Plant Process Chemist Waukegan

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Date: Jan 22, 2026

About Akzo Nobel

Since 1792, we’ve been supplying the innovative paints and coatings that help to color people’s lives and protect what matters most. Our world class portfolio of brands – including Dulux, International, Sikkens and Interpon – is trusted by customers around the globe. We’re active in more than 150 countries and use our expertise to sustain and enhance the fabric of everyday life.

Because we believe every surface is an opportunity. It’s what you’d expect from a pioneering and long-established paints company that’s dedicated to providing sustainable solutions and preserving the best of what we have today – while creating an even better tomorrow. Let’s paint the future together.

Position: 1st shift postion, hours 08:00 am to 04:30 pm CST

• Promoting health, safety, and environmental regulations by ensuring that standards, policies, and procedures are adhered to in compliance with corporate, federal, state, and local requirements.
• Ensuring that all site employees have awareness and training on site quality KPI targets, the quality statement and principles, and the various quality standard operating procedures.
• Embodying a quality-focused mindset that sets an example for all departments on site.
• Championing, developing, and implementing optimized quality assurance procedures and systems to boost site and product quality.
• Leading RCCA events by identifying potential sources of error and suggest ways to eliminate them using Six Sigma/DMAIC strategies and problem solving.
• Conforming to quality standards, customer specifications, and site quality guidelines and requirements.
• Connecting the proposed corrective actions/solutions on identified problems through the complete process to address root cause factors properly and permanently.
• Actively educating, coaching, and mentoring other departments with both hand-on and classroom help.
• Verifying procedures, training, and documentation updates are made for preventative and corrective actions.
• Managing the SLOB, Rework, Scrap, Scale-up and critical formula process. Identified and address actions with relevant parties (i.e. R&D, planning, production, specification custodians, etc.).
• Customer complaint and INCR investigation including experiment design, testing, root cause investigation, identified multidisciplinary team, corrective action verification, etc.
• Quality Near miss log maintenance and action driven solutions.
• Supervising the corrective actions associated with problem batches in QC and Shading and their progress towards final approval.
• Manage introduction of new packaging.
• Troubleshooting issues impacting quality, process variation, and process capability with the production team found during the manufacturing process.
• Supporting external and internal audits.
• Attending and actively participating in meetings with production and others, especially those contributing to continuous improvement efforts.
• Following the MOC process and helping scope temporary MOCs that are product/production focused.
• Performing other duties as required to contribute to the success of Waukegan Aerospace and Akzo Nobel Inc.

• Education:
  
  Bachelor’s degree in science (chemistry/physics or alike) preferred.
• Experience:
  
  Minimum 2 - 5 years in a manufacturing support lab, coatings/polymers preferred.
• Knowledge:
  Paint formulation. Familiar with paint manufacturing processes such as mixing, dispersion, and milling. Familiar with upscaling formulas from the lab to production level scale.
• Knowledge in aerospace business/AS9100D preferred.
• Experience in interpreting policies and guidance documents and can correctly apply them as appropriate to related activities.
• Identify procedural gaps and product risk and where appropriate, recommend contingency plans, and strategies to mitigate compliance.
• Problem solving. Driving effective problem solving and corrective action techniques to resolve quality issues: data driven decision making.

Base salary range for this role is: $84,000 to $96,000. This is the range that we in good faith anticipate relying on when setting wages for…