Research Scientist

**About Alchemy** At Alchemy, our mission is to build a nanotechnology company for the 21st century. As a team, we’re pretty obsessive about this mission and relentless about accomplishing it. Today, Alchemy’s nanocoatings technologies are disrupting the automotive windshield replacement industry and enabling multi-climate reliability of advanced sensor systems. More recently, in addition to our core business, Alchemy was selected by the Canadian Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces (DND/CAF) to develop a solution that actively modifies the visual and infrared signatures of Army platforms in order to decrease detectability in changing environmental conditions and operational environments. This is part of the Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security program. Alchemy is a Y-Combinator funded startup, and is backed by Canada’s leading angel investors and venture capitalists. We are also supported by top institutions such as the Stanford-StartX, University of Waterloo, Waterloo Institute of Nanotechnology, Velocity, and the Creative Destruction Lab. **Responsibilities** We are building the next generation of our nanocoatings to solve problems beyond windshield protection. As a part of our foray into performance coatings, we are developing an IR stealth coating to reduce detectability of Army platforms (soldiers, vehicles, etc.) in various operating environments. Being able to operate covertly offers a prime tactical advantage to the Canadian military. The pace of development of sensor technologies and proliferation of high performance, low cost sensors in the military and public domains are currently outpacing the performance of IR signature management systems. This project and therefore your work focuses on helping implement our solution and meet the objectives of this challenge and project. We are looking for a Research Scientist with preferred experience in this industry, who is able to independently design and run experiments to implement and contribute to the development of our solution to this challenge. Specifically, your responsibilities will include: - Aiding in the development of new coating formulations that incorporate innovative nanomaterials on têxtiles - Understand and optimize coating performance to meet specifications in the following areas: IR stealth, abrasion resistance and adhesion, permeability, UV durability, etc. - Running validation testing for our coatings in development and benchmarking against competitive technologies as well as planning and coordinating third party testing activities - Literature review to better understand emissivity and our approaches, data analysis and report writing to support current and future research and development projects. **Requirements**: Here at Alchemy, we value passion, resourcefulness, and humility. Alchemy is an early-stage startup - this means you will have the opportunity to decide how much impact you have. We are looking for someone who cares deeply about Alchemy’s mission as much as we do and is just as excited about working at a fast-paced deep technology startup as we are. This role will insert you immediately into our core team and provide you with the opportunity to make key contributions to our most critical product lines and projects. You will be expected to move fast, which will often require using your technical expertise & judgment to find effective ways to accelerate project timelines without sacrificing quality. Alchemy is a rapidly growing startup with rapid iteration cycles and ambitious delivery deadlines. In order to succeed in this role, you should have relevant experience in the following areas: - Nanomaterials and Photonics - Formulation and coating on têxtiles - Polymer and analytical chemistry - Experience working in a chemistry lab - Tinkering with testing equipment and hardware - Bachelor’s or College degree in Chemistry or Materials / Textile Engineering or any related field - 2-5 years of experience in a lab setting - Strong communication, diligence and detail oriented - Proactive and self-starter attitude with a focus on continuously finding new ways to increase your productivity - Proven ability to work independently and manage priorities/time under a dynamic high pressure environment - Resilience and conviction necessary to succeed in a rapidly changing environment with frequent shortage of time, resources, and data - Ready to put the team first and be willing to contribute in whatever manner possible **Benefits** Ask us about our paid time off programs that sums to >5 weeks per year