Head of Engineering

TrimTabs; Bridgend; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Share options

Direct access to founders

Relocation support

Job summary

TrimTabs in Wales is seeking a chartered chemical engineer to lead the scale-up from pilot to full-scale plant. You'd own the engineering strategy, act as Design Authority, and report to the CTO while directing a small but growing team through construction, commissioning and handover.

This role offers equity, direct access to the founders, relocation support to Bridgend, and the freedom to make bold decisions without gatekeeping.

Qualifications

• A chartered chemical engineer with experience delivering process plant from feasibility through commissioning.
• Experience with complex chemical or refining projects, LNG, or semiconductor environments is preferred.
• Ability to lead safety-critical engineering decisions and drive a new site from design to operation.

Responsibilities

• Own the engineering strategy for scaling the plant from a single rig to multiple units.
• Act as Design Authority: architecture, technical decisions, readiness to build.
• Lead the engineering team: project manager, lead process engineer, mechanical and chemical engineers.
• Take the plant from basis of design through construction, commissioning and handover, and run the site once live.

Skills

Chartered chemical engineer

HAZOPs

Process safety

Leadership

Construction & commissioning

Education

Chartered Chemical Engineer

Job description

We turn waste plastic into carbon nanotubes and hydrogen.

Not in theory. The process is patented, it works, and we've proved it at MVP scale. What we need now is someone to turn it into a manufacturing business.

Over the next eighteen months we're moving to a new site, scaling from one rig to several, and building towards wire fabrication by 2028. You'd lead the engineering behind all of it.

What you'd own:

You'd be our Design Authority. Architecture, technical decisions, whether something's ready to build. Those calls are yours. You'd report to Alvin, our CTO, and work alongside our Director of CNT Technology Development. Three of you setting the technical direction.

You'd take the plant from basis of design through construction, commissioning and handover, then run the new site once it's live. The whole lifecycle, not a slice of it.

And you'd lead the engineering team. A project manager, a lead process engineer, mechanical and chemical engineers. Some are early in their careers and very good. Getting them chartered and turning them into a proper engineering function is a real part of this role, not an afterthought.

Why people take a job like this:

You'd have equity. We're fifteen people now, heading for low twenties by year end, with a commercial milestone in 2028 that everything is pointed at.

You'd be solving problems nobody has solved. Growing nanotubes at scale is part science, part art, and there's no textbook for the part we're doing. You'd be working next to people who understand this material as well as anyone alive.

And you'd stop waiting for permission. Fifteen people means your decision is the decision.

Who we're after:

A chartered chemical engineer who's delivered process plant from feasibility through commissioning. Chemicals, refining, LNG, semiconductor, anywhere properly complex. You've run HAZOPs and you take process safety seriously.

You're probably the person who ends up on the floor when something's misbehaving, because you'd rather see it yourself.

Carbon nanotubes on your CV is a bonus, not a requirement. What matters more is that you learn quickly and you're comfortable saying you don't understand something yet. This material is finicky and it doesn't care what the fundamentals say. The engineers who do well here listen first.

Five days a week in Bridgend. The plant's here and so is the work. Relocation to be supported.

Also worth knowing:

• Share options scheme
• Direct access to the founders and real say in where this goes

We welcome applications from women, people from under-represented backgrounds in engineering, and anyone returning to work or changing direction.

Questions before you apply, please reach out to Blaze Gardner [e-mail]