Lab Technician - Bioplastic Formulation & Testing

Contract: September 8 – December 21, 2026 | 30 hours/week | In office, Halifax NS

Compensation: $18–22/hour, commensurate with experience

About Alaagi

Alaagi Inc. is an award-winning Halifax-based cleantech company turning seaweed into compostable bioplastic film that replaces petroleum-based plastic in food packaging.

The problem we're solving is simple to state and genuinely hard to solve: the food industry packages products that last days in material that lasts centuries.

Everyone knows plastic is a problem. What's missing isn't willingness to change; it's a material that actually performs. Keeps food fresh, seals properly, survives handling, and runs on the machines factories already own. Every alternative has failed on at least one of those.

We're building one. Our seaweed-based film is compostable with zero microplastics, not a plastic that fragments into smaller pieces and calls it degradation, but a material that genuinely returns to the earth. We work with seaweed because it grows without land, freshwater, or fertilizer, and absorbs carbon while it does. Ours comes from Atlantic Canada, the same coastline plastic pollution hurts most.

Our goal is for the idea of wrapping a three-day sandwich in five-hundred-year plastic to seem strange to people, not out of guilt, but because something better existed and was easy to choose.

The role

You will run the experiments that determine whether Alaagi solves its most key technical problems. You'll work within a two-person research loop.



Our R&D; Research Lead determines what to test and why; you execute those experiments, measure results carefully, and report back, and your findings directly shape what gets tried next.

You'll work alongside our lab team and report to the founder, with mentorship available from our academic advisors in materials and process engineering at Saint Mary's University.

What success looks like

By December, you'll have run a substantial body of well-documented experiments that meaningfully narrowed our search for a successful bioplastic formulation. Success is not measured by how many batches worked - most won't. It's measured by whether every experiment you ran produced a result we can actually trust and learn from.

This is not a role where you'll wash glassware and wait for instructions. Your data drives real decisions with commercial consequences.

Hiring process

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a conversation with the team, including a walkthrough of our lab space. We aim to move quickly and will respond to all applicants who reach the interview stage.

How to apply

Send your resume with a cover letter, including a time you worked on something that didn't go the way you expected, and what you did about it.

Email: [email protected]

Subject: Lab Technician Application - [Your Name]

Alaagi is committed to building a team that reflects the community we work in. We welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds. Applicant information is used solely for recruitment purposes and is not shared outside our hiring team.

📌 Lab Technician - Bioplastic Formulation & Testing (Halifax Regional Municipality)
🏢 Alaagi
📍 Halifax Regional Municipality