Description of Position:

Nelumbo is a science and technology company focused on generating advanced materials through surface modification. Through a proprietary process, Mineral®, Nelumbo is eliminating PFAS from the textile supply chain and replacing it with more sustainable materials. Kuraray, a Japanese manufacturer of chemicals, resins, and fibers, recently acquired Nelumbo to accelerate the deployment of the technology.

Nelumbo is seeking a highly motivated and capable Textile Research Associate to support the development of textile coatings and processes for polymer-based substrates. The ideal candidate will understand various textile constructions (knitting, weaving, sewing, etc.), processing steps (dyeing, finishing, lamination, etc.), and testing protocols (ASTM, ISO, DIN, AATCC, etc.). Previous experience working in a wet laboratory is necessary.

Key Responsibility:

· Partner with our teammates to collaboratively design experiments that incorporate textile fundamentals into our proprietary finishing process

Main Deliverables

First 30 days

· Integrate into a multi-national, multi-cultural, multiple business unit corporate team

· Complete safety training for operating in wet-lab (sample preparation, sample evaluation, sample analysis)

· Become an expert in proprietary process used to create laboratory samples

First 60 days

· Become an expert in running and analyzing textile characterization and performance tests

· Prepare and generate samples for existing and new customers

· Communicate results in both internal and customer-facing meetings

First 120 days

· Become the owner for various testing equipment

· Build design of experiments to support research projects

· Assist with next-on material development for new customers

· Draft work instructions, test methods, and technical reports in support of product development activities

Desired Qualifications:

· Bachelor’s Degree required in Textile Sciences or related engineering discipline (Chemical, Materials Science, Chemistry)

· 2-4 years of experience in textile development

· Familiarity with standardized testing (ASTM, AATCC)

· Able to calibrate, maintain testing equipment, and establish a standard operating procedure

· 2+ years of wet process chemistry experience

· Demonstrated abilities in problem solving and experimental design to provide appropriate solutions

· Good interpersonal and communication skills in a multi-cultural environment

Nelumbo Background:

Nelumbo is a UC Berkeley spin-out company commercializing advanced materials to increase sustainability in the built environment and consumer goods. Our materials leverage nanoscale features to enhance the surface performance of materials in different environments. This role will support the development of materials for primarily polymer-based consumer goods.

We are a team of highly motivated engineers and scientists with insatiable curiosities and a strong desire to enable completely new classes of products through novel technologies. The processes to create our materials are multistep immersions in either batch or continuous process lines involving proprietary metal-organic chemistry and are currently being evaluated at commercial manufacturing scale.

For more information, please visit our webpage: www.nelumbo.io