Lead Process Engineer

Lead Process Engineer: Lithium Processing Pilot Plant

Position: Lead Process Engineer
Classification: Full-Time, Exempt
Location: Santa Fe, NM (field travel required)

Position Summary

The Lead Process Engineer (LPE) is the single accountable technical authority for the company’s production process across all project phases: technology development, design basis preparation, detailed design, fabrication oversight, installation, commissioning, and plant operation. The LPE reports to the CEO. The LPE will oversee direct reports: assigned process engineering team members. This position will interface with all discipline leads; project owner representatives; commercial laboratory contacts.

This position involves work related to U.S. Federal Government contracts and requires U.S. citizenship. Employment is contingent upon successful completion of a background check and participation in a random drug testing program. Work location is primarily at Molten Salt Solutions' facilities in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Occasional travel to vendors and project sites may be required. Some lifting, climbing, and work around industrial equipment should be expected.

Core Responsibilities

Technology Development and Design Basis

The LPE establishes the technical foundation that justifies capital commitment and bounds the design envelope. Responsibilities include:

Critically reviewing existing literature, bench-scale data, and prior experimental results for the selected lithium processing pathway; explicitly identifying what is established by data versus assumed;

Defining process chemistry, reaction stoichiometry, conversion targets, selectivity, and phase equilibria governing the flowsheet;

Evaluating alternative flowsheet configurations against lithium enrichment, reagent consumption, waste generation, operability, and scale-up risk; documenting the basis for concept selection;

Preparing the Basis of Design (BOD) document fixing feed characterization, product specification, design throughput, utility constraints, environmental limits, and governing codes and standards;

Specifying bench-scale or laboratory experiments required to fill critical data gaps before design freeze; engaging qualified laboratories; interpreting results against design requirements;

Identifying and mitigating scale-up risks specific to lithium processing, including solids handling, crystallization kinetics, membrane or resin fouling, and materials compatibility;

Preparing a technology readiness assessment documenting what has been demonstrated, at what scale, and what the pilot plant must prove to support a commercial decision.

Scope, Schedule, and Budget

Determines, documents, and maintains process scope from concept through construction;

Develops and manages project schedule in milestone-based and resource-based forms; issues weekly variance updates;

Owns the Process Work Breakdown Structure across all phases per appropriate project management standard.

PFDs and Heat and Material Balances

Develops, issues, and revises PFDs covering all process piping, flow direction, preliminary line sizes, major equipment, and primary control instruments;

Prepares a complete H&MB with every PFD issue covering normal, startup, shutdown, end-of-run, and worst-case conditions; a PFD without a complete H&MB is an incomplete document.

P&IDs

Manages P&ID development from Issue for Comment through Issue for Construction and As-Built;

Serves as gatekeeper for all revisions after IFD issue; maintains P&IDs current per OSHA PSM requirements.

Equipment Design

Performs or directs equipment sizing; prepares, reviews, and issues equipment data sheets through all revision levels;

Reviews vendor technical bids for process-critical equipment including hydrometallurgical vessels, heat exchangers, evaporators, crystallizers, columns, and filtration units.

Process Safety

Leads or co-leads PSM/HAZOP reviews; prepares documentation; drives action item closure;

Establishes and manages the MOC process for all design changes.

Pilot Plant Operations

Translates design basis into operating procedures; defines normal, startup, shutdown, and emergency envelopes;

Supports commissioning and startup; documents performance against design intent; recommends process modifications grounded in first-principles analysis;

Maintains the living connection between operating data and the original technical basis as the pilot plant generates new process knowledge.

Team and Stakeholder Management

Determines manpower requirements; manages process team to execute scope within schedule and budget;

Coordinates with piping, mechanical, I&E, environmental, safety, and procurement discipline leads;

Reports progress, risks, and scope changes to the CEO on a defined cadence.

Required Qualifications

B.S. Chemical Engineering; P.E. licensure preferred.

5+ years process engineering experience on capital E&C projects with demonstrated process engineer responsibility.

Knowledge and experience with solvent exchange processing or closely analogous solid-handling and aqueous-chemistry processes.

Demonstrated experience preparing a Basis of Design and translating bench-scale or literature data into a pilot or commercial design envelope.

Independent capability in PFD, H&MB, and P&ID development; proficiency in process simulation (Aspen, HYSYS, or equivalent).

Working knowledge of PSM/HAZOP methodology and OSHA requirements.

Demonstrated ability to critically evaluate primary literature, identify data gaps, and specify experiments to fill them.

Preferred Qualifications

Pilot-scale or demonstration-scale facility design and commissioning experience.

Familiarity with lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide product specifications.

Experience with evaporation, crystallization, solvent extraction, or ion-exchange unit operations.

Experience with PIP, AIChE or equivalent E&C project standards.

Molten Salt Solutions is enabling the next generation of advanced energy. We offer competitive compensation, a collaborative startup environment, flexible work hours when project schedules allow, and exceptional opportunities to grow your technical skills while helping build first-of-a-kind industrial systems.