Overview In this Senior Principal Scientist role, you will define long-range scientific strategy for advanced chromatographic materials and enabling chemistries for biologics. You will serve as a technical authority across Waters, shaping roadmaps and IP generation, translating materials science into analytical solutions. Collaborating with cross-functional teams, you will advance manufacturing strategies for particle and bonded-phase production and drive impactful, data-rich development. This role offers visibility to influence portfolio direction and contribute to transformative separation technologies for biopharmaceutical analysis.
Responsibilities- Define and drive long-range scientific strategy for advanced chromatographic particle technologies for biomolecule separations
- Invent and develop novel polymeric and hybrid silica/polymer materials platforms for high-performance separations
- Serve as a technical authority in particle synthesis, surface functionalization, and biomolecular interaction engineering
- Lead development of enabling materials technologies across silica, polymeric, hybrid, and ligand-coupled systems
- Drive scientific innovation from concept to scalable product commercialization
- Develop advanced synthetic methodologies (sol-gel, colloidal, emulsion, controlled polymerization, hybrid materials)
- Design reproducible, scalable manufacturing processes with strong yield, robustness, and quality
- Advance surface chemistries for selective characterization, purification of proteins, nucleic acids, viral vectors, and emerging modalities
- Integrate materials science, separation science, and biomolecular understanding to solve analytical challenges
- Partner with chromatography scientists, engineers, and leadership to align with portfolio strategy and customer needs
- Identify, develop, and protect IP; contribute to Waters' innovation pipeline and patent portfolio
- Represent Waters externally through publications, conferences, collaborations, and partnerships
- Mentor and lead scientists across disciplines and levels
- Foster a culture of scientific excellence, rigor, and collaboration
- Drive data-based decision making with rigorous interpretation of results
- Maintain rigorous lab documentation and compliance with EH&S and quality standards
Key requirements- PhD with 10+ years of industrial R&D in advanced materials technologies
- Deep expertise in organic and/or inorganic surface chemistry and particle functionalization
- Mastery of particle synthesis methods (sol-gel, colloidal, emulsion, hybrid, controlled polymerization)
- Strong understanding of chromatographic mechanisms and biomolecular interactions
- Extensive experience with particle and surface characterization techniques
- Proven record of scientific innovation (patents, publications, platform technologies, or commercialized products)
- Ability to lead complex technical programs with enterprise impact
- Strong external scientific presence and ability to influence the broader community
- Excellent communication, collaboration, and storytelling skills
- Proven ability to influence across organizational boundaries without direct authority
- leadership
- strategic thinking
- collaboration
- sol-gel
- colloidal synthesis
- emulsion polymerization
