Laboratory Technician

Salary: £23,000-£26,000

Hours: 40 hours per week

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

About the company

We are an innovative and customer-driven advanced materials company focused on designing, developing, and manufacturing smart engineered adsorbent materials to capture and retain highly persistent and hazardous compounds called PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) from water across the Residential, Commercial & Institutional, and Industrial market sectors.

Based in London – UK, Puraffinity was founded in 2015 and since then has become a leading organization in globally addressing PFAS, commonly known as The Forever Chemicals, due to its resistance and high mobility.

Our Vision is to provide 1 billion people with PFAS safe water by 2030, and our Mission is to protect environmental and human health by engineering precision materials to capture chemicals in water.

Puraffinity embraces diversity and fosters a collaborative and teamworking environment, and we dedicate 100% of our time to create a purposeful and sustainable environmental impact.

Our Core Values: The Environment, Collaboration, Ambition, Ground-Breaking Solutions, and Customer-Centric approach.

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

You will help to maintain the efficient and safe running of Puraffinity’s laboratory and assist with research and development. Key responsibilities will include:

Operations and Research and Development

• Assisting with experiments across product development, engineering and process development, such as batch and column tests, isotherms and synthetic work as required.
• Order, restock and maintain inventory of chemicals and consumables.
• Track deliveries, unpack and store chemicals and consumables.
• Document and arrange safe disposal of all laboratory waste.
• Keep the laboratory space clean and tidy.
• Maintain an efficient working environment.
• Perform routine QA/QC testing in accordance with SOPs using analytical equipment such as TOC/TN, IR spectroscopy, particle size distribution.
• Prepare, send and track samples for external testing and analysis.

Quality, Health & Safety, The Environment

• Follow and ensure strict quality, health, safety and environmental (QHSE) procedures.
• Proactively raise and deal with any QHSE issues.
• To learn about and comply with all aspects of workplace health and safety.
• Ensure laboratory experiments, SOPs, Risk Assessments, COSHH forms and results are clearly documented.
• Assist with SOPs, risk assessments and COSHH assessments.
• Keep laboratory equipment in a clean and serviceable condition.
• Arrange maintenance, servicing and calibration of laboratory equipment.
• Identify new continuous improvement exercises and propose these to your line manager to raise the level of QHSE.

Communication

• Practice proactive, open and transparent communication at all times with all stakeholders to ensure that they are aware of issues, and asking for support when needed.
• Strong communication with other colleagues and line manager to raise concerns or issues.

About you

• Proven experience in a laboratory environment.
• Proactive approach to health and safety.
• The ability to maintain and calibrate technical equipment.
• The ability to learn specific, practical techniques and apply this knowledge to solve technical problems.
• Flexible, able to work with and provide support for a number of people.
• Strong written and oral communication skills.
• Proficient with Microsoft Office.
• Teamworking ability, attention to detail and interpersonal skills.
• Strong organisational and prioritisation skills, able to multi-task efficiently.
• A science qualification to A level is welcomed.
• A HND/HNC in a scientific discipline is desirable.