A quick look at the role.

The Senior Chemist will take a proactive role in coordinating and supervising the chemists, overseeing the daily reception, treatment, and processing of all incoming waste at Wednesbury’s hazardous waste transfer station. A key responsibility of this role is ensuring that waste is assessed and managed according to approved procedures, maintaining full compliance with Health, Safety, and Environmental standards. The Senior Chemist will also focus on driving continuous improvements in productivity, plant capacity, and the quality of materials produced.

Your core responsibilities

• Lead and Improve Safety Culture: Drive the health, safety, and environmental culture within the team, ensuring adherence to best practices.
• Ensure Waste Compliance: Confirm all accepted waste meets defined standards and complies with pre-acceptance and Environmental Permit requirements.
• Control Waste Flow: Manage waste flow through the plant to prevent delays and backlogs, ensuring smooth operations.
• Ensure Safe and Timely Waste Handling: Oversee the safe, compliant, and timely handling, storage, and treatment of all waste.
• Supervise and Prioritize Activities: Lead, plan, and prioritize the day-to-day tasks of the Chemists and Operatives, adapting to fluctuating service levels for optimal customer service.
• Drive Operational Efficiency: Ensure Transfer Station operations are supervised efficiently, driving continuous improvement in cost control and processing.
• Investigate Non-Conformance: Ensure non-conformance reports are addressed, with root causes identified and corrective actions implemented.
• Maintain Documentation and Performance: Ensure accurate record-keeping, performance management of the chemist team, and timely completion of housekeeping and inventory tasks.

Requirements

Our essential requirements

• HNC Chemistry or equivalent qualification / experience.
• Hazardous Treatment & Transfer CoTC (Desirable)
• IOSH Managing Safely (Desirable)
• 2+ years in a supervisory role within hazardous waste management or the chemical industry
• Experience of working within the Hazardous Waste industry
• Knowledge of hazardous waste processing and chemical safety

Benefits

Biffa – we’re changing the way people think about waste

At Biffa, we love working with waste. Whether we’re turning it into sustainable power, finding new ways to recycle it or simply keeping it off the streets, we believe every day is an opportunity to improve the lives of millions. It’s a view that’s shared by our 11,000+ people around the country, who trust us to provide them with a career that’s always rewarding, often challenging, but never dull.

We believe different ideas, perspective and backgrounds are key to developing a creative and effective working environment which is why you’ll find us championing diversity and equality at every turn.