Principal Process Engineer
About The Position
Ohr is hiring a Principal Process Engineer to own process engineering for its pilot facilities, from early design through construction, commissioning, and startup. The role is accountable for process balances, equipment, drawings, and engineering packages used by EPC contractors, while serving as the technical authority for vendors and contractors and remaining hands-on with engineering calculations. The position translates research and development chemistry and biocatalysis into scalable unit operations, identifies scale-up risks early, and leads process safety and risk mitigation. It also establishes engineering standards and review practices and hires and mentors a small process engineering team. The role is hybrid in the Denver–Boulder Metro Area (Lafayette, Colorado), with three days per week onsite and up to 30% travel to pilot sites, laboratories, and vendor facilities.
Requirements
- Four-year degree in chemical engineering.
- 15 or more years of process engineering experience, or 10–12 years with a Ph.D. or master's degree, respectively.
- Track record of process designs that have been built and operated.
- Breadth across process design and operations, with depth in at least one of bioprocess and fermentation scale-up, chemical synthesis scale-up, or chemical catalysis.
- Experience specifying reactors, vessels, tanks, heat exchangers, pumps, filtration, and separations.
- Strong command of process simulation, such as Aspen Plus, Aspen HYSYS, ChemCAD, UniSim, ProMax, HTRI, or equivalent.
- Working knowledge of process instrumentation, control valves, and control loops.
- Process Safety Management and hazardous materials handling experience.
- Judgment and presence to serve as the domain expert with vendors, contractors, and regulators.
Nice To Haves
- Pilot plant commissioning and startup experience.
- Experience in ATF-, DoD-, or DDESB-regulated manufacturing environments.
- Professional Engineer (PE) license.
- Experience with AI-enabled engineering tools, process modeling, and digital twins.
Responsibilities
- Own process engineering for Ohr's pilot facilities end to end, including heat and material balances, equipment sizing and specification, PFDs, P&IDs, and engineering packages for construction.
- Serve as Responsible Engineer across concurrent pilot projects, setting the technical position, maintaining schedules, and owning budgets.
- Lead technical interactions with EPC contractors, equipment vendors, and outside consultants, responding to their needs promptly and clearly.
- Translate R&D chemistry and biocatalysis into scalable unit operations and identify scale-up risks during early engineering.
- Lead HAZOP, PHA, and risk mitigation for facility design and operations.
- Establish design standards, calculation methods, design memos, and review gates for the growing engineering team.
- Hire and mentor a small process engineering team while remaining hands-on.
- Support projects through feasibility, permitting, FEED, procurement, construction, commissioning, and startup.
Benefits
- Relocation assistance.
- Equity.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
