His posts at ICI included director of research and chairman of the paints division.
A two-year fellowship awarded by the Salters' Company allowed him to continue his research with Robinson in Oxford and to spend a year at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich with Leopold Ružička on the structure of abietic acid.
During the Second World War, Rose was part of a research group considering the possibilities for new business after the war, although plans to use acetylene as an intermediary for making organic chemicals were not pursued when it became clear that it was uneconomic to do so.
After his retirement from ICI, he was a director of Laporte Industries and chairman of the Fulmer Research Institute.
He was a governor of the University of Salford (and was awarded an honorary DSc in 1972) and Master of the Salters' Company in 1973.