Principal Process Engineer

Ohr•Lafayette, CO

11h•$160,000 - $220,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Ohr is building pilot facilities to scale production of critical chemicals, including energetics, propellants, and rare-earth extractants. The Principal Process Engineer owns process engineering for these facilities end to end, serving as the technical authority for process balances, equipment, drawings, and engineering packages used by EPC contractors while remaining hands-on with calculations and design work. The role is based in the Denver–Boulder Metro Area (Lafayette, Colorado), with three days per week onsite and travel up to 30% to pilot sites, laboratories, and vendor facilities. Relocation assistance is provided. The annual base salary range is $160,000–$220,000, commensurate with experience, plus equity.

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 software 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 a 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, including heat and material balances, equipment sizing and specification, PFDs, P&IDs, and engineering packages.
Serve as Responsible Engineer across concurrent pilot projects, setting technical positions and managing schedules and budgets.
Lead technical interactions with EPC contractors, equipment vendors, and outside consultants.
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.
Hire and mentor a small process engineering team while remaining hands-on.
Support projects through feasibility, permitting, FEED, procurement, construction, commissioning, and startup.
Engage with research and development to translate laboratory data into pilot facility designs.
Lead design reviews, HAZOPs, and equipment selection across critical minerals, energetics, and propellants product verticals.
Lead basic engineering packages and EPC engagement for pilot facilities and document scale-up risks.
Ensure pilot facility engineering designs are issued for construction and that design standards, calculation methods, and review gates are followed.