Analytical & Characterization Lead

Analytical Infrastructure Lead

PHNX Materials is an early-stage critical minerals and construction materials company recovering gallium and other strategic elements from coal fly ash and mine tailings via pyrometallurgy, while producing supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) and fertilizers as co-products. We operate a TRL-6 pilot and TRL-7 demonstration facility and are backed by DoD, DOE, and venture capital.

Our analytical infrastructure is the nervous system of the company. Every extraction yield, mass balance, SCM qualification, and product spec traces back to a measurement — and we need someone to own that infrastructure end-to-end and make every number we report defensible. You will own instrumentation, standardize methods, train users, and maintain QA/QC.

This is a build-it role. You'll define the methods, set the standards, and design the QA/QC program that process engineers, R&D, and federal program partners depend on. The work you do here won't sit in a report for two years — it goes straight into pilot and demo operations and shapes what the company ships. If you've spent your career producing rigorous measurements inside a larger institution and want to see that rigor become the foundation a company is built on, this is that opportunity.

This is a hands-on role — not a desk job. You will spend the majority of your week at the bench, and a major part of that is carrying out the routine and high-volume testing that pilot and R&D operations generate — the day-to-day measurements that drive process decisions, mass balances, and product qualification. This is not work you hand off and oversee; you run it. Product and laboratory technicians work alongside you and carry load as campaigns scale, but the testing, the calibration, the method development, and the difficult matrices sit squarely with you. You will plan campaigns and then execute them with the team — running instruments, preparing samples, building standards, and working through hard matrices yourself. Scheduling and throughput management are part of the role, but they don't replace that bench presence. We are not hiring someone to manage this work from a screen.

What you'll own:

• Execution of routine and high-volume testing for pilot and R&D campaigns — running samples personally and directing technician support so the measurements behind process decisions, mass balances, and product qualification land on time and to standard.
• Method development and validation across ICP-MS, ICP-OES, XRF, isothermal calorimetry, TGA, LOI, foam index, and R3/reactivity, including matrix-matched approaches for fly ash, process liquor, SCMs, cement blends, and ammonium sulfate.
• Hands-on operation and upkeep of analytical instrumentation — running samples yourself, maintaining and troubleshooting instruments, managing service and calibration schedules, and keeping the bench productive day to day.
• Sampling plans for pilot and demo campaigns — sample count, time points, replication strategy, holding times, blanks, duplicates, CRMs, spike recovery — such that mass balance closure and extraction efficiencies are defensible at engineering, customer, and federal-program levels.
• Calibration infrastructure, including XRF empirical curves across CCR and SCM matrices, ICP standards preparation and traceability, CRM procurement, and periodic verification schedules.
• QA/QC program: control charts, drift monitoring, interlaboratory checks, MDL/LOQ determination, uncertainty budgets, and corrective action protocols.
• Cement and SCM qualification workflow: R3 reactivity (ASTM C1897), isothermal calorimetry (ASTM C1702), foam index, strength activity, and bulk electrical resistivity (ASTM C1876) — operated so any product going to a cement customer ships with a QC packet that survives technical scrutiny.
• Data systems: chain of custody, LIMS or equivalent tracking, documentation standards, and reporting templates that feed engineering, R&D, and regulatory deliverables.
• Throughput and scheduling: queuing samples, staffing the bench, and prioritizing across campaigns so turnaround matches product and operations timelines — supported by technicians and interns you'll direct.
• Advanced characterization support for R&D: partnering with the R&D team on novel feedstocks and emerging co-products, designing analytical approaches for new ash sources, and running advanced campaigns including synchrotron-based X-ray absorption spectroscopy — roughly 5–10% of your time, spanning internal R&D proposals and early-stage process exploration.

Who we're looking for:

• PhD in analytical chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science, geochemistry, or related field, with the lab leadership to own this end-to-end. We expect this fits people anywhere from a strong recent PhD with demonstrated leadership to a national-lab or industry scientist with several years of hands-on characterization ownership. What matters is that you still want to be at the bench.
• Experience running or substantially owning a multi-instrument characterization lab — at a national lab, core facility, contract lab, or industrial R&D center.
• Genuine appetite for sustained, hands-on testing — including routine and high-volume campaign work, not only method development. A major part of this role is running the measurements pilot and R&D depend on, day to day. This is not a lab-management desk role.
• Hands-on ownership of ICP-MS/OES and XRF methods, including cross-matrix calibration and matrix interference work.
• Direct experience in at least one of: cement/SCM characterization, industrial minerals QA/QC, hydrometallurgical process analytics, or environmental analytical chemistry on CCRs.
• Comfort authoring and defending SOPs, method validation reports, and uncertainty budgets.
• Statistical fluency for sampling design and QC data interpretation.
• Someone who stays close to the measurement — develops and runs methods personally, not just oversees them.
• Safety-first instinct around acids, halogenated reagents, heavy metals, and respirable particulates.

What success looks like at 12 months:

• Every production-relevant instrument has validated methods, documented uncertainty, and a running control chart.
• Testing throughput and turnaround keep pace with pilot and demo operations — campaign data lands on the timeline process and product decisions actually need.
• Mass balances at our pilot and demo facilities close within targets defensible to DoD, DOE, and commercial customers.
• SCM, alumina, and ammonium sulfate products ship with QC packets that partners accept without escalation.
• R&D can move a novel feedstock through a full characterization workflow in days, not weeks.

How you'll grow:

You're joining as the owner of analytical and characterization at PHNX, and the function grows as we do. As we move from pilot to demonstration to commercial operations, the capability you've built scales with it: more instruments, more matrices, more campaigns, and a team working to the standards you set. You'll own the technical direction of how this company measures everything it makes, with the latitude to grow that into a larger characterization group. The bench is where this role stays rooted, but the scope around it is built to expand as far as you can take it.

How we work:

PHNX runs on seven values: Decisiveness, Safety, Ownership, Unity, Grit, Problem Seekers, Fun. This role sits at the center of several of them. You will say no to bad data and yes to hard problems. You will be trusted, and the standards you set will shape how the company operates.

Compensation: Competitive base, meaningful equity, and full benefits. Relocation support available.

To apply, send a CV and a short note on a characterization problem you've owned end-to-end — what the ambiguity was, how you designed around it, and how you knew the answer was right.