Head of Scale Up

Reports to: CEO, Jacob Nathan

We are looking for someone who is ready to help us solve hard and exciting problems as simply and quickly as possible.

You will have the resource and capability to use equipment and methods that are unimaginable elsewhere. You will have a substantial sense of urgency around your work, doing whatever it takes to move at a speed commensurate with the time-sensitive nature of plastic pollution and climate change, and importantly, move faster than our competitors. Success at Epoch is building the solution to some of humanity’s greatest challenges, without delay.

The goal of the role for Head of Scale-up is to help take our mission to the next stage. We are looking for someone who is able to design and scale end to end processes from Lab to Pilot scale (and eventually beyond). Design and source lab and pilot equipment as well as design a pilot to successfully and economically manufacture our products at commercial scale.

As Head of Scale Up at Epoch you will:

• Work with process chemists, engineers, biologists and the wider team to ideate and develop the conversion of our bench-scale process to transform plastic waste into chemical building blocks into a scaled pilot facility
• Design end-to-end pilot-scale processes and then translate these schematics into a reality
• Use existing knowledge to support, define and own our process techno-economics to drive down costs
• Lead and own the construction of our pilots with emphasis on plant design and scale-up
• Be a key player to help build the process engineering and scale-up team to facilitate our mission
• Be Involved in troubleshooting, managing third partners and driving our next stage of growth

Essential qualifications and experience

• Academic background in Chemical Engineering or related field
• 7+ years’ experience in a commercial chemical engineering environment, specifically production scale up from process design through to commissioning     
• Experience in designing and sourcing of pilot and demo scale equipment as well as plant design and installation
• Hands on experience of scaling a product from lab to pilot and beyond
• Experience in working with aqueous reaction environments
• Self-starter. With the ability to work autonomously under the overall direction of our CEO and CSO
• Demonstratable team leadership experience

Icing on the cake

• Experience of working with plastics recycling and solid materials would be very useful, as would be experience in the manufacturing of plastics
• Experience with enzymatic processing or specifically enzymes applied to solid materials would be a real advantage

Benefits and perks

Epoch Biodesign offers a comprehensive benefits program. At the moment this includes:

 Benefits:

• A generous allowance of 30 days paid holiday (plus the usual 8 bank holidays)
• Meaningful EMI Share Options
• A non-contributory pension of 9% employer contribution
• Flexible working around the core times of 10am to 4pm
• Cycle to work scheme
• Tech scheme
• Optional private medical insurance with Vitality
• Group Income Protection
• Group Critical Illness
• The opportunity to be part of building something remarkable

On-the-job perks

• Complementary fresh fruit, coffee, tea and snacks
• Various staff social activities
• Onsite gym

And we are always in the process of reviewing and implementing further on-the-job perks!