Product Developer

Specialty Engineered Materials | Greenville, NC

At Avient, our people power our performance. As a Product Developer, you turn customer and market needs into robust, manufacturable products, taking them from ideation and feasibility through development, scale-up, validation, and handover to the business. One week you may be developing a new product concept with a customer. The next, you may run a production trial, solve a manufacturing challenge, validate performance, or prepare a commercial launch. You will work directly with operators, engineers, scientists, suppliers, customers, and business stakeholders across a global organization.

What You'll Do

• Own new and improved Dyneema® Composite Fabric developments from concept through commercial launch
• Translate customer and market needs into clear product requirements and practical development plans
• Plan, execute, and interpret trials on production equipment, working hands-on with operators and engineers
• Scale products from lab or pilot stage to robust, reproducible commercial production
• Define product and process specifications and support a disciplined handover to manufacturing and the running business
• Develop test plans and evaluate whether products meet application and customer performance requirements
• Engage directly with customers, support product evaluations, and translate feedback into improvements
• Coordinate cross-functional work involving manufacturing, technology development, quality, sourcing, and commercial teams
• Support complex production troubleshooting beyond routine operational support
• Identify innovation and intellectual property opportunities and contribute to patent activities
• Work safely and consistently follow applicable SHE and company requirements, especially during plant trials

What You Bring

• Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD degree in engineering, materials science, chemistry, physics, or a related technical field
• 3-7 years of experience in product development, manufacturing, engineering, process development, technical consulting, or applied R&D
• A demonstrated record of taking ownership and delivering meaningful results
• Strong analytical, conceptual, and practical problem-solving ability
• Clear communication and effective stakeholder management skills
• Strong personal drive, initiative, and ambition to make a visible impact
• An ownership mindset: you identify what is needed, take action, communicate proactively, and follow through
• Curiosity and learning agility, with the ability to build expertise quickly in unfamiliar areas
• Structured problem solving, sound judgment, and comfort making progress with incomplete information
• Resilience when experiments, trials, or projects do not go as planned
• A hands-on and pragmatic approach: you want to make things work, not stop at theory
• Confidence working with customers and colleagues at different levels, functions, and locations
• The ability to balance technical rigor with speed, practicality, and business priorities
• A collaborative style combined with the willingness to challenge assumptions constructively

Preferred, Not Essential

• Experience in manufacturing, scale-up, product development, or process improvement
• Experience planning or executing trials on production equipment
• Experience working directly with customers or translating application needs into technical requirements
• Knowledge of composites, polymers, textiles, or advanced materials
• Familiarity with statistics, experimental design, or data analysis
• Experience leading cross-functional projects across multiple sites or functions
• Responsibility and Decision-Making
• Propose and execute product development projects, including required investments
• Plan and execute development trials
• Engage suppliers for critical raw materials and new equipment, coordinating with sourcing and technology teams
• Initiate and support new patent work

Why Avient
    • Visible impact across multiple sites and businesses
    • Strong partnership with business and enterprise leadership
    • Opportunity to lead change
    • Growth-focused culture that values innovation, collaboration, and accountability

#CA-KV

Our purpose at Avient Corporation is to be an innovator of materials solutions that help our customers succeed, while enabling a sustainable world.

Innovation goes far beyond materials science; it’s powered by the passion, creativity, and diverse expertise of 9,000 professionals worldwide. Whether you’re a finance wizard, a tech enthusiast, an operational powerhouse, an HR changemaker, or a trailblazer in materials development, you’ll find your place at Avient.

Join our global team and help shape the future with sustainable solutions that transform possibilities into realities. Your unique perspective could be the key to our next breakthrough!

We believe that all of our global employees are leaders and that the six most important behaviors for driving our strategy and culture are the same no matter if an employee is a leader of self, a leader of others, or a leader of the business.

By playing to win, acting customer centric, driving innovation and profitable growth, collaborating seamlessly across Avient, and motivating and inspiring and developing others and yourself you will accelerate your ability to achieve Avient’s strategic goals, to meet our customer needs, and to accomplish your career goals.

At Avient, we believe a wide variety of thoughts, ideas and backgrounds gives us the creativity to be successful in a rapidly changing world.  In support of this, we stress equality of opportunity for all qualified individuals in accordance with applicable laws. Decisions on hiring, promotion, development, compensation or advancement are based solely on a person’s qualifications, abilities, experience and performance.

Avient is an equal opportunity employer. We maintain a policy of non-discrimination in providing equal employment to all qualified employees and candidates regardless of race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, color, religion, national origin, disability, genetic information, protected veteran’s status, or other legally protected classification in accordance with applicable federal, state and local law. If you need an accommodation because of a disability to complete an online application, please contact the Avient HR Team by emailing, [email protected].