3,200Further Evonik job cuts planned for 2027–2029
CHF 79mRun-rate savings Clariant had banked by end of September
2Robotic arms running Nottingham’s self-driving coatings lab
Buyers & Results
Evonik’s earnings jump 40%, and the cost programme now runs to 2029
Adjusted EBITDA hit €629m, but Evonik also booked €313m to extend Evonik Tailor Made, with 3,200 more job cuts planned for 2027–2029.
Read the full story →Clariant cuts costs and wins a prize for its own AI tool
Margin slipped to 15.6% as savings reached CHF 79m. Meanwhile its CLARITY platform and AI add-on CLARITY Prime won Best Digital Innovation at the ICIS awards.
Read the full story →Why it matters: the big European buyers are earning more and spending less, so software has to show a return per head.
People & R&D
Covestro gives Coatings & Adhesives to Andrea Maier-Richter
Covestro’s first CMO, most recently head of TPU, now runs one of its most formulation-heavy units. It also reported a new resin line opening in Meppen the same day.
Read the full story →Why it matters: a commercially minded unit head usually means pressure for faster, customer-specific development.
Research to Watch
Nottingham’s robot lab chooses its own next coating
A self-driving lab mixes, fires and retrieves heat-resistant coating samples, using active learning to pick what to test next.
Read the full story →Talent Insight
Cutting and building at the same time
- Restructuring at Evonik and Clariant runs to 2027–2029. Expect a steady flow of experienced R&D and lab-systems people, not a one-off wave.
- Chemical majors are building and selling their own AI tools. That puts them in the same hiring market as vendors for data scientists and digital product people.
- People who can run closed-loop experiments, with robotics, ML and real chemistry, are still rare. Start building relationships with them early.
Building a team in Materials Science & Cheminformatics?
Anna Rabello specialises in Materials Science & Cheminformatics hiring at QP Group. Talk to Anna about the market, salaries or a search.
Anna RabelloBusiness Consultant · Life Science Software