Position Title: Sr. Process Engineer
Location: Newberry Springs, CA
Reports To: VP Operations
Pay Range: $112,000 to $160,700
Company Description: 5E Boron Americas, LLC (5E BA), formerly known as Fort Cady (California) Corporation, is a wholly owned subsidiary of 5E Advanced Materials, Inc. (5E). 5E BA’s corporate office and team is currently located in Hesperia, CA and the project site is in Newberry Springs, CA. 5E BA’s Borate Mine hosts a multi-generational Borate resource where boric acid will be produced for the large North American specialty chemicals market including high-end technologies such as electric vehicles, defence, and magnets.
Position Summary: The Sr. Process Engineer will be responsible for supporting the operation of a small-scale boric acid plant with lithium production, optimizing operation, expanding production rates, and supporting the design of the process to produce large-scale quantities of boric acid, lithium carbonate, and other specialty boron/boric acid derivatives. The Sr. Process Engineer will improve industrial processes to maintain efficiency, reduce cost, improve sustainability, and maximize profitability.
Essential Functions and Responsibilities of the Position:
- Develop, configure, and optimize industrial processes from inception through to commissioning to certification process.
- Provide leadership within the emerging process group.
- Work with the operations team to identify operational deficiencies and assist in solving issues and implementing improvements.
- Demonstrate working knowledge and detailed experience in the field of solids separation, crystallization, mixing, hydraulics, reactor design, ion exchange, and heat transfer.
- Understand the energy and material balance of the plant and quickly learn how to improve.
- Collaborate with geologists in the wellfield and offer chemical engineering insights into solving problems with in-situ solution mining.
- Be proficient in process simulation software to gain insights into the production processes.
- Collect actual equilibrium or solubility data to build a more accurate process simulation.
- Build design-of-experiments for lab, pilot plant, or actual production to get critical optimization data for commercial plant design.
- Have a strong fundamental understanding of chemical engineering principles and their application in the industry.
- Ensure that the process operation is run safely.
- Define campaign parameters and provide standard operating records (SOPs) for daily operation.
- Present results concisely and effectively to the senior management team.
- Define the scope of work and meet business needs in a cost-effective manner.
- Carry out operator training and certification of the process.
- Proven ability to gather data, set priorities, and meet deadlines.
- Coordinate with vendors and carry out projects with equipment evaluation, process optimization, and upgrades.
- Develop best practices, routines, and innovative solutions to improve production rates and quality of output.
Interpersonal Competencies:
- Extreme ownership.
- Desire to lead and mentor less experienced process engineers.
- Ability to act with integrity, professionalism, discretion, and discernment in all business matters.
- Excellent written and oral communication skills.
- Strong interpersonal skills and team player mentality.
- Able to demonstrate effective coordination, planning, and organizational skills.
- Able to prioritize and plan work activities.
- Self-motivated with the ability to take initiative, work independently, and in a team environment.
- Work well with a team.
- Ability to use chemical engineering principles and economic analysis to develop and evaluate new process concepts or configurations.
Experience:
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering or related technical field.
- Minimum 5 years equivalent experience.
- Strong attention to detail with excellent analytical, multitasking, and judgment capabilities.
- Demonstrated experience with developing basic engineering packages and equipment specifications.
- Working knowledge of process instrumentation, control valves, and control loops.