Environmental Engineering Lead, Capital Projects

Cyclic Materials Inc.•Toronto, ON

8d•$120,000 - $150,000

About The Position

Cyclic Materials is building a circular supply chain for rare earth elements and other critical materials using proprietary processes to recover and transform them into high-purity materials for permanent magnets. These materials are essential for electric vehicles, electronics, AI infrastructure, wind turbines, defense, and advanced manufacturing. Founded in 2021, the company operates facilities in Ontario and Arizona, with an expansion in South Carolina. Backed by significant Series C financing and strategic investors, Cyclic Materials is scaling to meet global demand for secure and sustainable rare earth supply. They have commercial partnerships with industry leaders and were recognized by MIT Technology Review as a Top 10 Climate Tech Company to Watch. Joining Cyclic Materials offers the opportunity to work on complex challenges at scale, contribute to building critical infrastructure, and advance the circular economy. The Environmental Engineering Lead will operate within an Owner’s Team model as the internal Subject Matter Expert (SME). This role is responsible for defining environmental engineering requirements and overseeing external design partners. The Lead will review and validate externally developed designs to ensure they meet specifications, regulatory, and sustainability standards, while holding external teams accountable. This position is a key member of the owner’s engineering team, ensuring environmental requirements are identified early and managed through all project phases: design, permitting, construction, and start-up. The Lead will collaborate with internal project engineers and external consultants (EP, EPC, EPCM) and regulatory stakeholders to develop environmental strategies and project solutions through FEL-2, FEL-3, FEL-4, detailed engineering, construction, commissioning, and handover. The role provides technical leadership in environmental permitting, air emissions, water/wastewater management, waste management, contaminated sites, environmental compliance, and risk management. It also supports engineering governance, site selection, design reviews, permitting strategy, and integration of environmental requirements into project execution planning, including HAZOPs and regulatory reviews.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, or related engineering discipline required.
Professional Engineer designation required.
Minimum 15 years of progressive experience in environmental engineering, permitting, and compliance within industrial, process plant, mining, metals, chemical, recycling, clean technology, or other heavy industrial environments.
Demonstrated experience supporting medium- to large-scale capital projects through study phases, design development, permitting, and execution.
Experience working on owner’s teams and/or with EPCM firms on industrial capital projects.
Strong experience in front-end engineering, feasibility studies, environmental due diligence, environmental assessment, permitting strategy, and execution support.
Familiarity with applicable environmental legislation, regulatory frameworks, permits, and compliance requirements relevant to industrial facilities.
Experience reviewing consultant reports, regulatory submissions, and technical studies associated with environmental scope.
Strong knowledge of environmental engineering principles and environmental management practices for industrial and process plant facilities.
Strong understanding of environmental permitting, environmental compliance, and integration of environmental requirements into project design and delivery.
Knowledge of air emissions control, water and wastewater systems, waste management, contaminated site management, and environmental monitoring requirements.
Ability to assess technical deliverables for completeness, regulatory alignment, practicality, and fit-for-purpose application.
Strong understanding of project delivery processes, stage-gate development, engineering assurance, and management of environmental and execution risk.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including the ability to evaluate technical trade-offs and support sound engineering decisions.
Strong organizational and time management skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities across concurrent projects.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to prepare clear technical and regulatory documentation.
Strong interpersonal and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to work effectively across internal teams, external consultants, contractors, regulators, and community stakeholders.
Demonstrated leadership capability, including mentoring, coaching, and technical guidance of other engineers.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office and familiarity with engineering document management and project systems.
Ability to be flexible, agile, and able to pivot quickly in work execution approaches and delivery.

Nice To Haves

Experience with construction support, commissioning, start-up, and operational readiness is strongly preferred.
Expertise in at least one of the following disciplines: hydrometallurgical, chemical processing, electrical, civil/structural, mechanical engineering, and/or recycling, critical minerals, metals refining, or similarly complex process-plant environments.
Experience supporting environmental assessment processes, permit applications, and regulatory approvals for new industrial developments.
Experience with water treatment, wastewater treatment, emissions control systems, solid and hazardous waste management, and environmental compliance programs.
Experience in brownfield and greenfield industrial project development.
Experience working in start up organizations that focus on design optimization and refinement.
Experience conducting targeted trade-off studies for the purpose of establishing critical engineering design criteria to retrofit existing plants and design new plants.
Familiarity with North American codes, standards, and industrial permitting environments.

Responsibilities

Lead environmental engineering and environmental permitting activities for capital projects through FEL-2, FEL-3, and some FEL-4 execution planning.
Serve as the environmental engineering lead within Cyclic’s owner’s team, ensuring internal and external deliverables meet project requirements, regulatory obligations, technical standards, and stage-gate expectations.
Develop and maintain project environmental strategies, permitting plans, compliance requirements, and environmental design criteria to support project development and execution.
Manage and review the work of external environmental consultants, engineering consultants, EP, EPC, EPCM and similar build partners, laboratories, and specialist advisors supporting environmental scope.
Identify environmental risks, permitting requirements, and compliance obligations early in project development and ensure they are integrated into project scope, schedule, cost, and execution planning.
Provide technical leadership across key environmental areas including air emissions, water balance and water management, wastewater treatment, stormwater, waste handling and disposal, hazardous materials, contaminated lands, noise, and environmental monitoring requirements.
Support site selection, due diligence, and environmental baseline assessment activities, including review of environmental constraints, permitting pathways, and project development risks.
Coordinate environmental requirements and design interfaces with process, civil/structural, mechanical, electrical, instrumentation and controls, project controls, procurement, construction, and operations teams.
Ensure environmental requirements are embedded into engineering design packages, layouts, equipment selection, operating philosophies, and project execution plans.
Support development of environmental sections of project studies, permit applications, regulatory submissions, environmental management plans, and supporting technical documentation.
Participate in and lead environmental input into design reviews, HAZOPs, value engineering workshops, constructability reviews, project risk assessments, and management of change processes.
Support development of project cost estimates and schedules by identifying environmental scope, permitting timelines, compliance requirements, mitigation measures, and execution risks.
Provide technical support for interactions with regulatory agencies, Indigenous communities, local stakeholders, and internal leadership on environmental matters.
Support contractor and consultant selection, scope development, bid reviews, and technical evaluations for environmental work packages.
Oversee environmental design change management and ensure proposed changes are evaluated for regulatory, technical, cost, schedule, and operational impacts.
Provide environmental support during construction, including review of contractor environmental plans, field issues, permit compliance, monitoring requirements, and resolution of non-conformances.
Support commissioning, start-up, and handover activities by ensuring environmental systems, permit conditions, monitoring plans, and compliance obligations are in place for operations.
Contribute to the continuous improvement of environmental standards, engineering workflows, and project delivery practices across the capital projects organization.
Mentor junior and intermediate engineers and provide technical guidance to internal team members.
Perform other related duties as required.
Participate in leading the environmental engineering project engineering team through project budget development, scope of work, WBS, schedule, commissioning plan, and estimating activities.