Process Engineering SME - Microelectronics

Company Overview

At Aquatech, we tackle the challenges of water scarcity and complexity by leveraging technology, expertise, and financing to deliver comprehensive solutions that reduce carbon and recycled water footprint. As a leading global provider of water and process technology solutions, we help the world's most recognized companies achieve their sustainability and operational goals by implementing innovative approaches for water reuse, desalination, minimal and zero liquid discharge, and critical minerals recovery. Our work catalyzes the transition toward a more sustainable future and showcases our commitment to addressing water's role in climate adaptation. Learn more at

Position Summary/Mission

The Process Engineering Subject Matter Expert (SME) – Microelectronics is a senior technical leadership position responsible for advancing the quality, consistency, efficiency, and technical capability of Aquatech’s global Microelectronics process engineering organization.

Reporting to the Senior Director of Microelectronics Engineering, this role serves as a hands‑on technical authority supporting complex semiconductor water and wastewater treatment projects across Aquatech’s global Microelectronics engineering network, including teams in the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, China, and India.

The Process Engineering SME provides tactical technical leadership across Ultra Pure Water (UPW), Wastewater Treatment (WWT), Water Reclaim, and Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) applications. The role performs independent technical QA/QC of complex treatment designs and process flowsheets, supports technology evaluation and qualification, develops standardized engineering solutions, and mentors process engineers throughout the global organization.

A critical objective of this position is translating proven technologies and engineering best practices into repeatable, standardized Basis of Design packages that improve engineering quality, accelerate project execution, reduce technical risk, and provide greater predictability in cost and system performance.

The SME will also play a key role in the continued development of Microelectronics engineering design automation, ensuring automated design tools incorporate not only process performance and equipment sizing, but also lessons learned from fabrication, commissioning, operations, maintenance, reliability, lifecycle cost, and system optimization.

This position is intended for an experienced engineer who is motivated by technical leadership and influence and who enjoys solving difficult engineering problems, mentoring engineers, improving designs, and establishing engineering standards that can be deployed globally.

Key Responsibilities

Process Engineering Technical Leadership

• Serve as a senior technical authority for complex semiconductor water and wastewater treatment systems.
• Provide hands‑on technical leadership to global process engineering teams during concept development, pre‑contract engineering, detailed design, commissioning, and system optimization.
• Guide engineers through technically challenging treatment scenarios, unusual wastewater characteristics, capacity constraints, and novel applications.
• Lead and participate in multidisciplinary technical design reviews and provide independent technical judgment when project teams encounter competing design alternatives or elevated technical risk.
• Support root‑cause analysis and resolution of complex process performance issues.
• Translate commissioning, startup, and operating experience into improved engineering practices and future designs.
• Provide technical support for critical customer discussions when advanced process engineering expertise is required.

Design QA/QC and Technical Assurance

• Perform independent QA/QC reviews of complex process designs, treatment trains, mass balances, hydraulic calculations, process calculations, equipment sizing, and system configurations.
• Review Process Flow Diagrams (PFDs), P&IDs, General Arrangements (GAs), equipment layouts, equipment datasheets, control philosophies, utility requirements, BOMs, and related engineering deliverables.
• Verify proposed designs meet process performance requirements while considering reliability, maintainability, operability, constructability, safety, cost, and schedule.
• Challenge unnecessary complexity and identify opportunities for simplification and standardization.
• Identify technical risks early in the engineering process and work with project teams to develop appropriate mitigation strategies.
• Ensure lessons learned and commissioning feedback are incorporated into future designs and engineering standards.

Technology Evaluation and Qualification

• Identify and evaluate emerging technologies applicable to semiconductor UPW, wastewater treatment, reclaim, and ZLD applications.
• Influence technology selections based on technical performance, reliability, lifecycle cost, energy and chemical consumption, maintainability, footprint, and operational complexity.
• Develop and execute structured technology qualification processes including technical evaluation, testing requirements, pilot testing where appropriate, vendor assessment, and performance validation.
• Establish technical qualification criteria and document the engineering basis for approving technologies for Microelectronics applications.
• Collaborate with Technology, Applications Engineering, Operations, Commissioning, Supply Chain, and project teams during technology evaluation and implementation.
• Maintain appropriate technical rigor when incorporating emerging technologies while balancing innovation with implementation risk.

Standardization and Basis of Design Development

• Convert qualified technologies and proven engineering solutions into standardized Microelectronics Basis of Design packages.
• Develop and maintain standard engineering content including PFDs, P&IDs, Design Basis documents, process calculations and sizing methodologies, equipment selection criteria, equipment datasheets, General Arrangements and equipment layouts, standard specifications, control philosophies and process narratives, BOMs, costing models and estimating inputs, utility and chemical consumption requirements, and commissioning and operational BKMs.
• Work with engineering teams to ensure standards are practical, scalable, and usable across multiple geographic regions and project types.
• Establish clear boundaries for standardized designs and identify conditions requiring project‑specific engineering evaluation.

Engineering Design Automation

• Serve as a senior process engineering contributor to the continued development and integration of Microelectronics engineering design automation.
• Translate process engineering methodologies, equipment selection criteria, sizing rules, design standards, and engineering calculations into repeatable automated workflows.
• Ensure automated design methodologies reflect proven engineering fundamentals and appropriate technical safeguards.
• Integrate operations and maintenance considerations into automated equipment selection and system design.
• Incorporate reliability, redundancy, maintainability, energy consumption, chemical consumption, lifecycle cost, and equipment efficiency into design automation logic.
• Validate automated design outputs against experienced engineering judgment and completed project performance.
• Identify opportunities to automate repetitive engineering activities while maintaining appropriate SME review of high‑risk or non‑standard applications.

