Materials Scientist – Bioplastics Lab & R&D, Equity

Natural Negative Ltd; Brighton; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 60,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

28 days including public holidays

Meaningful equity

Direct working relationship with the F

Founders' support and mentorship

Job summary

Natural Negative Ltd in Brighton is seeking a Materials Scientist/Engineer to join our growing materials lab. You will be hands-on with extrusion and thermoplastics, preparing samples for customer and grant projects, and helping build scalable lab systems and standards.

Training is provided on our processing kit and you’ll work closely with the Lead Polymer Scientist to translate direction into disciplined lab work.

Qualifications

• Degree in materials science, polymer science, chemistry, chemical or mechanical engineering, or a related field.
• Around 1–2 years of hands‑on lab experience from industry, a research group, a PhD/MSc project, or a technical role.
• R&D mindset: you dig into root causes and use learnings to improve the next run.
• Keen to learn new materials, methods, and equipment; willingness to be taught.
• You look for ways to make processes faster, more consistent, or more repeatable.
• Growing independence: you’ll increasingly plan and run your own work.
• Comfortable translating scientific direction into lab plans and maintaining rigorous data and documentation.
• Collaborative, able to give and receive feedback in a small team.

Responsibilities

• Run materials processing: extrusion and thermoplastic processing on PHAs and PCR plastics; improve speed, consistency and repeatability.
• Help run the lab: equipment maintenance, consumables, sample prep, safety, and keeping R&D readiness.
• Test and validate new formulations; develop practical data collection methods.
• Manufacture prototypes and fixtures using CAD/workshop skills.
• Prepare and dispatch samples; coordinate with external testing facilities and partners.
• Contribute to Innovate UK funded projects.
• Develop and maintain SOPs, risk assessments, and lab notebooks.

Skills

R&D mindset

Keen to learn

Process improver

Growing independence

Collaborative

Lab teamwork

Data discipline

Education

Materials science degree or related field

Tools

SolidWorks

Onshape

Fusion 360

Job description

Natural Negative Ltd in Brighton is seeking a Materials Scientist/Engineer to join our growing materials lab. You will be hands-on with extrusion and thermoplastics, preparing samples for customer and grant projects, and helping build scalable lab systems and standards.

Training is provided on our processing kit and you’ll work closely with the Lead Polymer Scientist to translate direction into disciplined lab work.