Location
Hackney Wick

Hours
Full Time

Salary
£33,500 - £47,000 per year + EMI Share Options

About the Role
At Notpla, we’re at the forefront of sustainable innovation, creating natural alternatives to single-use plastic packaging engineered to help build a healthier planet. Founded on the belief that nature knows best, we are an innovative, action-oriented scale-up developing and manufacturing uncompromisingly natural packaging solutions from seaweed and plants.

As a Coating Process Engineer in the Innovation team, you will help turn breakthrough natural material technologies into scalable solutions. This role sits at the critical intersection of material science and industrial-scale coating processes, where you will use your process engineering skills to develop and transform innovative biomaterial solutions in the very early stages into commercially viable packaging alternatives that replace single-use plastics.

This is an exciting time to join Notpla — we are on the brink of a record-breaking year for revenue and on track for major growth in the next 18–24 months. Following a £20 million Series A+ fundraise, we are scaling our growth and environmental impact faster than ever. Beyond meaningful roles and a vibrant working environment, Notpla offers competitive compensation, including EMI Share Options, a zero-carbon pension scheme, discounts with local businesses, and subsidised social activities.

Our office-first hybrid working policy allows you to work in the way that maximises your productivity while maintaining a dynamic and collaborative atmosphere. We are a social business with regular clubs and events, proud of our diverse, mission-driven community working together to make plastic disappear. Led by strong values, all Notpla employees are encouraged to take ownership of their domain, enjoying a high degree of autonomy. Our aim is to build an inspiring culture reflected in our working policies, environment, and people.

You will work hands-on in both the laboratory and on pilot facilities, designing and executing coating trials, troubleshooting process challenges, and building technical knowledge that advances Notpla's mission across multiple concurrent projects. Operating shoulder-to-shoulder with material scientists, product designers, and business development managers, you will drive your own projects from concept through pilot-scale validation.

This role is for someone who sees process engineering as a creative discipline, where the challenge of making natural materials perform in existing industrial infrastructure is as exciting as the science of the materials themselves. You will pioneer coating processes for materials without established playbooks, constantly learning, adapting, and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible when nature meets engineering.

Key Responsibilities:
- Drive natural material development projects from early stage trials through to scalable solutions
- Design, execute and analyse coating trials in-house and with external partners, optimising performance using process engineering principles
- Develop and optimise coating processes for packaging applications including extrusion, water-based and other paper coating technologies
- Troubleshoot process challenges using root cause analysis and corrective actions
- Scale processes from laboratory to pilot stage, addressing scale-up challenges
- Build understanding of natural material behaviour during coating, including rheology, adhesion, film formation and drying
- Characterise coating performance through barrier, adhesion and mechanical testing
- Plan and manage workload across multiple concurrent projects
- Collaborate with material scientists, designers, commercial teams and other specialists to solve technical challenges
- Build and manage relationships with academic institutions, commercial labs, equipment suppliers and other external partners
- Provide technical input into grant proposals and client projects
- Conduct feasibility studies and pathfinding projects to evaluate process options for emerging material solutions
- Develop technical strategies to solve coating and process engineering challenges
- Identify relevant technologies, industry developments and equipment partnerships to unlock new capabilities
- Design experiments, analyse trial data and translate findings into clear recommendations
- Document processes and technical learnings to build institutional knowledge
- Communicate technical concepts clearly to diverse audiences
- Contribute technical content to patent applications and intellectual property development

Experience
- Relevant degree in Process Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Packaging Engineering or a related field with understanding of scale-up challenges
- Diverse experience with paper coating processes for packaging (extrusion coating, flexo, gravure, etc.)
- Proven track record of developing, improving and troubleshooting manufacturing processes and delivering technical breakthroughs
- Strong relationship management with manufacturing partners and cross-functional collaboration experience
- Comfortable working in ambiguity, agile methodologies in a fast-paced environment
- Experience managing trial logistics and willingness to travel frequently for partner collaborations, trials and consortium meetings

About you
- Strong make-it-happen attitude with a creative approach to process engineering
- Excellent communication skills with ability to convey complex technical concepts to diverse audiences
- Collaborative mindset, able to work effectively across disciplines and with external partners
- Self-motivated and able to manage multiple concurrent projects independently

Qualifications
- Degree in Process Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Packaging Engineering or related discipline