Regional Technical Director, PMC Americas

Regional Technical Director, PMC Americas

PPG Industries

Pittsburgh Pennsylvania

The Regional Technical Director is a key member of the Protective and Marine Coatings (PMC) Americas regional leadership team and a key member of the PMC Technical Global Leadership team. This leader supports the technical teams in USCA and LATAM and drives a safety-based culture . This leadership role is critical to drive volume growth and productivity improvements in the Americas region by ensuring the teams are aligned to support the roll-out of new products to customers including localization of global products, support the regional customer needs, and deliver formula cost reductions.

Critical to the success of this role is a customer-centric view, with an ability to help drive the future strategy and define the technical roadmap to create sustainable and growing business. The role is complex due to the global product development focus and the number of segments supported: durable finishes, flooring, zinc rich and high temperature coatings, cellulosic passive fire protection, polyurea, and light duty offerings. Execution and speed are critical to this person's success, along with prioritization of work and decision making.

Key Responsibilities

• Be an inspirational leader to motivate and engage the PMC technical team and develop the talent to increase our technical capability and impact. The incumbent will lead the safety culture as well as IP protection.
• Keep a One PPG mind-set and work across boundaries of function and business to enable the right outcome for the company as well as the PMC business. Be a great collaborator both externally and internally.
• Drive New Ways of Working / Change management while maintaining employee engagement and retention. Ensure broader teams stay compliant with PPG's global and regional policies.
• Maintain strong focus on executing integration of technology teams from recent acquisitions. Improve productivity and constantly drive growth.
• Work closely with the PMC regional technical directors to drive technology sharing and communication across the teams.
• Execute the Product Development pipeline in Americas region launching new technologies and products driving growth and sustainability. Support the team to overcome barriers and meet product development timelines on time in full.
• Drives customer Support pipeline via Compass project tracking tools, product launches, Secure Launch, customer influencing, specification testing, customer and regulatory approvals, sustainable products, application testing, troubleshooting (customer & manufacturing), color matching, formula cost reduction, and complexity reduction (raw material & finished goods).
• A critical voice, along with the business team and product management team, to define the new technology roadmap and identify strategic plan for future growth. The incumbent will be driving the critical and challenging conversations with the related functions. The incumbent will challenge the status quo to improve productivity and growth.
• Ensure the most efficient organization is in place to support our customers and meet business deliverables. Also manage an efficient footprint across the Protective and Marine lab space. Support future footprint planning.
• Co-lead regional Project intake processes with other functions including Product Management.
• Support a safe working place for all employees in the laboratory, so that every employee goes home safely every day.
• Represent the PPG leadership skills: sets direction, develops diverse talent, and builds effective teams. The incumbent should challenge the status quo for the best interest of the company.
• Drive utilization of modern tools like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), modeling to improve internal productivity and develop solutions at rate faster than traditional methods.
• Motivate team to develop “outside the can” solutions.

Qualifications

• A BS degree in a technical or engineering discipline is required. Chemistry or Chemical Engineering required. A master's or PhD degree is a plus.
• Minimum of 8-10 years of experience in a technical leadership role with a proven track record of authentic leadership, cross-functional collaboration, and customer intimacy.
• Appropriate business acumen and a thorough understanding of financial methodologies, business performance metrics and ROI analyses.
• Demonstrated strategic thinking and change management experience.
• Outstanding communication skills demonstrated by deep customer knowledge with customers, results orientation with PPG executives, and inspiration leadership with employees. Strong English capability required (written and oral).
• Ability to manage in complex environments with broad range of customers, markets, and product technologies.
• Ability to work externally with key customers, business partners, alliances, and key internal stakeholders.
• Learning agility: demonstrated by quickly learning the PMC coatings business, but equally important is learning the customer issues and potential PPG product solutions.
• Coating experiences in the protective and marine segments is a strong plus.
• Inspirational leadership: can connect with people, understand personnel challenges and set up actions to improve engagement, diversity, and inclusion.

About us:

Here at PPG we make it happen, and we seek candidates of the highest integrity and professionalism who share our values, with the commitment and drive to strive today to do better than yesterday – everyday.

PPG: WE PROTECT AND BEAUTIFY THE WORLD™

Through leadership in innovation, sustainability and color, PPG helps customers in industrial, transportation, consumer products, and construction markets and aftermarkets to enhance more surfaces in more ways than does any other company. To learn more, visit and follow @ PPG on Twitter.

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PPG provides equal opportunity to all candidates and employees. We offer an opportunity to grow and develop your career in an environment that provides a fulfilling workplace for employees, creates an environment for continuous learning, and embraces the ideas and diversity of others. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, pregnancy, race, color, creed, religion, national origin, age, disability status, marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. If you need assistance to complete your application due to a disability, please email [email protected].

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Benefits will be discussed with you by your recruiter during the hiring process.

PPG pay ranges and benefits can vary by location which allows us to compensate employees competitively in different geographic markets. PPG considers several factors in making compensation decisions including, but not limited to, skill sets, experience and training, qualifications and education, licensure and certifications, and other organizational needs. Other incentives may apply.


Our employee benefits programs are designed to support the health and well-being of our employees. Any insurance coverages and benefits will be in accordance with the terms and conditions of the applicable plans and associated governing plan documents.