Lead Chemical Process Engineer for Carbon Removal Pilot

Graphyte; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Graphyte seeks a Principal Chemical Process Engineer to lead process development and scale-up for a carbon removal platform in Palo Alto. You will translate bench-scale data into pilot-scale design, build robust models, and guide equipment sizing and operating strategies with a strong emphasis on safety and reliability.

You will collaborate with R&D, mechanical engineering, and external partners to de-risk scale-up and ensure a technically sound, economically viable plant design from lab data to

Qualifications

• 10+ years of chemical or process engineering experience focused on process development, scale-up, or pilot plant design.
• Strong process modeling and simulation experience, including building models from early-stage or incomplete data.
• Deep fundamentals in heat and mass balance, thermodynamics, reaction kinetics, transport phenomena, and process design.
• Experience developing process designs from lab, bench, or pilot data.
• Ability to size/spec equipment and translate process assumptions into operating conditions and component requirements.
• Experience with novel, uncertain, or first-of-kind systems where the design basis is still being developed.
• Strong communication skills and ability to explain assumptions, tradeoffs, and uncertainty.

Responsibilities

• Translate bench-scale experimental data into system-level process understanding.
• Build and maintain process simulation models using Aspen Plus, HYSYS, custom models, or equivalent tools.
• Develop heat and mass balances, stream tables, PFDs, operating windows, and design basis documents.
• Use modeling and fundamentals to inform architecture decisions, equipment sizing, flow rates, operating conditions, and techno-economic analysis.
• Identify experimental data gaps and partner with R&D to define tests that de-risk scale-up.
• Support pilot-scale process design, including component selection, specifications, control philosophy, and process safety.
• Evaluate competing process configurations using data, engineering judgment, and first-principles analysis.
• Bridge R&D, mechanical engineering, electrochemistry, vendors, and future EPC or deployment partners.

Skills

Process modeling

Scale-up

Communication

Problem solving

Team collaboration

Tools

Aspen Plus

HYSYS

Custom models

Job description

Graphyte seeks a Principal Chemical Process Engineer to lead process development and scale-up for a carbon removal platform in Palo Alto. You will translate bench-scale data into pilot-scale design, build robust models, and guide equipment sizing and operating strategies with a strong emphasis on safety and reliability.

You will collaborate with R&D, mechanical engineering, and external partners to de-risk scale-up and ensure a technically sound, economically viable plant design from lab data to