Senior Design Engineer

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Founded in 1920, Eastman is a global specialty materials company that produces a broad range of products found in items people use every day. With the purpose of enhancing the quality of life in a material way, Eastman works with customers to deliver innovative products and solutions while maintaining a commitment to safety and sustainability. The company’s innovation-driven growth model takes advantage of world-class technology platforms, deep customer engagement, and differentiated application development to grow its leading positions in attractive end markets such as transportation, building and construction, and consumables.

As a globally inclusive company, Eastman employs approximately 13,000 people around the world and serves customers in more than 100 countries. The company had 2025 revenue of approximately $8.8 billion and is headquartered in Kingsport, Tennessee, USA. For more information, visit  .

This role combines expertise in materials science, polymer science, data science, and artificial intelligence to build the data foundation, machine learning models, and AI-enabled tools that support Eastman's Specialty Plastics business. The successful candidate will leverage Eastman's proprietary material, processing, application, and customer knowledge to develop digital solutions that accelerate product development, improve technical decision-making, enhance customer support, and create differentiated business value.

This position is located onsite at our headquarters in Kingsport, TN.

Responsibilities:

• Build, expand, and maintain proprietary data assets including failure analysis data, processing parameters, material properties, characterization results, application performance data, and customer project information.
• Establish data collection, documentation, and governance standards that improve the quality, consistency, and usability of technical data across the organization.
• Work with Eastman's IT, Digital, and Data Science teams to develop secure, scalable, and reliable data infrastructure while protecting company and customer information.
• Develop, deploy, maintain, and continuously improve AI-powered tools that support technical workflows including failure analysis, design-for-manufacturability (DFM), material selection, processing optimization, troubleshooting, and root-cause analysis.
• Build and maintain AI assistants and knowledge systems that enable technical and commercial teams to rapidly access information and answer routine technical questions.
• Develop machine learning models that combine historical material, processing, application, and Moldflow simulation data to predict performance, identify failure risks, and recommend optimization opportunities.
• Develop AI-enabled tools that support application development by recommending materials, processing conditions, design guidelines, and application solutions using Eastman's proprietary technical knowledge.
• Partner with scientists, engineers, application development teams, manufacturing personnel, commercial teams, and data scientists to identify opportunities where AI and machine learning can improve productivity and technical outcomes.
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies and implement practical solutions that enhance innovation, knowledge management, and business performance.

• PhD in Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Polymer Science, Computer Science, Data Science, Computational Engineering, or a related field with 1-2 years of relevant postdoctoral or industrial experience; or
• Master's degree in a related field with 4-5 years of relevant industry experience in material informatics, machine learning, artificial intelligence,…