R&D; Team Leader – Agrochemical API / Active Ingredient Synthesis A well-funded, fast-growing specialty chemicals company

Location: Bengaluru, India

Job Overview

We're looking for an experienced R&D; Team Leader to lead process research and development for agrochemical active ingredients — herbicides, insecticides, fungicides. This is a hands-on-bench leadership role: you'll manage a small team of scientists while personally driving process development, optimization, validation, and scale-up from lab to pilot plant. You will own the technical and commercial viability of the actives Atomgrid brings to market.

This is not a general organic chemistry role. We need someone who has already worked inside the agrochemical or crop-protection industry — not someone whose organic chemistry happens to be adjacent to it.

Key Requirements

- Direct, hands-on experience synthesizing or scaling up agrochemical active ingredients (technical-grade herbicides, insecticides, or fungicides) — not adjacent categories like pharma APIs, natural-product derivatives, hydrocolloids, or discovery/medicinal chemistry. This is the single most important filter; candidates without it will not be considered regardless of PhD pedigree or publication record.
- Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry with 3+ years post-PhD industrial experience in agrochemical R&D; , OR M.Sc. in Chemistry with 8+ years industrial experience in agrochemical process development. (Academic postdocs, research associate positions, and CRO/discovery-chemistry stints do not count toward the experience requirement.)




- At least one full agrochemical molecule taken through lab → pilot → commercial scale-up , with the candidate able to name the molecule class (e.g., organophosphate, pyrethroid, triazole, sulfonylurea) and describe the actual process challenges encountered at each scale.
- Stable tenure : no more than one job change in the past 3 years. We are hiring a team leader, not a contractor — candidates with a pattern of sub-12-month roles will be screened out unless there's a clear, verifiable reason (e.g., single fixed-term contract, company shutdown).
- Working knowledge of Route of Synthesis (ROS) evaluation, non-infringing process design, and cost-of-goods analysis for commercial actives — this is a commercial R&D; role, not a pure discovery role.

Responsibilities:

- Lead and mentor a small team of scientists while remaining hands-on at the bench.
- Own process development, optimization, validation, and scale-up of agrochemical actives from lab to pilot plant.
- Conduct technology transfer to manufacturing/contract sites, and support commercialization end-to-end.
- Perform impurity profiling, reaction mechanism troubleshooting, and purification (distillation, crystallization, chromatography)



specific to technical-grade active ingredients.
- Evaluate and design non-infringing synthesis routes with awareness of existing agrochemical patents.
- Use NMR, MS, HPLC, GC, SciFinder, and Reaxys for structure confirmation, impurity ID, and route search.
- Prepare development reports, cost analyses, and ROS documentation for internal and customer review.
- Coordinate with manufacturing, analytical, procurement, and EHS teams to execute projects safely and on schedule.

What disqualifies the candidate:

- No direct agrochemical active-ingredient experience — pharma API, natural products, hydrocolloids, discovery chemistry, or "specialty chemicals" alone do not satisfy this.
- Career is primarily academic/research-institute based (postdocs, research associate roles) with under 3 years of true industrial process ownership.
- More than one job change in the trailing 3 years without a clear, verifiable explanation.
- Cannot name a specific agrochemical molecule or molecule class they've worked on when asked directly.

Why Join Us?
- A chance to join a well-funded, fast-growing company in its early stages, offering unparalleled growth opportunities.
- Work in an workplace driven by innovation, agility, and high-impact problem-solving.
- Collaborate with a team of highly passionate individuals building a category-defining company.
- Perfect for someone looking to build a long-term career while learning directly from experienced founders and operators.

📌 R&D Team Leader – Agrochemical API / Active Ingredient Synthesis (Bengaluru)
🏢 Seven
📍 Bengaluru