Process Chemist

Process Chemist

Lantha Gen Biois a biotech startup building biotechnologies for selective metal binding and recovery from industrial waste streams, including electronic waste and metallurgical residues. Our Process Chemist will own the chemistry that sits either side of our protein-based capture step: leaching complex mixed-metal waste streams with a range of lixiviants, and downstream processing to convert recovered metals into pure oxides, nanoparticles, and functionalised products built to customer requirements.

This is a highly hands‑on role, split approximately 50% leaching and downstream chemistry and 50% downstream processing and product formulation.

£38,000 per annum (fixed term,
12 months initially
, with extension subject to further funding), within a salary band of £38,000–£42,000, with progression subject to annual project continuation and performance review.

Onsite
;
Central Manchester. Role will be largely onsite.

Full time: 32 hours Monday–Friday;
It is not a compressed-hours role
and is designed to support accessible working patterns, increase productivity, and promote work life balance.

You are entitled to 25 working days paid annual leave per leave year (equivalent to five weeks flexible leave) + paid leave for UK bank holidays on your normal working days/paid leave during the Company’s Christmas closure.

• 3 months full pay maternity/paternity/shared parental leave.
• Fully paid volunteer day with local charity.
• Paid leave on your birthday.
• £500 learning and development budget for independent online courses, conference attendance, etc.

• Develop and optimise dissolution routes for industrial residues, metallurgical by-products and complex mixed solid matrices
• Optimise leaching parameters for metal yield and selectivity
• Condition and characterise metal-bearing liquors using ICP-OES/MS, titration, and pH/redox control
• Develop biologically compatible leachates and liquors suitable for downstream protein-based capture
• Own safe handling, storage, and disposal of strong acids, oxidants, and leachate waste streams, with COSHH assessments and SOPs for each process step
• Contribute to an accessible lab design that fosters an inclusive and diverse team

• Develop downstream processing routes from loaded eluates to finished products, including high-purity metal oxides, metal and metal-oxide nanoparticles, and functionalised, application-specific products
• Run precipitation, reduction, solvent exchange, calcination, purification, and drying steps, plus particle synthesis and functionalisation
• Deliver material to customer requirements on purity, particle size, morphology, and surface chemistry, with supporting analytical data
• Work closely with biochemists to integrate biological capture and elution into the process flow
• Translate lab-scale chemistry toward scalable, low-toxicity processes, tracked with mass balances, yields, and cost per kilogram

• Strong wet-lab chemistry background with hands-on handling of strong acids and hazardous materials
• Practical experience of metal dissolution, leaching, or hydrometallurgical processing
• Practical experience with concentrated acids, oxidants and corrosives; metal salts and metal solutions; and solvents and flammables
• Inorganic synthesis and purification (precipitation, filtration, calcination, or equivalent)
• Strong experimental discipline, documentation, and safe working practice (COSHH, risk assessments, SOPs)
• Hydrometallurgy, refining, or metal recovery process experience
• Nanoparticle synthesis, functionalisation, or materials characterisation (XRD, SEM/TEM, DLS, BET)
• Process optimisation,…