Research jobs in London, ON

Company: Progressive Industrial Fluids Ltd.

Location: London, Ontario | On-site, with travel to customer manufacturing facilities as required

Employment Type: Full-Time, Permanent

Reports To: CEO and Executive Leadership Team

Compensation & Benefits

Salary / Hourly Wage: $125,000 CAD annually

Performance Incentive: KPI-based bonus of up to 25% of annual base salary

Vacation: 3 weeks paid vacation

Health Benefits: Health, Dental, and Vision benefits after completing 3-month probation

RRSP Program: Up to 5% of salary match after 6 months and successful probation completion

About Progressive Industrial Fluids

Progressive Industrial Fluids is a locally owned, family-operated Canadian manufacturing company based in Southwestern Ontario. We design, manufacture, and distribute industrial fluids and specialty chemical products that support critical industries across Canada.

Built from the ground up, Progressive has grown through a strong focus on process, quality, and doing things the right way. We take pride in producing true Canadian-made products, supporting local jobs, and maintaining hands-on ownership involvement in the business.

Over the past several years, we have intentionally invested in building a process-driven organization. From documented procedures and quality controls to ERP integration through Odoo, our systems are designed to support scale, consistency, and continuous improvement. These foundations give us significant room to grow — and we are now poised for the next phase of expansion.

We believe great companies are built by great people. As we grow, we are focused on surrounding ourselves with high-caliber team members who care about their work, take ownership, and want to help build something lasting. We value accountability, responsiveness, respect, and collaboration, and we believe strong leadership and clear processes allow people to do their best work.

Joining Progressive Industrial Fluids means becoming part of a team that is building for the long term — where contributions matter, improvements are encouraged, and success is shared.

The Role

The Technical Director is responsible for leading Progressive Industrial Fluids’ technical organization, with direct accountability for two closely connected functions: Field Service and Research & Product Development.

This is a senior leadership position for someone who can bring people together through leadership while combining manufacturing knowledge, engineering discipline, customer problem-solving, product development, and continuous improvement.

The Field Service team works directly with customers and Progressive’s internal teams to understand applications, troubleshoot problems, support product trials, monitor product performance, conduct testing and analysis, and identify opportunities for measurable improvement. The Research team takes those technical needs and broader business opportunities and turns them into new products, reformulations, improved raw-material strategies, technical documentation, and practical solutions that can be implemented in the field.

The Technical Director is responsible for ensuring these teams do not operate independently of one another. Customer feedback, field observations, product performance data, manufacturing challenges, raw-material changes, and commercial opportunities should flow through one coordinated technical organization. The Director will establish the systems, priorities, communication, and accountability required to move technical opportunities from identification through investigation, development, validation, implementation, and ongoing improvement.

This is primarily a leadership, engineering, and organizational-development role, rather than a position centred on personally performing routine laboratory formulation or day-to-day Field Service work. The Technical Director must understand the technical work well enough to challenge assumptions, establish direction, coach team members, evaluate results, and step into complex situations when senior technical leadership is required.

The Technical Director will have meaningful authority over the teams they lead. This includes evaluating organizational needs, defining and refining roles and job descriptions, recruiting new team members, establishing performance expectations, developing employees, addressing performance issues, recommending organizational changes, and building the technical capability Progressive will require as the company grows.

Success in this position requires someone equally comfortable discussing a manufacturing problem on a customer’s production floor, reviewing a product-development project with the Research team, working with Sales on a strategic opportunity, helping Operations solve an internal technical challenge, and collaborating with executive leadership on future capabilities.

Ultimately, the Technical Director is accountable for building a technical organization that creates measurable value: better-performing products, stronger customer relationships, faster and more disciplined problem-solving, effective product development, stronger internal processes, and a department capable of supporting Progressive’s continued growth.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Team Development

· Provide direct leadership and overall accountability for Progressive’s Field Service and Research teams.

· Establish a clear departmental structure, including responsibilities, priorities, decision-making authority, and performance expectations across both functions.

· Develop departmental priorities aligned with Progressive’s strategic and commercial objectives.

· Assess team capability, workload, organizational needs, and future staffing requirements.

· Recruit and select technical employees as required to strengthen departmental capabilities.

· Develop and maintain clear, practical job descriptions for technical positions.

· Lead onboarding, coaching, performance management, development planning, and ongoing technical training.

· Identify strengths, capability gaps, development needs, and succession opportunities.

· Establish accountability for projects, customer commitments, documentation, follow-up, and technical results.

· Build a culture of ownership, curiosity, responsiveness, disciplined problem-solving, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

· Recommend changes to staffing, structure, processes, equipment, or resources when they improve effectiveness.

Field Service Leadership

· Establish clear procedures, service standards, and priorities for the Field Service team.

· Direct recurring Field Service programs, including scheduled customer visits, testing, analysis, technical reviews, and follow-up.

· Oversee Field Service Level Agreements and delivery of committed services and reporting.

