Process Development Engineer

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

Hours: 40 hours per week

Salary: £45,000-£55,000

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.

The role

As a Process Development Engineer, you will play a key role in leading the scale up of novel adsorbent media products for PFAS removal. Working with the Engineering and the Product Development teams as well as external scale-up partners, you will be responsible for ensuring new adsorbent media are taken through process optimisation, pilot scale-up and through to full scale-up as efficiently as possible. You will possess a relevant chemical engineering or related degree qualification coupled with proven experience scaling up products from lab through to full manufacturing.

Responsibilities

• Lead the technical aspects of the transfer of adsorbent media syntheses from the lab to pilot plant and full manufacturing scale up.
• Troubleshoot and optimise lab/pilot scale processes for scale up, considering: cost, safety, reproducibility, purity and environmental impact.
• Design and run experiments to identify optimum process conditions for scale up.
• Work with teams to establish QA/QC procedures for the manufacturing process of the product.
• Manage the organisation of piloting and scale up with partners, acting as Puraffinity’s main technical point of contact.
• Work closely with partners to troubleshoot any manufacturing/piloting issues and identify technical solutions to ensure optimal outputs at industrial production scale.
• Compile high quality technical reports/ presentations and provide clear recommendations to the Executive Management Team.

Quality, Health & Safety, The Environment

• Ensure experiments, SOPs, Risk Assessments, COSHH forms and results are clearly documented.
• Contribute to continually improving the level of QHSE
• Support on the safety validation of the scaled-up material with the necessary third party certification organisations.

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.
• Present results as needed, e.g. at team meetings, executive updates, review meetings.
• Effective communication with third parties (suppliers, subcontractors, industrial partners).

General

• Capable of working well under pressure.
• Capable of working well within a team environment.
• An analytical approach to problem solving.
• Be able to adapt quickly in response to changing priorities.
• Meticulous attention to detail and ensuring all experimental observations are recorded and well documented.

Experience / Qualifications required

• A MSc or PhD in Chemical Engineering or Chemistry, with practical experience working within a scale-up / process development environment.
• Extensive experience scaling up products from lab/R&D environments to full manufacture.
• Ability to generate creative solutions to diverse problems.
• An understanding and awareness of material characterisation and analytical techniques, e. g. PSD, FTIR, XPS, TGA-DSC, GC-MS, elemental analysis would be advantageous
• Some understanding of the fundamentals of global standards related to the industry, including but not limited to REACH, CLP would be advantageous.

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) and a hybrid working approach
• We have a very strong diversity and inclusion focus, and in line with this, we have equalised our parental leave and pay for all