Product Development Scientist Duties & Responsibilities
The role and function of a Product Development Scientist includes the following duties and responsibilities:
- Formulating and establishing product design and performance objectives, normally in consultation with other functions, including research, marketing and production, as well as contractors, suppliers and customers;
- Devising new processes, or refining existing ones, to optimise the manufacturing process;
- Planning, carrying out and supervising process trials in laboratories, pilot plants or factories;
- Devising methods for making products at the required scale and/or evaluating existing processes to identify areas for improvement;
- Product specifications;
- Advising on equipment modification to enable process changes for new product development;
- Reading and writing technical reports and specifications, and maintaining appropriate records;
- Initiating and generating ideas based on reading and research.
- Scaling up the production process via plant trials, making changes to raw materials or components and process parameters to ensure quality is maintained during large-scale production;
- Improving yields by reducing costs, for example investigating alternative materials or new machinery to improve efficiency, quality and yields in bottleneck areas;
- Implementing process controls and devising test methods to assess the production process;
- Validating new processes and showing that they are an improvement;
- Working with product pipelines at various stages of development;
- Developing formulae, specifications and label declarations, and ensuring compliance with the finished
Note that this is not an exhaustive list of Product Development Scientist duties and responsibilities. Job functions for specific Product Development Scientist roles may vary, depending on the industry and type of employer.