· Ensure customer visits are planned, documented, communicated, and followed through to completion.

· Provide leadership for complex customer technical problems, applications, product-performance concerns, and manufacturing challenges.

· Establish effective processes for isolated customer-support requests received through helpdesk tickets or other service channels.

· Ensure technical issues are investigated, assigned, escalated, documented, and resolved.

· Develop the team’s abilities in industrial processes, testing, data interpretation, troubleshooting, and customer communication.

· Standardize Field Service reporting, data collection, product-performance monitoring, and technical recommendations.

· Communicate important field observations and opportunities to Research, Sales, Production, and other teams.

Customer Continuous Improvement & Technical Partnership

· Identify opportunities to improve customer processes, chemical performance, product consumption, operating consistency, and manufacturing results.

· Lead structured investigations into inefficiencies, process limitations, application problems, and recurring technical issues.

· Apply root cause analysis, Lean principles, Six Sigma concepts, DMAIC, and other appropriate continuous-improvement methods.

· Establish baseline performance measures and define meaningful success criteria for improvement initiatives.

· Develop improvement programs aimed at reducing customers’ total manufacturing costs, rather than simply increasing chemical consumption.

· Improve product longevity, concentration control, tooling life, part quality, throughput, process stability, equipment uptime, and scrap rates where relevant.

· Identify and propose customer improvement and development projects that Progressive may deliver as fee-based technical engagements or collaborate on where potential Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) eligibility warrants investigation.

· Coordinate appropriate technical records, experimental plans, results, and project documentation for potentially SR&ED-eligible work, while recognizing that eligibility and claims require separate review under applicable program criteria.

· Validate, document, communicate, and sustain improvements achieved.

· Develop working relationships with customer engineering, production, maintenance, quality, and plant-management personnel.

· Identify opportunities to replicate proven technical improvements across customer locations and applications.

Sales Support, Trials & Product Launches

· Support technically complex customer opportunities in collaboration with Sales.

· Provide technical guidance during customer qualification, product selection, application reviews, and solution development.

· Establish disciplined processes for planning, conducting, documenting, and following up on product trials.

· Assign appropriate Field Service and Research resources to trials and new-product introductions.

· Define trial objectives, success criteria, testing plans, data requirements, and customer reporting expectations.

· Review trial outcomes and determine appropriate next steps using technical evidence and customer requirements.

· Communicate technical findings, customer feedback, and commercial implications clearly to Sales.

· Participate in strategic customer presentations, technical reviews, and major account opportunities as required.

Research & Product Development Leadership

The Technical Director leads the people, priorities, processes, decision-making, and technical direction of Research, rather than being required to personally perform routine formulation or laboratory testing. Knowledge of formulation and laboratory methods — and the ability to perform work when needed — is an asset.

· Set Research priorities using customer needs, Field Service findings, opportunities, raw-material developments, and operational requirements.

· Assign research and product-development projects based on priority, complexity, available resources, and timelines.

· Define objectives, deliverables, accountabilities, documentation standards, and target dates for projects.

· Review project progress, testing methodology, technical findings, conclusions, and next steps.

· Oversee disciplined product development, testing, formulation changes, investigations, and validation.

· Guide new product development for customer applications and wider commercial opportunities.

· Oversee reformulation to improve existing products or respond to changes in raw materials, processes, availability, and customer requirements.

· Bring technical projects to clear conclusions rather than leaving them indefinitely in development.

· Coordinate scale-up, field validation, customer trials, and commercial implementation.

· Ensure research learnings, test results, and product-development records are maintained and accessible.

Raw-Material Change Management

· Establish a structured approach for assessing new, alternate, or changing raw materials.

· Evaluate raw-material quality, supplier consistency, technical suitability, availability, and effects on existing formulations.

· Coordinate with suppliers, Purchasing, Production, Research, and other affected departments.

· Ensure formulation changes triggered by raw-material substitutions or process changes are investigated, tested, documented, and approved through established processes.

· Identify recurring raw-material issues and opportunities to improve performance, consistency, cost, and supply reliability.

· Communicate significant raw-material changes and associated technical implications across departments.

Technical Documentation

· Ensure the Research team maintains accurate, current, useful product and customer technical documentation.

· Oversee the preparation and maintenance of Certificates of Analysis (CoAs), Safety Data Sheets (SDSs), Technical Data Sheets (TDSs), test data, and related technical records.

· Set standards for research documentation, test results, formulation-development records, and project files.

· Maintain technical records that support traceability, knowledge retention, customer requirements, and future development.

Integration of Field Service & Research

· Establish formal processes for transferring customer feedback, Field Service observations, testing results, and application challenges into Research.

· Ensure timely Research support for Field Service, including product selection, data interpretation, sample testing, and technical investigations.

· Identify recurring customer or manufacturing challenges that warrant development, reformulation, application engineering, or additional research.

