Lead Process Engineer (Liquid Desiccant Systems)

Uravu Labs; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 7,000,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance (fully covered)

Meal support for workdays

Time off - 30 days paid leave + 10 hol

Job summary

Uravu Labs seeks a Lead Process Engineer to spearhead process development and scale‑up for large, renewable-water systems. You will own liquid desiccant loop design, process models, and PFDs/P&IDs, working with R&D, mechanical design and operations to enable 100+ yearly replicable deployments.

You’ll drive safety deliverables, pilot plans, and vendor collaboration, bringing bench-to-commercial translation and robust documentation for manufacturing handoffs.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in process engineering with 3+ years scale-up experience.
• Experience with liquid desiccants for dehumidification or related systems.
• Strong fundamentals in thermodynamics, heat and mass transfer, fluid mechanics.
• Materials compatibility and corrosion knowledge (Ti, SS316L, FRP).
• Bench to pilot to commercial translation and safety deliverables.

Responsibilities

• Lead process development and scale-up for large deployments.
• Design and optimize liquid desiccant loops and related systems.
• Build and maintain process models and translate to design criteria.
• Develop PFDs, P&IDs, equipment datasheets, and operating philosophies.
• Define pilot plans, test matrices, and instrumentation strategy.
• Collaborate with vendors on equipment selection and safety reviews.
• Own process safety deliverables, including HAZID/HAZOP and SOPs.
• Deliver handoff packages to manufacturing/field teams.

Skills

process engineering

liquid desiccants

thermodynamics

heat and mass transfer

fluid mechanics

bench to pilot

process modeling tools

Aspen Plus/HYSYS

Tools

Aspen Plus/HYSYS

gPROMS

MATLAB/Python modeling

Job description

At Uravu Labs, we are dedicated to making human life more sustainable and communities more resilient. We believe in the need for breakthrough technologies in the water industry to create a sustainable future for everyone.

Our patent-pending and award-winning 100% renewable water technology uses atmospheric moisture and renewable energy to produce high-quality drinking water. Scalable to large quantities, our solution serves industries and communities in a decentralized and carbon-neutral way. We deliver impactful outcomes for water initiatives and aim to completely rethink how we experience water.

How We Started

Founded in 2019, Uravu Labs was born out of a shared vision to address water scarcity issues, particularly inspired by the founders' own experiences on the NIT Calicut campus during their studies. Driven by a passion for innovation and sustainability, Uravu Labs embarked on a mission to develop cutting-edge solutions that could extract water from the air using renewable energy sources. The company's journey began with the realization that existing methods were not entirely sustainable due to their heavy reliance on electricity and the use of refrigerants with high global warming potential.

Determined to make a difference, the founders set out to create a solution that would be truly renewable and sustainable, resulting in groundbreaking technology that harnesses renewable energy to produce clean water from the air.

Role Overview

We’re looking for a Lead Process Engineer to lead process development and scale-up for systems ideally with liquid desiccants, or transferable experience from absorption chillers, flue-gas CO₂ capture (amine/MEA), glycol dehydration, or chlor-alkali brine loops. You will own process design, modeling, pilot-to-commercial translation, and process safety, working closely with R&D, mechanical design, and operations.

What you'll do

• You will be a technical anchor for Uravu’s high-capacity block — the backbone of Uravu's hyperscale data-center and industrial deployments and for the process architecture that will be replicated 100+ times a year.
• Design and optimize liquid desiccant loops (e.g., absorption/regeneration, heat & mass transfer, concentration management, contamination control).
• Build and maintain process models (mass/energy balances, thermodynamics, equilibrium, kinetics where relevant) and translate them into design criteria.
• Develop PFDs, P&IDs, equipment datasheets, and operating philosophies.
• Define pilot plans, test matrices, instrumentation strategy, and analyze data to drive iteration.
• Work with vendors/partners on equipment selection (pumps, heat exchangers, packed columns/contactor designs, membranes, sensors, materials compatibility).
• Own process safety deliverables: HAZID/HAZOP, relief/venting considerations, SOPs, MOC, commissioning and start-up support.
• Establish process documentation and handoff packages for manufacturing/field teams.

Must Have qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in process engineering with at least 3 years in a scale-up / industrialization role (pilot → commercial), not purely R&D.
• Demonstrated experience with liquid desiccants (any domain: dehumidification, gas drying, chemical processing, absorption systems, solvent loops, etc.).
• Strong fundamentals in thermodynamics, heat and mass transfer, fluid mechanics.
• Experience with saline/halide corrosion and materials compatibility (Ti, SS316L, FRP-lined MS
• Hands-on experience taking processes from bench/pilot to scale.
• Proficiency with at least one process/modeling toolset (e.g., Aspen Plus/HYSYS, gPROMS, DWSIM, MATLAB/Python-based modeling).
• Comfortable creating clear engineering deliverables and working cross-functionally.

Good to have

• Experience with air handling / HVAC integration, heat pump systems, or energy recovery.
• Familiarity with techno-economic analysis (TEA) and cost scaling.
• Experience with sensors and controls strategy for process loops.

What Success Looks Like (3-6 months)

• Establish baseline process model(s) and performance targets for desiccant-based systems.
• Deliver a qualified process envelope (RH, temperature, COP, LPD/MW) with validated bench-to-pilot data.
• Produce initial PFD/P&ID and pilot test plan with instrumentation and safety reviews.
• Deliver a DFM/assembly handoff package that the production team can build against.

Health insurance (fully covered) - We take care of your health, so you can focus on everything else that matters.

Meal support for your workdays - Whether it’s a busy day or a long one, we make sure you’re sorted on the food front.

Work directly with founders - No layers, no bureaucracy - just high ownership, fast decisions, and a chance to build alongside the core team.

Time off that you’ll actually use - 30 days of paid leave + 10 company holidays every year because rest isn’t a luxury, it’s necessary.