Verdant Specialty solutions have a vacancy for a Technical Services Chemist intern to work at our Halifax Site. Reporting to the Technical Services Manager, your primary areas of responsibility will be to operate within and maintain all appropriate Health, Safety, Environmental and Quality standards in order to ensure that the products and services provided by the site comply with regulatory and company standards and customer expectations.

The Halifax site is part of a group of 3 production sites that specialize in surfactants, natural and synthetic polymers and amines. We develop formulations that provide our customers' sustainable and differentiated solutions with functional qualities designed to modify fluid behavior and deliver cleansing, softening, moisturizing, gelling, texturing, and penetrating dispersal properties. Our products are found in a variety of end-markets, including home and personal care, agricultural specialties, industrial & architectural coatings, oil & gas and several industrial applications.

The purpose of the role is to provide support to the Technical Services and Commercial teams, and other departments as necessary. The tasks will include but are not limited to:

• Synthesis of products in the lab up to 5 Kg scale using processes already used on plant or new processes to the site. This could be to supply new or development products to customers for testing & approval.
• Analysis of products using existing site analytical methods in QC lab or industry standard methods.
• Collation of data for statistical analysis is in order to interpret and identify patterns and trends.
• Putting together formulations and/or blends of surfactants to meet customer needs & then testing these products in the laboratory.
• Application & performance testing, including testing of physical parameters, of surfactants and formulations.
• Supporting plant trials of new/development products.
• Ensuring lab & storerooms are kept clean & tidy and that regular lab safety checks are done.
• Processing of samples to customers.

Skills and Experience Required

• Studying for a Bachelors/Masters Hons Chemistry or Chemical Engineering
• Must be located in and studying in the UK
• Basic understanding of surfactants and organic chemistry
• Be familiar with laboratory practical experimental work and equipment
• Good communication, mathematical and IT skills (Proficiency in Excel desirable)
• Problem solving ability
• Ability to manage own work load / be proactive / work unsupervised
• Ability to build co-operative working relationships across departments