Laboratory Technician/Research Engineer

Paebbl is looking for a practical, safety-minded Laboratory Technician with an engineering background (preferably Chemical engineering) to strengthen the R&D laboratory team.
This is a hands-on, laboratory-first role. Your main responsibility is to ensure that analytical and characterisation work runs reliably every day: preparing samples, operating analytical instruments, maintaining an organised laboratory and producing complete, traceable data. You will own routine instrument readiness, care and first-line maintenance. Reactor operation & maintenance is a secondary responsibility: you will provide cover for the dedicated reactor operator when needed. When research projects require it, you will also help design, assemble and test new mechanical laboratory set-ups in collaboration with scientists and engineers. You will work closely with the Operational Lab Lead, scientists and process operators to improve equipment availability, experimental throughput and reproducibility.

• Operate analytical and characterisation instruments reliably, including sample preparation, calibration, quality checks and data collection. Relevant techniques may include ICP-OES, XRF, particle-size analysis, TGA, XRD and BET.
• Keep the laboratory safe, clean, organised and ready for planned work, including chemical and consumables management, sample labelling, equipment scheduling and routine housekeeping.
• Carry out routine cleaning, preventive maintenance and first-line troubleshooting on instruments and laboratory equipment; document work and escalate faults when specialist support is needed.
• Prepare and manage samples for analytical, characterisation and mineralisation experiments, maintaining complete traceability of samples, instrument settings, calibration status and deviations.
• Support experimental planning by confirming equipment readiness, maintenance status, materials availability and practical execution constraints.
• Manage experimental data and metadata in agreed repositories; use spreadsheets and basic programming, for example Python, for data cleaning, simple calculations, repeatable analysis and clear data presentation.
Operate defined laboratory-reactor workflows after training and sign-off, and provide cover for the dedicated reactor operator during planned or unplanned absence.
• Support the design, assembly and testing of new mechanical laboratory set-ups when required by research projects.
• Improve SOPs, data templates, housekeeping standards and laboratory workflows, and collaborate with R&D, process engineering, operations and SHEQ colleagues to transfer practical learning between lab and scale-up activities.

You will thrive in this role if you are methodical, practical and take pride in keeping a laboratory running well. You see yourself as a support engineer who brings practical solutions that enable research to succeed. You enjoy working directly with instruments and samples, notice small deviations before they become problems, and leave equipment and workspaces ready for the next person. You are comfortable following established procedures while improving them when practical experience shows a better way. You communicate clearly, keep records disciplined and are willing to take ownership of tasks rather than waiting for someone else to resolve an issue.

Paebbl is an industrial resilience company turning captured CO₂ into carbon-storing building materials. We accelerate the natural process of CO₂ mineralisation — in which CO₂ reacts with minerals to form stable carbonates from thousands of years — to a matter of hours, producing a carbon-negative powder that can replace conventional, heavily emitting cement. Having switched on the world's first continuous CO₂ mineralisation demonstration plant, we are now scaling from startup execution into structured industrial operations. It is a fast-moving environment where pragmatism, ownership, and the ability to build things that work in the real world matter.

Essential

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in chemical engineering, process engineering, analytical chemistry or a closely related discipline.

• Minimum 2 years of practical experience operating, calibrating and maintaining laboratory analytical or characterisation equipment.

• Understanding of core chemical-engineering concepts and simple equipment design for research purpose.

• Demonstrated organisation skills: maintaining clear records, controlled samples, ready-to-use equipment and an orderly laboratory.

• Willingness and practical ability to carry out routine maintenance, cleaning and basic troubleshooting on instruments and equipment.

• Experience with laboratory reactors, pressure systems or process equipment is beneficial; clear readiness to be trained for reactor-operation is essential.

• Demonstrated ability to follow and improve experimental procedures while maintaining strong attention to detail.

• Experience handling, structuring and quality-checking experimental data.

• Comfortable using tools (e.g. Excel) for data management, calculations and basic visualisation .

• Ability to use or learn basic scripting for data work.

• Clear written and spoken English.

• A proactive, reliable approach to hands-on problem solving in a fast-moving R&D environment.

After 12 months, the laboratory’s priority analytical and characterisation workflows will be reliably supported by you. Instruments will be calibrated, maintained and ready for planned work; samples and data will be traceable; and routine maintenance needs will be addressed early and documented. You will be a trusted point of contact for laboratory organisation and instrument operation, and will be trained and signed off to provide safe, defined reactor-operation cover when needed.