Senior Process Engineer - Chemical

Hernshead Group; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Hernshead Group seeks a Senior Process Engineer to carry chemical processes from pilot and demonstration stages through Low-Rate Initial Production and into steady Full-Rate Production. This hands-on role focuses on locking down critical parameters, commissioning hardware, and eliminating bottlenecks so an operator team can run the process reliably each shift.

The position emphasizes on-site process engineering leadership, with impact on national security and scalable production capacity.

Qualifications

• Approximately 5 to 10 years of industrial process-engineering experience.
• Hands-on experience with process startup, commissioning, troubleshooting and production improvement.
• Strong understanding of process optimisation, scale-up, fluid systems, chemical reaction processes, process control integration, and equipment sizing and selection.

Responsibilities

• Develop and scale chemical manufacturing processes from pilot and demonstration operations into production.
• Establish critical process parameters, material balances, requirements and equipment specifications.
• Lead process troubleshooting and corrective actions during commissioning and production operations.
• Identify and eliminate production bottlenecks affecting yield, throughput, reliability and product quality.
• Translate lessons learned during initial production into future equipment, facility and process designs.
• Work with the Chief Engineer to build technical leadership across process design, scale-up, and manufacturing operations.

Skills

Process engineering

Scale-up

Troubleshooting

Production readiness

Commissioning

Equipment sizing

Job description

America has an energetics problem. Decades of consolidation left the country leaning on a handful of aging plants and long, fragile supply chains for the materials everything downstream depends on. Our client was built to fix that.

It’s a joint venture between two serious names: a commercial chemistry and biomanufacturing company that already makes industrial chemicals at scale on US soil, and a defense company with a real track record of getting weapon systems into the hands of the people who need them. Each had half the answer. Together they have the whole thing.

The approach is deliberately different. No giant single-point-of-failure explosives plant. Instead: safer precursor chemicals made here at home, converted into advanced energetics in modular production units, and tied straight into warhead integration and live demonstrations. You add capacity by copying a proven unit, not by designing a new plant. That means it scales fast, and it can scale in more than one place.

All of which depends on getting the process engineering right. That’s where you come in.

They’re hiring a Senior Process Engineer to carry the chemical processes from early production through Low-Rate Initial Production and into steady, repeatable Full-Rate Production. This is a hands-on job on the floor: locking down the critical parameters, commissioning the hardware, chasing out bottlenecks, and turning an engineer-run operation into one an operator team can run reliably every shift.

If you want engineering work where the impact is obvious, this is it. How fast this capacity comes online is how fast the US and its allies can protect themselves. It’s early enough that whoever takes this seat gets to decide how it’s done.

Job responsibilities:

• Develop and scale chemical manufacturing processes from pilot and demonstration operations into production
• Establish critical process parameters, material balances, requirements and equipment specifications
• Lead process troubleshooting and corrective actions during commissioning and production operations
• Identify and eliminate production bottlenecks affecting yield, throughput, reliability and product quality
• Translate lessons learned during initial production into future equipment, facility and process designs
• Work alongside the Chief Engineer to build company-level technical leadership capability across process design and scale-up, design reviews, manufacturing-system architecture, process safety and technical risk management, production readiness and commissioning, configuration and engineering change control, capital equipment planning, and engineering support to manufacturing operations

Experience required:

• Approximately 5 to 10 years of industrial process-engineering experience
• Demonstrated experience in chemical manufacturing, pilot plants, specialty chemicals, energetic-material or industrial processing
• Hands‑on experience with process startup, commissioning, troubleshooting and production improvement
• Strong understanding of process optimisation, scale‑up, fluid systems, chemical reaction processes, process control integration, and equipment sizing and selection