System Efficiency and Lifecycle Performance

• Evaluate designs from a total lifecycle perspective rather than solely initial capital cost.
• Identify opportunities to improve water recovery, energy efficiency, chemical efficiency, equipment utilization, system availability, process stability, maintainability, equipment life, operator workload, and operating cost.
• Understand the relationship between process design decisions and downstream CAPEX, OPEX, commissioning complexity, operational reliability, and maintainability.
• Work with Operations and Commissioning teams to understand actual system performance and incorporate operating experience into future designs.
• Promote designs that balance technical performance with simplicity, reliability, and ease of operation.

Global Engineering Collaboration and Mentoring

• Collaborate closely with process engineers throughout Aquatech’s global Microelectronics engineering network, including the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, China, and India.
• Provide technical mentoring and coaching to process engineers at multiple experience levels.
• Develop and share engineering Best Known Methods (BKMs), lessons learned, design tools, and technical guidance.
• Facilitate technical workshops and design reviews that strengthen engineering capability across the organization.
• Encourage technical curiosity, disciplined engineering judgment, and knowledge sharing across geographic boundaries.
• Help identify technical competency gaps and support development plans for process engineering personnel.
• Support development of future technical leaders and SMEs within the Microelectronics organization.

Continuous Improvement and Engineering Excellence

• Identify recurring engineering issues and develop systemic solutions rather than project‑specific workarounds.
• Capture lessons learned from design, procurement, fabrication, commissioning, startup, and operations.
• Develop technical improvements that increase engineering quality while reducing engineering hours and project execution risk.
• Support development and monitoring of engineering quality metrics and KPIs.
• Promote a culture of technical rigor, accountability, collaboration, simplification, standardization, and continuous improvement.
• Maintain awareness of semiconductor manufacturing trends and their potential impact on future UPW, wastewater, reclaim, and ZLD requirements.

Qualifications

Required

• BS in Chemical, Mechanical, Environmental, Civil Engineering, or related engineering discipline.
• 10+ years of progressively responsible experience designing semiconductor water and wastewater treatment systems.
• Extensive hands‑on process engineering experience supporting semiconductor or advanced microelectronics facilities.
• Demonstrated technical expertise across UPW, industrial/semiconductor wastewater treatment, water reclaim/reuse, ZLD, membrane treatment, ion exchange/polishing, advanced oxidation, and/or chemical treatment and solids separation.
• Demonstrated experience developing and reviewing complex process flowsheets.
• Strong working knowledge of PFDs, P&IDs, process calculations, equipment sizing, equipment specifications, layouts, datasheets, BOMs, and engineering cost development.
• Demonstrated ability to independently review and challenge complex engineering designs.
• Strong understanding of equipment efficiency, OPEX impacts, system reliability, maintainability, and lifecycle cost.
• Experience evaluating and implementing new treatment technologies.
• Ability to collaborate effectively across global and culturally diverse engineering teams.
• Demonstrated ability and desire to mentor and technically develop other engineers.
• Strong written and verbal technical communication skills.

Preferred

• 12+ years of semiconductor water and wastewater process engineering experience.
• PE registration or advanced engineering degree.
• EPC/EPCM project experience.
• Semiconductor owner/operator experience.
• Experience with equipment fabrication and vendor engineering.
• Field startup, commissioning, qualification, and troubleshooting experience.
• Experience developing engineering standards, design libraries, or standardized treatment platforms.
• Experience with process modeling, digital engineering, configuration tools, or engineering design automation.
• Experience evaluating technologies from both CAPEX and lifecycle OPEX perspectives.
• Global engineering or project experience.
• Experience working directly with semiconductor customers and technology suppliers.
• Interest in and willingness to pursue future leadership development and broader organizational responsibility is a plus.

The Ideal Candidate Will Demonstrate

• Deep technical curiosity and a passion for solving difficult process engineering problems.
• A strong sense of personal ownership and accountability for engineering quality.
• The confidence to challenge established designs when technical fundamentals or lifecycle performance warrant reconsideration.
• A practical engineering mindset that balances technical sophistication with reliability, maintainability, cost, and execution risk.
• The ability to distinguish between meaningful innovation and unnecessary complexity.
• Strong technical judgment developed through both design experience and exposure to real‑world system operation.
• A bias toward standardization, simplification, repeatability, and continuous improvement.
• The ability to influence technical decisions through expertise and collaboration rather than organizational authority.
• A passion for mentoring engineers and building technical capability throughout a global organization.
• A willingness to remain hands‑on and engaged in detailed engineering while also seeing the broader system and organizational implications of technical decisions.
• High personal initiative and the ability to work independently with limited direction.
• A continuous learning mindset and willingness to evaluate new technologies while maintaining disciplined technical risk management.
• The ability to translate lessons learned from engineering, fabrication, commissioning, operations, and maintenance into better future designs.
• A desire to grow as a technical leader, with leadership development and potential progression into broader engineering leadership roles viewed as a positive attribute.

Measures of Success

• Improved quality and consistency of Microelectronics process engineering deliverables.
• Reduced design errors, rework, and late‑stage technical changes.
• Increased use of standardized and qualified treatment designs.
• Successful qualification and integration of new technologies.
• Improved equipment and system efficiency, maintainability, and lifecycle operating cost.
• Increased reuse of standardized engineering content across global projects.
• Effective transfer of technical knowledge across the global engineering organization.
• Measurable development of process engineering capability and technical depth.
• Increased integration of engineering standards and operational experience into design automation.
• Designs that consistently translate into reliable, maintainable, and high‑performing operating systems.

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