Hands-on Chemical Engineer: Rubber Recycling & Purification

Chemstars; Leiden; On-site; EUR 50,000 - 60,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

8% holiday allowance

Stock option plan

Travel reimbursement

Job summary

AKIN is seeking a chemical engineer or polymer scientist to own pre- and post-enzymatic separation and purification steps for rubber recycling. You will design bench-scale experiments, characterize feeds and products, and collaborate with the biocatalysis and process teams.

The role requires hands-on work in a small, international startup environment at Delft. You bring an MSc (or PhD) with bench experience in polymer separation and purification, strong polymer chemistry skills, and fluent

Qualifications

• MSc or PhD with hands-on separation and purification experience.
• Proven bench experience in separation and purification of polymers or complex mixtures.
• Strong polymer chemistry and characterisation skills.
• Self-starting with examples of taking initiative and delivering beyond the brief.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and shifting priorities; communicates clearly.

Responsibilities

• Feedstock pre-treatment: develop pre-wash and decontamination steps for rubber feedstocks.
• Separation/purification: bench-scale downstream processes, extraction, dissolution, precipitation, filtration, recovery.
• Characterisation: GPC/SEC, FTIR, NMR, TGA/DSC; closing mass balances.
• Enzyme interface: collaborate with biocatalysis scientist on feedstock/product impact on enzymes.
• Scale-up: translate bench results to scalable steps.
• Lab ownership: plan experiments, maintain records, report clearly to team.
• New methods: bring in cross-disciplinary methods and smarter approaches.

Skills

Bench experience in separation & Purif

Polymer chemistry

Characterisation skills

Self-starting

Ambiguity management

Fluent English

Education

MSc in chemistry/chemical engineering/polymer science (or PhD with hands-on separation work)

Job description

AKIN is seeking a chemical engineer or polymer scientist to own pre- and post-enzymatic separation and purification steps for rubber recycling. You will design bench-scale experiments, characterize feeds and products, and collaborate with the biocatalysis and process teams.

The role requires hands-on work in a small, international startup environment at Delft. You bring an MSc (or PhD) with bench experience in polymer separation and purification, strong polymer chemistry skills, and fluent