UV Digital Ink Formulator

Job Description

The Digital Ink Solutions team at Avery Dennison designs, compounds and delivers high-quality ink systems for industrial printing, OEM printer manufacturers, direct-to-object applications and packaging. Their latest technology focus is on UV and LED-curable inks, including specialty pre-coat solutions for glass and challenging substrates. Avery Dennison

We are looking for a highly capable UV Digital Ink Formulator (PhD) to lead and execute research and development of UV/LED curable inks—from concept through commercialization. You will work cross-functionally (R&D, applications, quality, manufacturing, regulatory) to drive formulation innovation through raw material selection, assessment of physical performance properties, regulatory compliance and scale‑up readiness. If you thrive in a fast‑paced, materials‑science driven environment and want to make an impact in advanced ink systems, this is for you.

• Lead the development of next generation UV/LED‑curable digital ink formulations: select ink components such as monomers/oligomers, photoinitiators, dispersions and additives to create ink formulations for performance on various substrates.

• Manage multiple product development projects, focused on ink‑jet inks design and improvement, while achieving targeted costs, project timing, and customer and regulatory specifications

• Design, execute and analyse experiments to optimize cure behaviour, adhesion, flexibility, print performance, colour stability, shelf life, print‑head compatibility and durability (mechanical, chemical, environmental).

• Validate ink performance through printing in‑house and working with customers.

• Carry out on‑site hands‑on ink formulation, testing and printing.

• Translate customer and market requirements (industrial printing, direct-to-object, packaging graphics) into technical specifications and formulation targets.

• Scale‑up promising formulations from lab to pilot manufacturing; work with manufacturing/compounding teams to ensure batch reproducibility, process robustness, cost targets and quality metrics.

• Support regulatory and sustainability initiatives: ensure inks meet environmental, health & safety standards and support requested certifications and compliance requirements.

• Generate technical documentation: formulation records, test method protocols, stability/aging studies, failure analyses, root‑cause investigations, and intellectual property capture (patent ideas).

• Mentor junior chemists/technicians, share best practices in UV chemistry, photopolymerisation, and ink‑system engineering.

• Stay abreast of emerging UV/LED photochemistry, ink‑jet / digital printing trends, new substrates and materials to position us ahead of competition.

Required:

• PhD in Chemistry, Polymer Science, Material Science or closely related discipline (emphasis on photopolymerisation or UV curable systems).

• Minimum 2+ years of relevant experience developing UV/LED curable coatings or inks in industrial environments.

• Strong analytical skills: experience with rheology, particle‑size measurement, surface tensiometry, cure‑testing, adhesion testing, environmental aging.

• Hands‑on lab experience with formulation and small‑scale compounding, plus experience facilitating scale‑up to pilot/production.

• Excellent organization and written documentation of experimentation planning, results and analysis.

• Excellent communication and cross‑functional collaboration skills; ability to translate technical detail into business value.

• Comfortable in a global business environment; able to manage multiple projects and priorities.

• Team player with excellent interpersonnel interaction skills

• Ability to apply learnings from research to proceed to commercialization in an expedited manner

Preferred:

• Deep working knowledge of photoinitiator systems, UV/LED cure chemistry, oligomer/monomer networks and adhesion science.

• Extensive experience in digital printing and ink‑jet ink formulation for packaging and direct‑to‑object substrates.

• Patent‑filing experience or strong innovation track record.

• Experience working in a matrixed global organisation, with manufacturing and quality teams.