Research Scientist

Industrial water is one of the hardest problems in cleantech. The chemistry is complex, the operating environments are brutal, and the gap between what works in a lab and what works on a factory floor is wider than most people expect. HydroLeap exists to close that gap — and we’re looking for a scientist who finds that challenge energising rather than discouraging. We are a Singapore-headquartered company with a small, technically serious team working on electrochemical water treatment for industrial clients. Our Australian operation is where a meaningful portion of our R&D and deployment work happens. This role is the senior scientific anchor for that work. The roleYou will be the sole scientist in Australia, and your scope runs the full length of the research-to-commercialisation cycle. That means you are not here to execute a pre-defined research plan handed down from headquarters. You will help shape what we investigate, how we investigate it, and how we turn the results into something that works in the field. In practice, your work will span four areas: Research and experimental design — identifying the right questions, designing rigorous programmes to answer them, and running the lab work yourself. You will work closely with the CEO and Australia Country Technical Manager to align priorities, but the scientific approach is yours to own.New R&D initiatives and proposals — contributing to grant applications, client proposals, and internal business cases where a strong technical foundation is needed. You will be expected to write clearly and make a case, not just provide data.Scale-up and field deployment — supporting the transition from bench results to pilot systems, diagnosing underperformance when systems do not behave as expected, and iterating until they do. The lab and the field are both your domain.Documentation and IP — keeping records that others can build on, protecting what we develop, and producing outputs — reports, SOPs, disclosures — that carry the work forward beyond any single project. This is a role with real breadth. Some weeks will be deeply experimental. Others will involve a client site visit, a proposal deadline, or a conversation with the CEO about where to focus next. You will need to shift between these modes without losing momentum in any of them. There is no layer of project managers between you and the work. You will be trusted to manage your own priorities, flag risks early, and make sound decisions with incomplete information. If that kind of autonomy is something you find energising, this is the right environment. If you work best with close direction and defined scope, it probably is not — and we would rather be honest about that now. What you bringWe are not hiring based on years of experience or the letters after your name. We are hiring based on what you have actually done, how you think, and whether you have the drive to own this kind of work from end to end. A Master’s in Chemical Engineering, Water Chemistry, Environmental Engineering, or a closely related field — combined with strong hands-on industry experience — is a credible path into this role. So is a PhD in the same disciplines where the record speaks for itself: publications, grants, awards, or projects that demonstrate you can move science forward independently. What matters is the combination of relevant foundations and real-world evidence, not the qualification alone. The non-negotiables: A Master’s or PhD in Chemical Engineering, Water Chemistry, Environmental Engineering, or a closely related discipline, combined with hands-on industry experience in electrochemical research and applied workDeep electrochemistry foundations: you think fluently about electrode behaviour, reactor design, electro-oxidation and electro-reduction, current density, and what happens when you try to scaleA track record of tangible outputs — publications, patents, IP disclosures, grants, awards, or field deployments. We will read your full record carefully.The self-motivation to drive your own work without waiting to be told what to do next. In a small team with no middle layer, this is not optional.Lab discipline that other people notice. Clean records, reproducible results, SOPs you actually follow.The ability to write a clear technical report and explain a complex result to someone who wasn’t in the lab with youThe instinct to identify a problem before being asked — and to propose a solution, not just flag it A strong application will also show: Direct experience in water or wastewater treatment — water quality parameters, treatment fundamentals, industrial effluent. This is not optional in practice; the learning curve without it is too steep for the pace we work at.Hands-on work in electrochemical water treatment specifically — electrocoagulation, electrooxidation, advanced oxidation processes, or similarExperience in a startup, CRC-linked project, or any environment where you had to make decisions with incomplete information and limited resources One more thingWe are a serious company working on a serious problem. We are not the right place for someone who wants to keep doing academic research indefinitely, or for someone who needs a lot of structure and oversight to do their best work. We are also not the right place for someone who is only interested in the lab and finds the commercial side of things a distraction. If you are the kind of scientist who gets frustrated when good research never makes it into the field — and who wants to be the person who closes that gap — send us your CV and a full list of your research outputs.