Chief Chemist

Whitehall Recruitment LTD

Southend-on-Sea, Essex, United Kingdom

Today

£35,000 – £45,000 pa

Salary

£35,000 – £45,000 pa

Posted: 6 May 2026 (Today)

Save job

Create job alert

Chief Chemist – Coatings – Essex with RELOCATION ASSISTANCE! – Ref 2621

* Up to £45,000 per annum

* Company pension scheme

* Funded further education and professional development - formal qualifications, OCCA programmes, specialist technical training

Our Client is an ambitious manufacturer…..to be the most innovative coatings company in the world, with a portfolio of decorative, industrial, marine, wood care, wax finishing and sports surfaces with the vision of exploring 2-part system coatings as a future direction.

Due to company progression, our Client is seeking a Chemist to lead the development of innovative new coatings as own brands and for private label clients. The Chemist will set the formulation direction of the business, maintain and evolve the product library, and drive research and development across a wide range of coatings categories.

Alongside your formulation work, the Chemist will support hands-on production when required and play an active role in mentoring the paint makers - sharing expertise and raising technical standards across the factory floor.

Responsibilities;

* Create and develop new formulations and private label clients, from initial concept through to production-ready specification

* Manage and maintain the formulation library, ensuring all products are fully documented, version-controlled, and reproducible

* Lead R&D projects across decorative, industrial, wood care, marine, sports surface, and wax coatings categories

* Explore the potential development of 2-part system coatings as a future category

* Evaluate and select raw materials, including understanding preferred grades, specifications, and viable substitutions

* Oversee standard testing of finished products and selected raw materials to ensure all formulations perform within prescribed tolerances

* Ensure all products comply with Trading Standards, Health and Safety, and labelling regulations

* Maintain and update health and safety data sheets for all raw materials and manufactured products in line with current CLP regulations

* Liaise with regulatory bodies, Trading Standards, the HSE, and environmental organisations to ensure legal and ethical compliance

* Work hands-on in production when required, supporting the manufacturing team and ensuring formulations translate reliably into batch output

* Mentor and develop the paint makers - sharing technical knowledge, supporting problem-solving on the floor, and building capability across the team

* Control Bills of Materials and Works Orders, maintaining accuracy across formulation records

* Provide technical input on product costing to support sales and marketing decisions

* Support the purchasing team on raw material decisions - providing technical input on specifications, grades, and supplier selection

Candidate Profile:

* HNC in Paint Technology, Chemistry, or a related discipline preferred

* Qualified By Experience candidates with a minimum of 8 years' relevant formulation experience will be considered

* Demonstrable experience formulating water-based and/or solvent-based coating systems

* Strong grounding in polymer chemistry, rheology, and raw material behaviour

* Working knowledge of CLP regulations, VOC compliance, and safety data sheet requirements

* Hands-on approach - comfortable working in a production environment as well as a lab setting

* Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a commercial awareness of how formulation decisions affect product performance and margin

Whitehall is the Recruitment Specialist for the Chemicals, Coatings, Polymers and Life Science Industries

Industry Insights

Discover insightful articles, industry insights, expert tips, and curated resources.

Apr 9, 2026

Products

Where to Advertise Materials Science Jobs in the UK (2026 Guide)

Advertising materials science jobs in the UK requires a different approach to most technical hiring. The candidate pool spans physicists, chemists, metallurgists, ceramicists, polymer scientists and computational materials researchers — a highly multidisciplinary community with distinct professional identities, academic networks and job search behaviours. The strongest candidates are typically embedded in university research groups, national laboratories, government-funded programmes or deep tech R&D teams, and move between roles through specialist academic channels, professional societies and sector-specific networks rather than mainstream job boards. This guide, published by MaterialsScienceJobs.co.uk, covers where to advertise materials science roles in the UK in 2026, how the main platforms compare, what employers should expect to pay, and what the data says about hiring across different role types.

Apr 5, 2026

Jobs

Materials Science Jobs UK 2026: What to Expect Over the Next 3 Years

Materials science sits at the foundation of almost every technology transition that matters right now. The batteries powering the electric vehicle revolution, the semiconductors enabling artificial intelligence, the lightweight composites reducing aircraft emissions, the biomaterials replacing damaged human tissue, the thin films making solar cells more efficient — none of these advances are possible without breakthroughs in the science and engineering of materials. And breakthroughs in materials science require people. The UK materials science jobs market has historically been one of the quieter corners of the STEM hiring landscape — important, deeply technical, and consistently in demand, but rarely the subject of the breathless coverage that AI or blockchain attract. That relative obscurity is beginning to change. The convergence of the net zero transition, the semiconductor sovereignty agenda, the advanced manufacturing investment wave, and the growing role of computational and AI-driven materials discovery is elevating materials science to a strategic priority for governments, investors, and employers in a way that is directly reshaping the jobs market. For job seekers, this shift represents a genuine opportunity — but one that rewards those who understand the specific technical, commercial, and policy dynamics driving materials science hiring rather than those who simply arrive with a materials science degree and expect the market to do the rest. The roles being created now are more interdisciplinary, more computationally demanding, and more commercially oriented than the materials science jobs of even three years ago. This article breaks down what the UK materials science jobs market is likely to look like through to 2028 — covering the titles emerging right now, the technologies driving employer demand, the skills that will matter most, and how to position your career at the leading edge of a discipline that has never been more consequential.

Feb 12, 2026

Careers

How Many Materials Science Tools Do You Need to Know to Get a Materials Science Job?

If you’re navigating the materials science job market, it can feel like the list of tools, techniques and platforms you should learn grows every week. One job advert mentions electron microscopy, another mentions X-ray diffraction, yet another wants experience with thermal analysis, spectroscopy, simulation software, statistical packages, manufacturing QA systems and more. With so many specialised methods and instruments, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed — and to start thinking you need to know everything just to be considered. Here’s the honest truth most materials science hiring managers won’t tell you directly: 👉 They don’t hire you because you know every piece of equipment or software. They hire you because you can use the tools you do know to answer real questions, make reliable measurements and communicate results clearly. Tools are essential — no question — but they are secondary to problem-solving ability, scientific reasoning and experimental rigour. So the real question is: how many materials science tools do you actually need to know to get a job? The precise number depends on the role you want, but for most job seekers the answer is far fewer than you think. This article breaks down what employers really value, which tools are core, which are role-specific, and how to focus your learning so your CV and interviews stand out for the right reasons.