Ion-Exchange Process Engineer — Polymer Coating & Chemistry

Kunin; Chattanooga (TN); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Benefits

Equity

Job summary

Kunin Technologies in Chattanooga, TN is assembling a demonstration line to convert polymer sheets into ion-exchange media. You will own the chemistry that drives a continuous coating and finishing process, collaborating with the Chemical Process Engineer to lock recipes, operating windows, and QC methods for scalable manufacturing.

This role sits at the interface of polymer chemistry, chemical process engineering, and mechanical engineering, requiring hands-on coating experience, a solid

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, plastics/polymer engineering, textile engineering, materials engineering or chemistry.
• Strong foundation in organic and polymer synthesis.
• Hands-on experience with a continuous coating or finishing process (battery electrode coating, paper coating, membrane casting, textile dyeing and finishing, or nonwovens).
• Experience handling aggressive chemistry (acids, reactive monomers, solvents, or inert-atmosphere work).
• Designed experiments with controlled concentration, temperature, residence time, and pickup.
• Proficiency in Python or Matlab for data analysis and automation.

Responsibilities

• Develop and lock the reactive process chemistry for continuous production of ion-exchange media: bath formulation, solvent system, additive levels, temperature, and residence-time windows.
• Develop the post-reaction conversion, wash, and drying steps: conversion kinetics, rinse-water quality, residual reagent limits, and drying profiles.
• Build the QC method set: degree of functionalization, ion-exchange capacity, uniformity across and along the roll, and release specifications for finished media.
• Run bench and mini-pilot trials with the laboratory technicians and analytical chemist; close reagent, water, and waste mass balances.
• Translate bench recipes to the demonstration line with the Chemical Process Engineer: pickup targets, line speed, bath turnover, and reagent recovery.
• Write the process chemistry package: recipes, operating windows, SOPs, QC methods, and hazard reviews for aggressive chemistry.
• Specify reagent handling, solvent recovery, and waste treatment for the chemistry you develop.

Skills

polymer synthesis

continuous coating

aggressive chemistry

designed experiments

Python/Matlab

problem solving

Education

Bachelor’s degree in chemical/ polymer/ materials engineering or chemistry

Job description

Kunin Technologies in Chattanooga, TN is assembling a demonstration line to convert polymer sheets into ion-exchange media. You will own the chemistry that drives a continuous coating and finishing process, collaborating with the Chemical Process Engineer to lock recipes, operating windows, and QC methods for scalable manufacturing.

This role sits at the interface of polymer chemistry, chemical process engineering, and mechanical engineering, requiring hands-on coating experience, a solid