Product Development Scientist

This is a great job for someone who enjoys science and wants to have a hand in creating new products, or making tangible improvements on existing ones. A Product Development Scientist looks for ways to make products more efficient, more effective, healthier, or safer for the consumer.

If this sounds like you, you’re in luck because the opportunities to use these skills are nearly endless. A position as a Product Development Scientist enables you to work in the healthcare industry, creating medications that have fewer side effects or target specific symptoms. Product Development Scientists could also research medical equipment and find ways to make them more reliable. Think about the ways ultrasound machines have advanced from creating pictures of gray outlines to producing detailed, color, three-dimensional images, and you’ll have an idea of the potential in the field.

Outside of the medical industry, you might work to design cleaner ways to bring fossil fuels to the surface, or research green energy sources. You might research helmets or automobile air bags to improve safety. Or you could concoct paints that feature new colors, last longer, or have lower emissions. If you have a passion for healthy eating, you might research and discover new additives for sports beverages, nutrition bars, or other foods and drinks.

Whatever the merchandise, your objective is to work with other team members to design products that offer safety, nutrition, resource conservation, or ease of use to those who rely on them. This requires knowledge of what consumers want coupled with an understanding of how to give it to them.