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.

    Qualifications

    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.

    Responsibilities

    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