Membrane Development Technician

Captura • Pasadena, CA

12d • $75,000 - $95,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Captura is seeking a highly skilled and experienced Membrane Development Technician to join our growing startup at a pivotal stage of development and scale up of the membrane technology. This is a unique opportunity to support quality control, membrane development, laboratory, and pilot scale up activities. The ideal candidate will have prior experience in polymers, material science, chemistry, chemical engineering, or a related technical field who enjoys working in the lab, understands technical processes, and can translate experimental results into clear documentation and actionable process improvements.
The successful candidate will contribute towards catalyst and membrane development including formulation, development, testing, characterization, and QC evaluation while maintaining strong laboratory organization, record keeping, and safe work practices. This position requires being comfortable working with chemicals, laboratory equipment, process materials, and appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE). They will take full ownership of critical projects in a fast-paced setting, playing a key role in preparing, executing and documenting experiments to evaluate membranes, and scale up while driving continuous improvements in both process performance and safety.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, material science, polymer engineering, chemistry or related field.
• Minimum of 3 years' experience particularly in membrane development, coatings, membrane casting and chemical formulations.
• Strong background working with polymers, membranes, catalyst, and solvents is highly desirable.
• Experience with analytical and characterization tools such as SEM, viscosity measurement, pH, conductivity, tensile testing or other material testing methods, and QC processes.
• Proficient in Microsoft suite, statistical tools, design of experiments (DOE), root cause analysis, process troubleshooting and continuous improvement projects.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and organizational skills.
• Demonstrated experience working with hazardous chemicals and implementing safety protocols.
• Ability to collaborate cross-functionally and closely support with R&D.
• Strong organizational skills with ability to manage multiple samples, experiments, records and priorities in structured manner.
• Comfortable working hands-on in a laboratory setting while wearing required PPE, including safety glasses, gloves, lab coat, safety shoes, and other task specific protection.
• Ability to communicate technical observations, data summaries, and process concerns clearly to cross-functional teams.
• Hands on laboratory execution and attention to experimental detail.
• Strong documentation discipline and data integrity.
• Technical curiosity and willingness to understand the full process from raw materials through finished membrane performance.
• Quality focused thinking with ability to identify trends, deviations and opportunities for improvement.
• Good organization, planning, ownership and management skills to conduct experiments and testing in the laboratory.
• Ability to work independently while also collaborating with production, R&D, testing and safety teams.
• Commitment to safe laboratory practices, PPE compliance, and proper chemical handling and storage.

Responsibilities

• Execute hands-on laboratory research and development activities focused on membrane casting, and process optimization for advancing Ion exchange membranes.
• Execute polymer production activities including synthesis of polymer, including polymer purification, washing and drying and polymer solution preparation to meet the target specifications at lab scale leading to pilot scale quantities.
• Design, execute, and document experimental protocols to evaluate polymer synthesis, and membrane casting tasks, to meet the product needs.
• Generate, collect, compile, analyze, interpret, and summarize experimental and process data utilizing statistical analysis tools and design of experiment (DOE) methodologies to support product development, root cause analysis, process validation, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Perform quality control (QC) and quality assurance (QA) testing of polymer solutions, membranes, and experimental lots using established analytical test methods, statistical process controls, and defined acceptance specifications.
• Collaborate in development and optimization of QC methods, inspection procedures, testing protocols, and process controls for polymers, casting solutions, membrane materials and related products.
• Monitor for process deviations, material issues, equipment concerns, or quality trends and communicate findings effectively to engineering, quality, and operations teams.
• Operate, calibrate, and maintain laboratory equipment used for polymer synthesis, membrane casting, chemical processing, material characterization and performance evaluation.
• Maintain accurate and GMP/GLP compliant laboratory documentation, including batch records, test records, standard operating procedures (SOPs), work instructions, and technical reports.
• Comfortable working in the laboratory environment using solvents, chemicals and polymers adhering to established safety protocols and best practices.
• Adhere to all EHS requirements, chemical hygiene plans, and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) requirements and safe handling procedures for hazardous chemicals, solvents, polymers, catalysts, laboratory equipment, and compressed gases.
• Maintain a safe, clean, and organized laboratory environment, including proper material labeling, storage, inventory management, waste disposal and handling, and housekeeping practices.

Benefits

• Medical, dental and vision fully covered for employees, with partial coverage for dependents
• Stock option grant, with amount determined based on role and experience
• 401(k) with match
• 3 weeks PTO plus company holidays and a paid winter break between Christmas and New Year's
• Ground-floor opportunity to build and scale the manufacturing and supply chain function as Captura grows

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level