Company Description

PureLine Aquatic Farms is an Ontario-based live aquatic food producer specializing in the controlled cultivation of blackworms (Lumbriculus variegatus) for serious aquarists, ornamental fish breeders, and research laboratories.

We operate to an exacting standard — verified monocultures, monitored indoor systems, strict purging and handling protocols. Our focus is narrow by design. We're building a production operation where consistency and biological integrity aren't aspirational, they're the product.

We're at an early stage, establishing our first commercial facility now. This is a ground-floor opportunity to build something serious from day one.

Role Description

You will be the technical lead for our production system — responsible for design, building, operating, and continuously optimizing how we grow blackworms at commercial scale.

This is not a research position. There is no existing playbook. You will be working in a hands-on production workplace where the measure of success is pounds harvested per week, consistency of quality, and cost per pound produced. We think in yield, FCR, and output per square foot/inch.

Day to day this role is roughly 40% system design and biological decision-making, and 60% physical production work — water changes, harvesting, cleaning, quality checks, and packing. If that split doesn't appeal to you, this role isn't the right fit.

If it does, you'll play a central role in how this system is built and run, contributing directly to the production decisions that shape the business.

What You'll Do

- Design and optimize our flow-through production system from the ground up — tray configuration, water flow, temperature management, aeration, feeding protocols.
- Establish and maintain baseline metrics: biomass per tray, weekly yield, FCR,



water parameters, mortality rate.
- Optimize continuously — run deliberate experiments, track results, adjust variables, document everything.
- Perform daily production operations: water changes, feeding, monitoring, harvesting, cleaning.
- Maintain strict biosecurity, contamination control, and handling protocols consistent with our monoculture standards.
- Work closely with the founding team on production planning, equipment decisions, and scaling strategy.

What We're Looking For & Background that fits:

- Degree or diploma in aquaculture, aquatic biology, animal science, or a closely related field — or equivalent hands-on production experience.
- Experience operating and maintaining live aquatic systems — tanks, recirculating systems, flow-through systems, or hatchery environments.
- Familiarity with water quality management: dissolved oxygen, temperature, ammonia, pH, nitrogen cycle.
- Comfort with physical, hands-on work in a production environment.
- Self-directed — able to identify problems, form hypotheses, and work toward solutions without waiting to be told.

Mindset that fits:

- You think about biological systems in terms of output and efficiency, not just health and observation
- You're comfortable with ambiguity and building without a blueprint.
- You find the idea of optimizing a production system from scratch genuinely exciting, not anxiety-inducing.
- You understand that "we need more data" is sometimes the right answer, but "we need more worms" is always the real goal.

Nice to have but not required:

- Experience with invertebrate culture or live feed production (brine shrimp, daphnia, tubifex, blackworms)
- Familiarity with Lumbriculus variegatus biology
- Experience in a commercial aquaculture or hatchery setting
- Background in feed nutrition or feed conversion optimization

📌 Aquaculture Production Technician (Toronto)
🏢 PureLine Aquatic Farms
📍 Toronto