The Flexibles EMEA division sits within the Flexibles Division of Berry Global Inc. a US listed company with an annual turnover of around $13bn and over 40,000 employees, with manufacturing sites across the UK, Germany, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Poland and Romania.

We have an exciting opportunity for a Research, Development & Innovations (RD&I) Engineer to join our team at our Ardeer site in Ayrshire, Scotland.  This role would suit a Graduate Chemist / Graduate Engineer and an ambitious, capable individual who is looking to develop their career.

Reporting to the RD&I Manager, the successful candidate will be responsible for fulfilling the technical requirements for both the industrial and agricultural business at our Ardeer site.  There is a 3-year framework underpinning this role to support and develop the successful candidate in this role, this will include a 6-month placement on the shopfloor (this involves 24/7 shift working) to embed and fully understand the processes on site. The main responsibilities are:

• Provide a vital link between sales and production by technically approving new and existing product specifications
• Assist in monitoring new customer trials, both during production testing and on occasion at the end user
• Optimisation of the use of recycled materials for a variety of product types
• Research and develop blend formulations for material cost savings and product enhancement
• Conduct on-going testing and perform statistical analysis on physical properties to ensure product specifications are met
• Collect, analyse and interpret data to identify areas for improvement
• Regular contact with suppliers to stay up to date with leading material technology
• Supervise the implementation of new polymer grades/alternative materials
• Support quality control to ensure that QC documents match the desired film specification
• Provide technical support at customer sites when required and follow through changes/improvements for future production
• Support the Operations team to improve output, scrap and downtime on designated units
• Support the Operations team to troubleshoot product quality issues
• Support and advise best practice for production team working with various polymers and additives
• Contribute to the quality investigation process and implement corrective actions for quality related issues on designated units
• Participate in the green belt programme and work with the Continuous Improvement team on cost saving projects

The ideal candidate will have recently graduated or be a final year student of a polymer or material science or chemical engineering based degree and have an interest in the manufacturing industry.

Applicants must have excellent communication, technical and organisational skills.

• Applicants should be great communicators with the ability to form and maintain good working relationships.
• Possess excellent technical and organisational skills
• Competent in using all Microsoft office packages.