Engineer III/Senior Engineer, Adsorbent Chemistry

Alta Resource Technologies, Inc.•Boulder, CO

7d•$125,000 - $150,000•Onsite

About The Position

Alta Resource Technologies is hiring an Engineer III/Senior Engineer to join a small R&D team developing resins and adsorbents used in Alta’s mineral separation process. The role will establish in-house resin synthesis and functionalization capabilities, develop analytical methods for characterizing resin properties and performance, and iteratively improve adsorbent materials to meet process performance, reproducibility, and scale-up requirements. The position is based in Boulder, Colorado, and reports to the Principal Scientist / Group Lead — Adsorbent Chemistry. This is a bench-heavy role, with approximately 70% hands-on laboratory work. The engineer will develop porous resins and surface modifications, characterize resin composition and physical properties, and connect material properties to process outcomes such as protein immobilization, adsorption capacity, selectivity, stability, and separation performance. The role also includes establishing reproducible bench-scale workflows, optimizing reaction conditions, identifying critical process parameters, and translating workflows into specifications that support larger-scale production and manufacturing integration. The position requires rigorous experimental documentation, authorship of SOPs and test methods, data analysis and interpretation, and clear communication of results, risks, and recommendations to cross-functional teams, executives, and external stakeholders. Alta welcomes candidates with relevant strengths in bioseparations and protein chromatography, polymer and colloid chemistry, or sorbent and separations engineering.

Requirements

M.S. in chemical engineering, polymer science and engineering, materials science, or chemistry, with 3–5+ years of hands-on laboratory experience developing porous materials; a recent Ph.D. in a relevant field is also a fit. A B.S. with 10+ years of experience may substitute for a higher degree.
Hands-on experience synthesizing porous polymer or inorganic materials, including the ability to explain how formulation and process variables affect pore structure.
Working command of at least two porosity or particle characterization techniques, such as N₂/Ar physisorption (BET, BJH, or DFT pore size distributions), mercury intrusion porosimetry, inverse size-exclusion chromatography, SEM, or laser diffraction particle sizing.
Practical wet chemistry experience with solid supports, including covalent surface modifications and quantification by titration, elemental analysis, colorimetric assay, or equivalent methods.
Demonstrated ability to conduct structured experimental campaigns, isolate variables, design around confounds, and draw defensible conclusions.
Rigorous documentation habits, including detailed ELN records and authorship of SOPs or test methods that others have successfully followed.
Ability to work with limited supervision amid shifting priorities in a fast-paced R&D environment.

Nice To Haves

Experience making cross-linked porous beads by suspension, emulsion, or dispersion polymerization using a porogen or diluent to drive phase separation, including styrene–divinylbenzene, methacrylate/acrylate systems, polyHIPE, or seeded-swelling (Ugelstad) routes.
Experience with post-polymerization modification of porous supports, including chloromethylation, epoxide ring-opening, amination, or activation chemistries such as NHS ester, maleimide, aldehyde, tosyl, or epoxy.
Experience immobilizing proteins, peptides, or enzymes on a solid support and measuring loading, retained activity, and leaching.
Experience evaluating packed-bed columns, including breakthrough curves, dynamic binding capacity, pressure drop, and multi-cycle load/elute/regenerate studies.
Experience conducting materials lifetime and degradation testing under aggressive process conditions over repeated use cycles.
Experience scaling up from gram to kilogram batches and transferring technology to a toll manufacturer or CMO.
Experience with design of experiments and statistical analysis.
Prior experience at a resin, chromatography media, or adsorbent manufacturer.
Proven ability to lead projects, method development, and data analysis, and provide advanced technical leadership across projects.
Background in bioseparations or protein chromatography, polymer and colloid chemistry, or sorbent and separations engineering.

Responsibilities

Develop and implement in-house methods for porous resin synthesis, surface functionalization, and ligand attachment to produce adsorbents with defined chemical and physical properties.
Develop and qualify analytical methods for resin composition, functional group density, ligand loading, porosity, and particle properties, and assess the limitations of each method.
Relate material properties to process outcomes, including protein immobilization, adsorption capacity, selectivity, stability, and separation performance, in collaboration with protein chemistry and process engineering teams.
Establish reproducible bench-scale synthesis and functionalization workflows, optimize reaction conditions, and identify critical process parameters that govern resin quality.
Translate workflows into process specifications for larger-scale production and support integration into adsorbent manufacturing workflows.
Maintain rigorous experimental records, author SOPs and test methods, and analyze and interpret data.
Communicate results, risks, and recommendations to cross-functional R&D and process engineering teams, executives, and external stakeholders.
Plan, document, and execute experiments related to sorbent synthesis and characterization, including troubleshooting and identifying next steps.