The Digital Ink Solutions team at Avery Dennison designs, compounds and delivers high-quality ink systems for industrial printing, OEM printer manufacturers, direct-to-object applications and packaging. Their latest technology focus is on UV and LED-curable inks, including specialty pre-coat solutions for glass and challenging substrates. Avery Dennison Role OverviewWe are looking for a highly capable UV Digital Ink Formulator (PhD) to lead and execute research and development of UV/LED curable inks—from concept through commercialization. You will work cross-functionally (R&D, applications, quality, manufacturing, regulatory) to drive formulation innovation through raw material selection,  assessment of physical performance properties, regulatory compliance and scale-up readiness. If you thrive in a fast-paced, materials-science driven environment and want to make an impact in advanced ink systems, this is for you. Key ResponsibilitiesLead the development of next generation UV/LED-curable digital ink formulations: select ink components such as monomers/oligomers, photoinitiators, dispersions and  additives to create ink formulations for  performance on various substrates.Manage multiple product development projects, focused on ink-jet inks design and improvement, while achieving targeted costs, project timing, and customer and regulatory specificationsDesign, execute and analyse experiments to optimize cure behaviour, adhesion, flexibility, print performance, colour stability, shelf life, print-head compatibility and durability (mechanical, chemical, environmental).Validate ink performance through printing in-house and working with customers.Carry out on-site hands-on ink formulation, testing and printing.Translate customer and market requirements (industrial printing, direct-to-object, packaging graphics) into technical specifications and formulation targets.Scale-up promising formulations from lab to pilot manufacturing; work with manufacturing/compounding teams to ensure batch reproducibility, process robustness, cost targets and quality metrics.
 Support regulatory and sustainability initiatives: ensure inks meet environmental, health & safety standards and support requested certifications and compliance requirements
 Generate technical documentation: formulation records, test method protocols, stability/aging studies, failure analyses, root-cause investigations, and intellectual property capture (patent ideas).
 Mentor junior chemists/technicians, share best practices in UV chemistry, photopolymerisation, and ink-system engineering.
 Stay abreast of emerging UV/LED photochemistry, ink-jet / digital printing trends, new substrates and materials to position us ahead of competition.