· Translate field opportunities into well-defined Research projects with appropriate objectives and priorities.

· Coordinate laboratory development, internal testing, field trials, customer validation, and implementation.

· Review unsuccessful trials and development efforts to determine causes and capture useful technical learning.

· Build a repeatable pathway from idea identification through development, validation, launch, and post-implementation review.

· Document and communicate successful technical solutions so they can be replicated and scaled.

Internal Continuous Improvement & Cross-Functional Support

· Work with Production, Maintenance, Sales, Purchasing, Quality, and other departments on technical and process-related problems.

· Assign technical resources to internal improvement initiatives where they can provide value.

· Support investigations related to product performance, manufacturing processes, equipment applications, raw materials, and technical customer concerns.

· Identify ways technical knowledge can improve Progressive’s manufacturing consistency, efficiency, safety, cost, and product performance.

· Apply disciplined problem-solving and documentation to internal projects as well as customer-facing work.

· Build productive cross-functional relationships and avoid technical department silos.

Technical Systems, Metrics & Accountability

· Establish relevant performance measures for Field Service and Research.

· Maintain visibility into project status, customer-service commitments, trials, research initiatives, timelines, and departmental workload.

· Conduct departmental reviews of priorities, results, obstacles, commitments, and resource allocations.

· Ensure relevant activities, findings, customer interactions, and follow-up actions are recorded in Odoo or other Progressive systems.

· Standardize templates for customer visits, reports, research projects, trials, and improvement work.

· Use departmental data to identify recurring problems, resource constraints, and improvement opportunities.

Strategic & Commercial Collaboration

· Participate as a senior technical leader in Progressive’s strategic planning and growth initiatives.

· Work with executive leadership on future technical capabilities, staffing, equipment, systems, and resources.

· Collaborate with Sales leadership to identify technically driven opportunities within existing and prospective accounts.

· Differentiate Progressive through technical capability, manufacturing knowledge, customer service, product innovation, and measurable improvement.

· Support major customer conversions, complex technical opportunities, and strategic account development.

· Identify ways to extend successful technical programs to multiple customer facilities or applications.

· Develop technical training and knowledge resources for Sales, Field Service, and other employees.

Who You Are

You are someone who:

· Brings people together through clear, capable, and accountable leadership.

· Enjoys building teams, processes, and capabilities instead of merely maintaining existing practices.

· Gives people clear direction, holds them accountable, and invests in their development.

· Moves comfortably between strategic discussions and practical manufacturing problems.

· Approaches technical challenges methodically and values evidence over assumptions.

· Balances technically sound solutions with what is practical and valuable for customers.

· Takes ownership, follows through, and communicates clearly across different audiences.

· Values documentation, repeatable processes, and cross-functional collaboration.

· Prioritizes technical work based on impact, urgency, business value, and available resources.

Qualifications & Experience

Required

· Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from a recognized university.

· Significant progressive experience in manufacturing engineering, process engineering, industrial technical services, product development, or related technical leadership roles.

· Demonstrated experience leading and developing technical or multidisciplinary teams.

· Experience managing people, priorities, projects, and technical resources.

· Experience leading continuous-improvement initiatives in industrial manufacturing environments.

· Practical knowledge of Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma concepts, root cause analysis, DMAIC, or comparable structured problem-solving methods.

· Strong project-management, organizational, and technical communication capabilities.

· Experience working with manufacturing engineering, production, maintenance, quality, and plant leadership.

· Ability to connect technical initiatives to operational or financial outcomes.

· Ability and willingness to travel to customer manufacturing facilities as required.

Preferred / Assets

· Specialty chemical manufacturing and industrial lubricants or metalworking fluids.

· Automotive manufacturing, metal processing, stamping, forming, machining, grinding, and tooling operations.

· Direct knowledge of laboratory formulation methods, analytical testing, and hands-on product development; the ability to perform formulation or laboratory work when needed is a significant asset.

· Laboratory management and product-development oversight.

· Customer-facing engineering and industrial technical services.

· Experience identifying and documenting projects that may qualify for Canada’s SR&ED program.

· Lean Six Sigma certification or P.Eng. designation/eligibility.

· Experience building or expanding technical teams.

Direct industrial-lubricant experience is valuable but not essential. Progressive places strong value on engineering leadership, manufacturing-process knowledge, continuous-improvement experience, people leadership, and the ability to develop capable technical teams.

Core Skills & Competencies

Technical Leadership

People Leadership & Team Development

Manufacturing Process Improvement

Customer Technical Service

Research & Product Development Leadership

Continuous Improvement

Root Cause Analysis

Lean Manufacturing

Structured Problem-Solving

Project Management

Product & Application Engineering

Technical Documentation

Raw-Material Change Management

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Data Analysis & Performance Measurement

Technical Communication

Organizational Development

Strategic Planning

Pay: From $125,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Company events
• Dental care
• On-site parking
• Paid time off
• RRSP match
• Vision care

Work Location: In person