Researcher, Development Color & Perm, EURL R&D

Who we are:
Founded in Japan in 1887, Kao is passionate about making a difference in people’s lives with our high quality products and services to create a Kirei Life for all – a beautiful life that respects the needs of our consumers and customers as well as the planet. We never compromise on quality and craft our products with care for the consumer and the environment.  As a company driven by purpose and strong corporate values we pride ourselves to be listed among the World´s Most Ethical Companies since 16 consecutive years. Our corporate philosophy, the Kao Way, guides us in everything we do – acting with integrity, courageously driving innovation and treating each other with trust and respect.

The Role:

Ideation, development and validation of innovative hair coloring products. Examination of fundamental properties of formulations and their effect on hair fibres.

What you will do:

• Plan and conduct laboratory experiments to develop new formulations (e.g. crème, liquids, powders), understand the influence of single ingredients on the product characteristics, bring in own ideas and knowledge.
• Apply laboratory evaluation techniques to understand/ characterize the performance of new products  (e.g. viscosity, handling, smell, …) and their effect on hair (e.g., color result, care level, shine, damage), which includes testing of hair fibres physically, chemically or optically. Arrange work plans to execute hands-on research in laboratory settings and within established time frames.
• Stability testing of prototype formulations.
• Testing formulation on their performance and compare to competitor products
• Team work such as sharing your results within the product development group, but also work with partners from other teams to transfer prototypes into final products, e.g.,  test salon, production,  scale up, Marketing, Education,
• Administrative work: Create and maintain all necessary documentation in order to develop new technologies/products (i.e., lab notebooks, recipes of prototype formulation, stability test results, /data, etc), support registration of final products
• If applicable applying for patents to safeguard research findings; assisting the Patent department with patent registration and generation of data to support patent applications at each stage.

Responsibilities

• Laboratory experiments for developing new basic recipes and the technical implementation of all product activities as per project management principles, incl. documentation of all technical information necessary for the manufacturing process (30%)
• Stability tests, incl. proper documentation (20%)
• Generating data for claim support and communication concepts (20%)
• Laboratory experiments for evaluating new technologies (ideas from internal/external sources and KAO Research; performing laboratory experiments to evaluate new raw materials (20%)
• Applying for patents to safeguard research findings; assisting the patents department with patent registration

Education and Experience:

• Degree is Natural Sciences
• Laboratory Experience
• Experience in the cosmetic field or related such as food science, 
  At least 2 years experience working in the hair care field, practical knowledge of hair care formulations, handling hair samples and familiarity with common hair and formulation testing methods

How we work: Having been selected among the World´s Most Ethical Companies for 16 consecutive years, we are a company with a purpose and strong corporate values. We never compromise on quality and craft our products with care for the consumer and the environment. At Kao, each employee can actively shape their job and their career. We work collaboratively to achieve our common goals, always aiming to deliver the best for our customers.
What we offer: A friendly and flexible work environment with competitive salaries, benefits package, ongoing development and the opportunity to enhance your skills and deliver tangible results. At Kao your voice will be heard. Your opinion really counts. We believe that change comes from taking opportunities into your own hands, so we value and reward entrepreneurial thinking and innovation.
Hiring Process: Kao embraces the diversity and the individual personalities of its people because we believe it is diversity that makes us strong. This is why we welcome applications from all areas of the global community. 
Want to learn more: If you feel you are as unique as our products and want to find out why 33,000 people across the globe opted for a career with us please visit https://www.kao.com/emea/en/