Location
Hackney Wick

Hours
Full Time

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

About the Role
At Notpla, we’re at the forefront of sustainable innovation, creating natural alternatives to single-use plastic packaging that 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 an Extrusion Engineer in the Innovation team, you will develop breakthrough natural material technologies into scalable solutions. This role sits at the critical intersection of material science and industrial-scale extrusion processes, transforming innovative biomaterial solutions from early stages into commercially viable packaging alternatives that replace single-use plastics.

This is an exciting time to join Notpla as we approach a record-breaking year for revenue and major growth over the next 18–24 months. Our recent Series A+ fundraise, closed in 2024, enables us to scale our growth and environmental impact faster than ever.

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 supports 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.

In this role, you will work shoulder-to-shoulder with material scientists, product designers, consortium members, and business development managers. You will drive complex R&D projects from concept through to scale validation, focusing on a novel extruded material within a large EU-funded project. You will bring practical process engineering experience with extrusion—whether compounding, film or sheet extrusion, extrusion coating, or related processes—and apply rigorous process engineering discipline in a fast-paced innovation environment.

You will work hands-on in both laboratory and pilot facilities, designing and executing trials, troubleshooting process challenges, and building technical knowledge that advances Notpla's mission in a large Horizon project and potentially across multiple concurrent projects.

Key Responsibilities:
- Drive natural material development projects from early stage trials to scalable packaging and disposable applications
- Design, execute and analyse extrusion trials in-house and with external partners, optimising performance using process engineering principles
- Collaborate with different product groups to prioritise and plan extrusion trials
- Troubleshoot process challenges using root cause analysis and corrective actions
- Build understanding of natural material behaviour during extrusion and processing
- Collaborate across material science, design, commercial and product teams to solve technical challenges
- Manage relationships with R&D labs, academic institutions, toll manufacturers, equipment suppliers and other external partners
- Provide technical input into grant proposals and client projects
- Conduct feasibility and pathfinding work to identify practical technical routes from development to market
- Develop technical approaches to solve 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 trials and technical learnings to build institutional knowledge
- Communicate technical concepts clearly to diverse audiences through written, visual and verbal formats
- Contribute technical content to patent applications and intellectual property development

Experience
Practical process engineering experience with exposure to extrusion processes such as compounding, film or sheet extrusion, extrusion coating, or related extrusion techniques. Experience working hands-on in laboratory and pilot facilities, designing and executing trials, and troubleshooting process challenges.

About you
You bring rigorous process engineering discipline to a fast-paced innovation environment while maintaining a fluid, curious mindset needed to pioneer uncharted territory in natural materials. You are collaborative and able to work effectively across multidisciplinary teams and external partners. You are motivated by sustainability and excited to contribute to replacing single-use plastics with natural alternatives.

Qualifications
Relevant qualifications in engineering, materials science, chemical engineering or related disciplines are expected. A strong technical background supporting extrusion and process engineering is essential.