About Divert

Divert, Inc. is an impact technology company on a mission to Protect the Value of Food™. The company creates advanced technologies and sustainable infrastructure to prevent wasted food, driving social and environmental impact.

Today, the U.S. alone generates more than 100 million tons of wasted food annually, with over 50% going to landfills or incinerators. What’s more, wasted food contributes 8% to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Divert is tackling these crises head on, delivering immense progress towards eliminating wasted food through its unique solutions – from converting wasted food into renewable fuels to feeding those in need.

Divert works with the top retailers in the industry, including Ahold Delhaize, Albertsons, CVS, Kroger, Target, and others, and nearly 5,400 retail stores across the U.S., providing technology, logistics, and anaerobic digestion facilities to help retailers reach their sustainability goals. The company processes more than 232,000 tons of wasted food a year and, through its collaboration with some of the nation’s largest food retailers and relationships with local food banks and nonprofits, Divert has facilitated the donation of more than 10 million pounds of food to people, rather than going to waste.

Process Scientist / Laboratory Technician

Reporting to the Director of Bioprocess Engineering, The Process Scientist / Laboratory Technician is a critical on-site role at our facility in Turlock, CA. At this facility, Divert receives unsold food, analyzes the content, separates packaging from digestible organics, and processes the organic material in an anaerobic digester to produce biogas and compost. Collaborate with plant management to ensure the facility operates smoothly detecting, communicating and preventing any non-conformity in the process.

What you'll do:

Perform scheduled daily lab testing, including:

• sample collection, analysis, and interpretation, schedule and prep for outside lab testing

• data entry, reporting, and escalation;

  • Ensure data is correctly entered into the HMI

  • Escalate non-conformances and abnormalities

  • Generate weekly lab reports, participate in weekly lab call as QC Turlock expert

• routinely inspect unit operations for non conformities

• process samples from other Divert facilities, 3rd party digesters, and potential partners

Manage the laboratory equipment and procedures, including:

• maintain laboratory to ensure it’s clean and well organized

• routine inspection of laboratory equipment

• clean, calibrate, and maintain lab equipment.

• coordinate vendor maintenance schedules for equipment

• inventory / ordering of lab supplies

• develop, maintain and update lab testing SOPs and instructions.

• maintain and update SDS documentation for laboratory reagents and chemicals.

• provide training on lab procedures to plant technicians

Proactively analyze and interpret data to detect non-conforming equipment or process conditions, for example:

• review all outside lab tests (fats, proximate, 30 element, biogas, etc) to identify trends

• review key process indicator limits and trends, e.g. pressure, level, flow, etc.

• visually evaluate process materials at all stages to detect changes or non-conformity

• participate in the development and refinement of meaningful lab and process testing

Develop, perform and monitor R&D experiments and projects in Turlock as necessary.

• suggest and implement improvements of sampling and test methods

• recommend topics for additional research that could further understanding of digester health, better performance of the system, drive processing costs down, or improve lab program

What we're looking for:

• Bachelor's degree in chemistry, biology, laboratory science, environmental science or related disciplines or equivalent subject matter knowledge, skills and abilities acquired through work.

• Minimum of 3 to 5 years of experience in industrial or lab setting performing lab testing

• Experience in laboratory environment and safety measures

• Familiarity with analytical references such as the Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater and AOAC methods.

• Working knowledge of spreadsheets/docs (Google Docs or MS Office Suite)

What Will Put You Ahead:

• Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator License

• Previous experience in plant quality control.

• Previous experience as Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator

What's In It For You?

• Compensation Range: $70,000 - $85,000 annually

• Health, Vision and Dental Benefits (effective the first of the month following your date of hire!)

• Life Insurance

• 401K with Safe Harbor company match

• Paid Time Off

• Opportunities for Advancement with a Rapidly Growing, Mission-Driven Organization

Location / Work Setting: Location Turlock, CA (on-site)

Divert Inc. provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.