Careers and opportunities

This is a key role in any new project. R&D engineers are an essential “interface” between the design and the development of new products or services. They study the properties of matter, conceive new products, improve the properties and manufacturing costs of products and compounds, create new synthetics, perfect processes, explore new fields such as Sustainable chemistry or biotechnology.

They must demonstrate rigour, curiosity and perseverance. They must also be able to work in a team, be organised and curious. To be effective, they must be interested in other specialities than their own, for example marketing or production. Finally they must persevere because it sometimes takes many fruitless efforts before finding the right formula.

Young engineers in research and development are particularly sought by the big industrial chemical groups who depend on innovation to meet tough international competition, especially from emerging countries.

The job of environmental engineers is a permanent balancing act: they must ensure compliance with the regulations on pollution emitted by their company (waste, impact on air and of water quality, nuisance and noise…) while preserving their production and their profitability. A challenge that requires playing several roles.

Depending on the situation, environment engineers may play a preventive or corrective role, a research or awareness-raising activity. They foresee and measure the impact of production methods on the environment and propose solutions for overcoming the nuisances they cause.

As experts, environment engineers ensure that the workplace and production methods comply with current environmental standards.

They make concrete proposals for improving the premises and introduce “clean” technologies. If they have a gift for communication, they may also be asked to raise staff awareness on fighting pollution and acting as a liaison between the company and specialist government agencies, ecologist associations and local representatives of ministries.

These people design, define, organise and implement different procedures to ensure the quality of products. They supervise and monitor the control of raw materials, production resources, semi-finished and finished products. They help to improve manufacturing processes, to organise production and production facilities. They lead and direct teams of technicians or executives. They may control their department’s budget and coordinate all the quality activities in the company.

They generally operate within a company’s quality control department or within a service provider. The activity calls for close collaboration with in-house departments – commercial (customer satisfaction), design, production, methods and maintenance (technical problems) or with client companies, and frequent contacts with suppliers and subcontractors. This job often calls for team-work. Frequent travel may be involved, and great geographical mobility is often needed for interventions on several sites.

The role of the EHS (Environmental Health and Safety) engineer is to ensure that safety standards are met, to protect the environment and health in a production unit, mainly but not exclusively in the:

• chemical,
• oil,
• metal-working,
• or agri-food industry.

HSE engineers join in establishing a safety policy with the aim of reducing accidents at work, and industrial risks (pollution, fire, etc.) and also improving quality in the establishment, in the case of the QSE (Quality, Safety and Environment) engineer or the QEHS (Quality, Environmental Health and Safety) engineer.

They may work in a production unit or in a Environmental Safety consultancy.

Their main job is to ensure that the company’s safety rules are applied and made known. This means informing the employees, visitors, administrative services and nearby residents. They keep in constant touch with management, insurance companies, the local authorities, the factory inspectorate, etc.

They must also record and analyse any incidents which occur in the establishment, and determine their causes to improve accident prevention.

Finally they must apply specifications which help to comply with the standards in force in their sector of activity and to improve the company’s quality policy.

The Health and Safety engineer must be rigorous, knowing how to enforce the company rules because in the event of an accident they are the first responsible. They must also in a way be a visionary, knowing how to read the future. They must always be one step ahead, where safety rules and production tools are concerned.

In the chemical industry, production engineers run one or more production lines. They organise and plan the making and packing of products, complying with regulations and with quality standards and trying to continuously improve performance. They manage the staff under their responsibility.

The companies recruiting them are from a whole range of chemical industries: colours and pigments, paints, varnishes, inks, rubber, glue, industrial gases, explosives, soaps, detergents, perfumes, toiletries, etc.

This job also exists in all the other branches of industry.
Their main activities are to define the production plan (establishing the roadmap, organising the production, managing subcontracts, etc.), to monitor production (coordinating the production plan, monitoring the indicators daily, ensuring that safety procedures  are applied, reacting rapidly to incidents…), to optimise the processes of production (checking that the installations comply with rules and procedures, preventing internal risks, giving technical advice…), to manage staff and activities and report back (budget management, reporting on activities…).

Production engineers are people with good leadership skills to coordinate and lead the work of a team. They are rigorous and well-organised. They have an eye for quality and results. They are able to cope with the unexpected.