R&D Leader
- Location
- Granville, OH, US
- Work mode
- On-site
- Employment type
- Full-time
About the job
PURPOSE OF THE JOB The NA Product Innovation Leader is accountable for leading the North American product innovation agenda for Owens Corning’s Nonwovens business. This role delivers new products and solutions, productivity, supply security, operations support, technical differentiation, and core business growth by integrating strong material science, process understanding, application knowledge, product design fundamentals, and disciplined execution. The leader partners with Key Account Managers, customers, Sales, Product Management, Operations, Sourcing, Legal, Manufacturing, Global Innovation, Roofing, and Enterprise R&D teams to translate customer needs, key account priorities, operational needs, and business strategy into differentiated products, technical solutions, and measurable business outcomes. The role will leverage existing laboratory, pilot, and customer mimic capabilities to accelerate learning, testing, prototyping, scale-up, customer trials, plant trials, and commercialization. The leader is also accountable for protecting Owens Corning innovations through strong IP discipline and for applying AI, analytics, modeling, automation, and knowledge management tools wherever appropriate to improve innovation speed, quality, and repeatability. JOB RESPONSIBILITIES Commitment to Safety
- Create and maintain a culture where safety is the first priority and all incidents are preventable.
- Ensure safe execution of laboratory work, pilot trials, customer mimic activities, plant trials, field support, and customer-facing technical engagements.
- Drive compliance with Owens Corning safety procedures, product stewardship requirements, environmental standards, and corporate policies.
- Lead Design Hazard Eliminations, safety observations, risk reviews, safety huddles, and continuous safety improvement actions.
- Engage the team in safety and wellness management while reinforcing accountability for safe innovation execution.
Lead NA Product Innovation Strategy and Portfolio
- Develop and execute the North American product innovation strategy aligned with core business growth, profitability, customer value, manufacturing capability, productivity, and supply resilience objectives.
- Build and manage a focused product innovation portfolio across New Product Development, product improvements, productivity, supply security, operations support, and technical capability development.
- Deliver $20MM of core business growth in the region during the next LRP cycle through disciplined product innovation and commercialization execution.
- Establish product roadmaps, resource plans, success criteria, learning plans, technical milestones, launch metrics, and governance routines.
- Lead product innovation governance through PRBs, Stage-Gate, VelOCity, project reviews, customer readiness reviews, plant trial reviews, and executive updates.
- Prioritize resources toward the most valuable customer, key account, operational, and business opportunities.
Drive New Product Development with KAMs and Customers
- Partner closely with Key Account Managers, Sales, Product Management, Marketing, and priority customers to identify unmet needs, pain points, and growth opportunities.
- Translate customer and key account requirements into product design specifications, FFUs, technical success criteria, development plans, and commercialization roadmaps.
- Lead development and commercialization of new products, product improvements, and technical solutions that strengthen customer partnerships and improve Owens Corning’s competitive position.
- Integrate application knowledge, material science, product design, process understanding, manufacturing capability, and customer value propositions into product development choices.
- Lead technical execution from concept through feasibility, lab testing, pilot trials, customer trials, plant trials, qualification, launch, and post-launch performance tracking.
- Establish and communicate KPIs for new product launches, customer adoption, launch quality, value creation, and growth impact.
Provide Operations Support and Manufacturing Partnership
- Serve as a technical partner to Operations, Manufacturing, Quality, Sourcing, and Supply Chain to support plant performance, product quality, startups, trials, and customer issue resolution.
- Lead root-cause investigations and technical problem solving for product, process, raw material, and performance issues affecting customers or operations.
- Provide technical expertise during plant upsets, line trials, startup activities, product transitions, raw material changes, and customer quality investigations.
- Translate lab, pilot, and mimic learnings into manufacturing-ready solutions that improve execution, reduce risk, and support commercialization.
- Ensure technical documentation, trial plans, learning summaries, and handoffs are clear, complete, and actionable for plant and commercial teams.
Enable Productivity through Innovation
- Identify and prioritize productivity opportunities with Operations, Sourcing, Finance, Product Management, Quality, and Commercial teams.
- Lead innovation-driven cost reduction projects through product design changes, formulation optimization, raw material substitution, process improvements, and qualification programs.
- Ensure productivity solutions protect customer value, product performance, quality, manufacturability, and product stewardship expectations.
- Develop test methods, qualification plans, technical risk assessments, and validation approaches for productivity projects.
- Establish and communicate KPIs for productivity pipeline, savings delivery, technical readiness, launch quality, and business impact.
Strengthen Supply Security and Raw Material Resilience
- Develop and execute technical strategies to reduce single-source material risk and strengthen supply resilience.
- Lead alternative raw material qualifications, dual sourcing, supplier risk mitigation, and accelerated material substitution programs.
- Partner with Sourcing, Supply Chain, Operations, Quality, Product Stewardship, and Legal to ensure technically sound and commercially viable supply security solutions.
- Use lab, pilot, mimic, and plant validation methods to de-risk raw material changes and protect product performance.
- Maintain clear project plans, qualification criteria, technical documentation, and stakeholder communication for risk mitigation projects.
Leverage Lab, Pilot and Mimic Capabilities to Accelerate Innovation <ul style="margi
From Owens Corning's careers page (Company careers page), checked 29 Oct 2026.
How to apply
- Select Apply on owenscorning.com. It opens Owens Corning's own application form in a new tab, run on Company careers page.
- Fill in the form and upload your résumé there. Jobiwork never sees your application.
- Owens Corning will reply to you directly. No real employer asks you for money to apply.
Posted 9 Oct 2026 · checked 29 Oct 2026 · Report this job