Data Platform Engineer

Job title: Data Platform Engineer

Location: Scale Space, 58 Wood Lane, London W12 7RZ

Hours: 40 hours per week

Salary: £40-55k (We value expertise and are willing to negotiate to find the right fit for our team.)

The opportunity...

Puraffinity is seeking a Data Platform Engineer to join our innovative team focused on sustainable water solutions. This role is pivotal to our current and future growth, emerging from our need to manage and enhance a vital database/application that centralises all product performance test data, embed insights into future product development and looking at where data management can be used across different areas within the organisation.

This role will expand into a synthesis application for material synthesis and analysis, embedding machine learning and AI for data analysis. This means the role will ultimately operate at the interface of materials informatics, environmental applications, and new product development with wet lab experiments. This new technical terrain has not been chartered in the environmental materials space before.

We have generated an existing dataset with more than 35,000 data points across product performance with third-party lab-generated data, material characterisation and material data analytics, specifically focused on materials targeted on the environmental crisis of tackling toxic forever chemicals in water.

A large part of the last 4 years has been spent improving the data quality and data reproducibility, working with external subcontractors for data management. The dataset has now reached a critical mass where we want to bring this expertise in-house, especially with the explosion in the volume of data generated from product installations and pilots at third-party customer sites.

What you’ll be doing...

• Data management and enhancement: Help develop and implement a structured data management plan within the first three months. Begin integrating existing data into the new system to ensure it is well-maintained, structured, and organised.
• Application development: By the six-month mark, expand the initial phase of the database/application for batch test data to in-house generated continuous flow water application data and field pilots and initiate the development of the synthesis app for material synthesis and characterisation. Scope out other areas of the business that could benefit from data management tools, such as QHSE, manufacturing, labs, and beyond.
• Full data architecture implementation: Achieve a fully functional data architecture with advanced analysis tools by the end of the first year, showing significant improvements in data management and utilisation.
• Collaboration: Work closely with product development, analytical, engineering and manufacturing teams to capture value from column tests, material characterisation data and third-party performance data manage data inputs effectively and support strategic decision-making.

What you’ll need to be successful...

• Experience: Initial experience in data architecture and engineering, with a solid understanding of machine learning and AI tools. Experience with DevOps and cloud infrastructure is essential, which could be Azure. Knowledge of material informatics is non-essential. Strong coding experience with Python or SQL.
• Competencies: Expertise in data management and organisation, strategic decision-making, and effective communication and project management. Nice to have includes exposure to machine learning and AI integration.
• Key Behaviours: Attention to detail, a problem-solving mindset, the ability to work independently and take initiative, and a collaborative approach to liaising with different teams.
• Qualifications: A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent industry experience. A Master's degree or higher, with experience in machine learning, AI, and material informatics, is a non-required nice to have.
• Additional Skills: Data architecture is an essential skill. Specific industry experience, machine learning, advanced degrees, and DevOps skills are nice-to-have.

About Puraffinity

We are an energetic, customer-driven advanced materials science company focused on designing, developing, and manufacturing smart engineered adsorbent to capture and retain PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) from water across the Residential, Commercial, Industrial and Municipal market sectors.

Based in London – UK, Puraffinity was founded in 2015 and since then has become a leading organization in tackling PFAS, commonly known as The Forever Chemicals, due to its resistance and high mobility.

Our Vision is to provide 1 billion people with PFAS safe water by 2030, and our Mission is to protect environmental and human health by engineering precision materials to capture chemicals in water.

Puraffinity embraces diversity and fosters a collaborative and teamworking environment, and we dedicate 100% of our time to create a purposeful and sustainable environmental impact.

Our Core Values: Collaboration & team first, Adaptability, Take initiative and Empathy.

Puraffinity Benefits

We offer great benefits: Vitality Private Health and Dental Care.

Enhanced pension employer contribution scheme (up to 7.5%).

Unlimited coaching with MoreHappi and mental health coaching and support by Spill.

We offer shares in Puraffinity for all employees, which means you get recognised and rewarded for your work.

We care about your learning and development and to support this we have a generous training budget for personal development (up to £2,000 per year).

A work life balance is important – we offer 25 days annual leave (in addition to the 8 bank holidays) and a hybrid working approach.

We have a very strong diversity and inclusion focus, and in line with this, we have equalised our parental leave and pay for all.