Product Development Scientist

Location: Scale Space, 58 Wood Ln, London W12 7RZ

Hours: 40 hours per week

Salary: £40,000 - £45,000

About the company

Puraffinity Ltd is a rapidly growing start-up company. We are driven and strive to solve the global problem of toxic forever chemicals in water, working on several water treatment projects in parallel with an eye to develop sustainable solutions. We work collaboratively and value the opinion of every team member. Our mission is focused on protecting environmental and human health.

Why join Puraffinity?

• We offer great benefits: Vitality Private Health Care, enhanced pension employer contribution scheme (up to 7.5%), and mental health coaching and support by Spill
• We offer shares in Puraffinity for all employees, which means you get recognised and rewarded for your work
• We care about your learning and development and to support this we have a generous training budget for personal development (up to £2,000 per year)
• A work life balance is important – we offer 25 days annual leave (in addition to the 8 bank holidays)
• We have a very strong diversity and inclusion focus, and in line with this, we have equalised our parental leave and pay for all

The Role

The Product Development Scientist will support the development, synthesis and evaluation of Puraffinity’s new adsorbent media concepts.

You will report to the Product Development Team Leader. Your primary responsibility will be to design, synthesise, analyse and test new adsorbents whilst ensuring that Puraffinity’s safety protocols are properly adhered to. You will provide clear technical summaries and recommendations to the Team Leader and other key stakeholders through dissemination of technical data in the form of updates, presentations and meetings.

Responsibilities

Research and Development

• Propose and lead new work proposals to, for example, improve the performance of our adsorbent media, further understanding of how material properties relate to performance, improve production processes.
• Remaining up to date with the scientific literature and adjacent fields to help generate new research ideas.
• Synthesis and purification of novel adsorbent material products.
• Collect and analyse data from a wide range of sources (analytical and performance data) to guide adsorbent material design.
• In collaboration with the Engineering Team, performance testing of materials and analysis of data, ensuring that the performance of new material concepts are properly benchmarked against competitor materials under relevant conditions.
• Support the Engineering team in process development activities for production.
• Compile experimental results into the appropriate reporting format (Word, PowerPoint) for wider dissemination.

Quality, Health & Safety, The Environment (QHSE)

• Adhere to all HSE protocols.
• Ensure laboratory experiments, SOPs, Risk Assessments, COSHH forms and results are clearly documented and organised in a tracible manner.
• Raise any HSE concerns to a member of the safety team.
• Identify new continuous improvement exercises to raise the level of QHSE.
• Propose and lead on quality processes and initiatives to improve the level of robustness of data collection and interpretation.

Communication

• Practice proactive, open and transparent communication at all times with all internal stakeholders to ensure that they are aware of progress, and asking for support when needed.
• Strong communication within the PD team and across the other functions.
• Discuss progress regularly with the Team Leader and report/present results as needed, e.g. at team meetings, bimonthly reports.
• Effective communication with third parties (suppliers, subcontractors, academic or industrial partners).

General

• Be able to adapt quickly in response to changing priorities.
• Consider cost, safety, scalability and suitability of material concepts at all times.
• Meticulous attention to detail and ensuring all experimental observations are recorded and well documented.
• Strong sense of curiosity and bold thinking to develop innovative new material concepts.
• Develop an awareness of the bigger company picture and how PD activities can support short- and long-term goals.
• Support mentoring of more junior members of the team.

Experience / Qualifications required

• A PhD in chemistry or material science OR an MSc/MChem in chemistry or materials science plus >2 years industry experience
• Practical experience working within a laboratory environment.
• An understanding and awareness of material characterisation and analytical techniques, e.g. PSD, BET, FTIR, XPS, elemental analysis.