Extrusion Engineer

Notpla is a London-based sustainable packaging company that develops biodegradable and edible packaging materials derived primarily from seaweed and plants. The company engineers alternatives to conventional single-use plastic packaging, offering products that decompose naturally without leaving harmful residues. Their product range includes seaweed-coated food containers, the Ooho liquid capsule, compostable paper coatings, and packaging for food, beverages, home care, and personal care applications. Notpla is also participating in a €4 million Horizon Europe research project aimed at reinventing the coffee cup using fully natural coatings. Notpla's mission centers on eliminating the environmental damage caused by petroleum-based plastic packaging, which persists in ecosystems and contributes to microplastic contamination across food and water systems. The company highlights seaweed as a core material because it grows rapidly without freshwater, land, or fertilizer, captures carbon, and helps reduce ocean acidity. By integrating seaweed into packaging solutions, Notpla seeks to heal food chains and ecosystems from the lasting toxic impact of conventional plastics. What distinguishes Notpla is its focus on materials that are simultaneously functional, natural, and capable of disappearing without a trace after use, much like a fruit peel. Their flagship Ooho product, an edible and biodegradable liquid capsule, exemplifies this approach by replacing single-use plastic water and beverage packaging. The company operates from London and collaborates with partners across Europe and Africa to scale its innovations globally.

The Role

At Notpla, we’re at the forefront of sustainable innovation, creating natural alternatives to single-use plastic packaging that are carefully engineered to help build a healthier planet. Founded on the belief that nature knows best, we’re an innovative, action-oriented scale-up developing and manufacturing uncompromisingly natural packaging solutions from seaweed and plants.

As an Extrusion Engineer in the Innovation team at Notpla, you'll develop breakthrough natural material technologies into scalable solutions. This role sits at the critical intersection of material science and industrial-scale extrusion processes, where you'll develop and transform innovative biomaterial solutions in the very early stages into commercially viable packaging alternatives that replace single-use plastics. Your expertise in extrusion technologies, including compounding and extrusion coating, will be essential in bridging the gap between laboratory discovery and pilot-to-scale implementation.

This is an exciting time to join Notpla - we’re on the brink of a record-breaking year for revenue and on track for major growth in the next 18–24 months. On top of this our Series A+ fundraise, which closed in 2024, is enabling us to scale our growth and environmental impact faster than ever.

Beyond offering meaningful roles and a vibrant working environment, Notpla provides competitive compensation, including EMI Share Options, a zero-carbon pension scheme, discounts with local businesses, and subsidised social activities. Our office-first hybrid working policy lets you work in the way that maximises your productivity while maintaining a dynamic and collaborative atmosphere. We’re a social business with regular clubs and events, and we’re proud of how our diverse, mission-driven community works together to make plastic disappear.

Led by strong values, all Notpla employees are encouraged to take ownership of their domain, enjoying a high degree of autonomy. Our aim is to build an inspiring culture reflected in our working policies, environment, and people.

Your work will be highly collaborative and cross-functional, operating shoulder-to-shoulder with material scientists, material & product designers, consortium, and business development managers. You’ll be responsible for driving complex R&D projects from a concept stage through to scale validation. In particular, you’ll work on a novel extruded material within a large EU-funded project, bringing it from the lab to the market with a diverse team and strong partner consortium. As part of this, you’ll also be responsible for representing Notpla’s technical leadership within the EU consortium, collaborating with partners across the consortium and beyond. 

This position demands someone who balances precision with speed and pragmatism: you'll bring rigorous process engineering discipline to a fast-paced innovation environment, while maintaining the fluid, curious mindset needed to pioneer uncharted territory in natural materials. You'll work hands-on in both the laboratory and pilot facilities, designing and executing coating trials, troubleshooting process challenges, and building out the technical knowledge that advances Notpla's mission in a large Horizon project as well as potentially supporting across multiple concurrent projects.

Key Responsibilities:

Material & Process Development

• Drive new and existing extruded natural material development projects through formulation and process development into scalable solutions for packaging & disposables applications.

• Design, organise, execute, and analyse coating trials both in-house and at partner facilities, working hands-on to develop and optimise processes for natural material applications

• Work with different product groups to prioritise and plan extrusion trials.

• Lead and coordinate trials, bringing process engineering expertise

• Troubleshoot coating defects and process challenges through root cause analysis and corrective actions

• Scale coating processes from laboratory to pilot stage, anticipating and addressing scale-up challenges

• Build deep technical understanding of how natural materials behave in coating processes, including rheology, adhesion, film formation, and drying characteristics.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & External Partnerships

• Work shoulder to shoulder and collaborate closely with cross-disciplinary teams, including material designers, material scientists, business development managers, product designers, seaweed specialists, and more, to solve complex challenges

• Blur disciplinary boundaries when needed to drive integrated problem-solving

• Successfully build and manage external relationships and represent Notpla

• Liaise with academic institutions, R&D labs, toll manufacturers and equipment suppliers to organize third-party testing, trials, and explore technology partnerships

• Provide technical support for grant proposals and client projects

Feasibility & Strategic Technical Planning

• Conduct rapid feasibility studies and pathfinding activities to evaluate the quickest and best technical routes to market from a holistic perspective

• Set out technical strategies and approaches to solve process problems

• Stay current with technology advancements and industry trends, integrating new knowledge into ongoing projects

• Identify novel process technologies and equipment partnerships that could unlock new capabilities for natural materials

Data Analysis, Documentation & Communication

• Design experiments, collect and analyze trial data, and present findings with clear recommendations to drive decision-making

• Document trials and learnings systematically to build institutional knowledge

• Communicate complex process engineering concepts effectively to diverse audiences through written, visual, and verbal formats

• Contribute technical content to patent applications and intellectual property development