Color Scientist

Full Time Position

Cypris Materials, Inc.

San Leandro, CA

Salary includes early employee equity package + benefits

Company Overview

Color is a crucial component to nearly every consumer market and is understandably the first feature that product design teams focus on when differentiating their new product. Color is the primary reason consumers say they’ve purchased a certain product over another. Yet, the industry has not changed in design nor underlying technology in the last few decades. Currently, chemists must painstakingly produce one color at a time, leading to endless recipes for production, the use of dangerous contaminants, and one-off manufacturing processes. New methods to generate color are necessary to overhaul the highly pollutive methods of current manufacturing and expand the global color gamut. Cypris wants to give the industry a much-needed make-over.

Structural color has been viewed by environmentalists as the holy grail to realize a safer alternative to toxic organic dyes, pigments, and effect pigments. Recognized by the Biomimicry Institute and funded by the Environmental Protection Agency and National Science Foundation, Cypris’ team creates polymers (referred to as “binders”) that when formulated into a paint or ink and applied to virtually any surface will self-assemble into structured coatings upon drying that reflect specific wavelengths of light based on the size of the polymers. This mechanism for creating color, called “structural color”, is similar to how the Cypris Morpho butterfly achieves the vivid blue color on its wing.

Cypris Materials decouples color production from the messy “one-chemistry one-color” status quo, setting color free from limitation. The company was founded in Berkeley and has over 14 issued or pending patents to commercialize a color platform that broadens the color gamut, reduces manufacturing hassle, simplifies formulation, and doesn’t pollute the environment.

Position Profile

Cypris is looking for a motivated color scientist who is driven by the opportunity to make a significant impact at the ground level of a small energetic team with an innovative technology. The successful candidate will be a curious and fast learner that can work efficiently and balance multiple projects. The phenotype for this candidate is one who gets excited about building a product from the ground up and working with customers to meet industry specifications and get to market. They will have the ability to wear many hats and adapt to changing environments, making good, independent judgement calls and work well in a team to accomplish the highest priority goals.

The person will have a direct responsibility for strengthening the company’s performance:

• Serve as key color technology /science expert and facilitate both internal and customer use of Cypris’ product portfolio.
• Create and maintain color technology competencies in terms of instrumentation, electronic formulation tools, and color measurements.
• Help to create and support color marketing tools and practices to be utilized in the market as part of the process to demonstrate our competitive advantage.
• Develop state-of-the-art color practices for color formulations, including the development and implementation of color procedures.
• Presenting color value propositions to customers and partners
• Design action to bring innovation in both a short- and long- term time frame

The individual will report to the chief technology officer to catalyze the development and optimization of Cypris Materials’ structural color with external customers for translation to market.

Background and Experience

The ideal candidate will have hands-on experience with coating formulation in combination with color technology. They will demonstrate the ability to address technical challenges and provide creative solutions to compelling color science questions. Key skills and previous experience:

• B.S. in chemistry, materials science, chemical engineering, physics, color science or related scientific discipline
• A minimum of 5 years industry experience. Other industry experience may be considered in combination with a strong color technology / color science / color application background
• Understanding of color theory, color measurement, color matching, color formulation and spectrophotometers
• Knowledge of critical chemical functionalities for coatings formulations including base resins, additives, and pigments for water-based, solvent-based, and UV-curable systems a plus
• Proficient in design of experiment
• Experience with common deposition techniques including spray, screen printing, flexographic printing, and inkjet printing a plus
• Excellent organization, communication, and project reporting skills

Benefits Include: Flexible time off, federal holidays, time off between December 24th and January 1st, medical, dental, vision, gym membership, and commuter benefits.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, training, promotion, or other employment practices for reasons of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, marital or veteran status, medical condition or disability, or any other legally protected status.

Please email your resume and a cover letter to join@cyprismaterials.com with the subject line "Cypris Materials Job Opportunity".