Process Engineer

Kunin; Chattanooga (TN); On-site; USD 105,000 - 225,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Equity participation

Job summary

Kunin Technologies in Chattanooga, TN is seeking a Chemical/Metallurgical Process Engineer to lead metal recovery projects from flowsheet to pilot and scale-up. You will turn metallurgical results into a robust process design, with TE economics guiding Go/No-Go decisions.

The role requires a BS in chemical/metallurgical engineering and 3–7 years in hydrometallurgy or minerals processing, plus METSIM/SysCAD/Aspen proficiency and experience drafting PFDs/P&IDs.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in chemical or metallurgical engineering with 3–7 years of process engineering in hydrometallurgy, chemicals, or minerals processing.
• Modeler skilled in flowsheet mass balances and techno-economics using METSIM, SysCAD, Aspen, or a strong spreadsheet.
• Authored PFDs, P&IDs, and equipment specs for a plant, or willing to learn by doing.
• Laboratory and plant floor readiness: run a column, read a level, and update P&ID accordingly.
• Driven to push projects forward in an early-stage startup with high autonomy and expectations.
• Clear design-basis writing for EPCM and stage-gate decisions.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain the flowsheet model with mass/energy balances and TE analysis.
• Author PFDs, P&IDs, equipment lists, and process datasheets for pilot and commercial scale.
• Size and specify unit operations: leach reactors, thickeners, ion exchange, solvent extraction, precipitation, crystallization, and electrowinning.
• Design, build, and run pilot campaigns; translate data into scale-up parameters.
• Support FEED and detailed engineering with EPCM partners; review vendor packages.
• Assist commissioning and start-up; write operating procedures.

Skills

Flowsheet modeling

Techno-economic analysis

Pilot plant ops

Lab to plant handoff

Technical communication

Education

Bachelor's in chemical or metallurgical engineering

Tools

METSIM

SysCAD

Aspen

Job description

Who We Are

Kunin Technologies is revolutionizing the critical mineral supply chain by implementing advanced separation systems with traditional unit operations to capture value from overlooked resources. Ore grades are falling globally, and conventional extraction leaves recoverable metal in material that mines and refineries write off as waste. Tailings, effluents, and legacy sites hold real value that existing separation technology can't reach economically.

Utilizing Kunin Technologies' proprietary mass manufacturable nano-separation systems, significantly more value can be produced from each resource, reducing waste, and unlocking domestic critical mineral production. Kunin is developing metal recovery flowsheets and reprocessing facilities from operating refinery effluents, decades-old tailings stockpiles, and even centuries-old Superfund sites.

Kunin is a team of process engineers, polymer scientists, and organic chemists with a 10k sq. ft. hydrometallurgical and organic synthesis lab in Chattanooga, TN. Kunin is pushing forward metal recovery projects across scandium, gallium, germanium, copper, cobalt, rhodium, and gold.

To achieve metal abundance, humanity must bring separation science down its own Moore's Law: fix the idiot cost index for micro and nano scale separation materials. This requires mass manufacturing novel ion-exchange media form factors which previously struggled from high costs.

What You’ll Lead

You carry the engineering of a Kunin metal recovery project from flowsheet to drawings. Working under the Principal Process Engineer, you turn metallurgical results into a process design, the process design into an engineering package, and the package into a running pilot or plant. This includes:

• Developing and maintaining the flowsheet model: mass and energy balances, water balance, reagent consumption, and the techno-economic model that feeds Go/No-Go decisions.
• Authoring PFDs, P&IDs, equipment lists, and process datasheets for pilot and commercial scale.
• Sizing and specifying unit operations: leach reactors, thickeners and filters, ion exchange and solvent extraction circuits, precipitation and crystallization, and electrowinning.
• Designing, building, and running pilot campaigns with the metallurgy team, and turning pilot data into scale-up parameters.
• Supporting FEED and detailed engineering with EPCM partners: reviewing vendor packages, answering process questions, and holding the design basis.
• Supporting commissioning and start-up through nameplate, and writing the operating procedures the plant runs on.

Who You Are

• Bachelor's degree in chemical or metallurgical engineering and 3 to 7 years of process engineering in hydrometallurgy, chemicals, or minerals processing.
• Modeler skilled in flowsheet mass balances and techno-economics using METSIM, SysCAD, Aspen, or a well-built spreadsheet.
• Has authored PFDs, P&IDs, and equipment specifications for a plant that was built, or is willing to learn by doing so here.
• Comfortable in the laboratory and on the plant floor: happy to run a column, read a level transmitter, and fix the P&ID afterwards.
• Excited about working hard to push projects farther, faster in an early-stage startup environment with extreme autonomy, opportunity, and high expectations.
• Communicator who writes a design basis an EPCM can build from and a stage-gate memo a CEO can decide on.

Compensation

This role will pay $105,000 - $225,000, benefits, and equity.

Additional Requirements

• Must be willing to relocate to Chattanooga, TN and available to travel to customer and partner sites across the United States, Canada, Brazil, South Africa, and Australia for testing, engineering, and start-up. Relocation support will be provided.
• Extended hours and weekends frequently required to support critical project milestones.
• Kunin will do whatever it can to secure work authorization for the right candidate.

Chattanooga is more beautiful than expected, and Tennessee has no income tax.

"The Whole World Is Ion-Exchange And The Rest Are Merely Details!"

Dr. Robert Kunin of Rohm and Haas, The Pioneer of the Ion-Exchange Industry, 1951