.

• Identify capability gaps, emerging synthesis technologies, external partnerships, equipment needs, and investment priorities required to strengthen long-term Specialty Chemicals competitiveness and external market relevance.

• Lead technical assessments for make-buy-toll decisions, project intake, portfolio prioritization, scale-up feasibility, manufacturing risk, intellectual property considerations, and resource allocation.

• Provide clear technical leadership and communication on program risks, trade-offs, readiness gaps, and execution progress to business leaders, technical teams, and executive stakeholders.

• Mentor and develop technical talent, strengthening organizational depth in synthesis, process development, scale-up, platform thinking, manufacturing readiness, and customer-focused execution.

• Lead periodic MS–SC roadmap reviews to assess execution progress, identify emerging technology needs, and define scale-up, fulfillment, or capability actions required to improve Specialty Chemicals readiness.

• Partner closely with Synthesis R&D, Technology & Innovation, Product Management, Operations, Quality, Supply Chain, and Manufacturing to move molecules from discovery through qualification and commercial production.

Strategic Deliverables

• Define and implement the Specialty Chemicals R&D operating model, including clear scope, governance, decision rights, resource allocation, and interfaces with Synthesis R&D, Product Management, Operations, Quality, Supply Chain, and Manufacturing.

• Establish a multi-year synthesis scale-up, fulfillment, and external growth roadmap that prioritizes high-value Materials Solutions programs, EnZone growth needs, customer sampling requirements, opportunity pipeline support, and future specialty materials platforms.

• Build a robust speed-to-sample and speed-to-customer execution system with measurable improvements in response time, sample reliability, documentation quality, and qualification readiness.

• Create a disciplined manufacturing-readiness framework that improves the transfer of new molecules from discovery through development, scale-up, qualification, and commercial production.

• Develop the long-term technical capability plan for Specialty Chemicals, including talent, equipment, process safety, analytical support, external partnerships, strategic investment needs, and capabilities required to enable external market growth.

• Build a disciplined external opportunity pipeline process with Product Management and business leadership to identify non-competing market adjacencies, assess growth potential, and convert Specialty Chemicals-developed technologies into actionable external growth opportunities.

• Translate platform and opportunity pipeline priorities into business value by supporting revenue growth, margin expansion, asset utilization, and enterprise-level differentiation.

• Provide leadership with clear visibility to portfolio priorities, opportunity pipeline progress, technical risks, capability gaps, investment trade-offs, growth enablement actions, and execution progress across the Specialty Chemicals R&D portfolio.

What We Seek

• Education and Experience: Advanced technical degree in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, or related field preferred; extensive senior leadership experience in specialty chemicals, semiconductor materials, advanced materials, synthesis, process development, scale-up, or adjacent technology platforms.

• Strategic Technical Leadership: Proven ability to build technical organizations, translate business needs into executable development programs, and align technical capability investments with long-range growth priorities.

• Core Competencies: Synthetic chemistry leadership, process development, scale-up strategy, manufacturing readiness, customer sample fulfillment, technology transfer, portfolio prioritization, technical risk assessment, and cross-functional influence.

• Business Acumen: Ability to connect technical capabilities to customer engagement, manufacturing readiness, revenue growth, margin impact, platform leverage, and enterprise value creation.

• External Market Development: Experience identifying external applications, market adjacencies, technology partnerships, or commercialization pathways for specialty chemical platforms preferred.

• Communication and Influence: Ability to communicate complex technical, manufacturing, quality, safety, and investment trade-offs clearly to technical teams, business leaders, and executive stakeholders.

• Leadership: Demonstrated capability to attract, develop, and lead high-performing technical teams across a matrixed global organization.

• Process Discipline: Experience using roadmap, portfolio, stage-gate, and project execution tools; ability to drive disciplined documentation of success criteria, risks, milestones, and execution status.

• Enterprise Perspective: Ability to balance near-term sample and scale-up delivery with longer-horizon platform evolution, capability building, and investment decisions that create value across Materials Solutions and Specialty Chemicals.

• Travel: Willingness to travel as needed to engage with R&D teams, Specialty Chemicals manufacturing sites, business leaders, customers, and key stakeholders supporting roadmap execution and capability planning.

What We Offer

Our total rewards package goes above and beyond just a paycheck. Whether you’re looking to build your career, improve your health, or protect your wealth, we offer generous benefits to help you achieve your goals.

• Compensation: $186,500.00 - $266,500.00 a year range with actual pay dependent on candidate overall skills for the role
• Generous 401(K) plan with an impressive employer match 

• Excellent health, dental and vision insurance packages to fit your needs 

• Flexible work schedule and 11 paid holidays a year 

• Paid time off (PTO) policy that empowers you to take the time you need to recharge 

• Education assistance to support your learning journey 

• Values-driven culture with colleagues that rally around People, Accountability, Creativity and Excellence 

Entegris does not provide immigration-related sponsorship for this role. Do not apply for this role if you will need Entegris immigration sponsorship (e.g., H1B, TN, STEM OPT, etc.) now or in the future.

At Entegris we are committed to providing equal opportunity to all employees and applicants. Our policy is to recruit, hire, train, and reward employees for their individual abilities, achievements, and experience without regard to race, color, religion, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, marital or military status.

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