Quality Manager
About The Position
Ucore is a TSX-listed company commercializing its patent-pending RapidSX™ rare earth element separation technology. Its first commercial rare earth processing and rare earth oxide production facility, the Louisiana Strategic Metals Complex in Alexandria, Louisiana, is under development, while the company continues to demonstrate its technology at a facility in Kingston, Ontario. The Quality Manager will be based in Alexandria, with frequent travel to Kingston and regular travel within the United States and Canada. Reporting to the Plant Manager, the Quality Manager will work independently and with plant personnel to oversee facility operations and help ensure safe, efficient, compliant operations, production performance, minimized downtime, high-quality standards, and a safe work environment. The role oversees quality assurance and control systems for RapidSX solvent-extraction refining, ensuring high-purity rare earth oxides meet customer and industrial specifications. It includes oversight of analytical laboratories, multi-stage separation circuits, and regulatory compliance. The successful candidate will also support equipment installation, startup, and commissioning, while advancing organizational policies, goals, and objectives.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, or a related technical discipline.
- Minimum 5–7 years of QA/QC experience in hydrometallurgy, chemical refining, petrochemicals, or mineral processing, including direct exposure to solvent extraction.
- Demonstrated experience implementing ISO 9001 or similar standards.
- Deep understanding of liquid-liquid extraction chemistry, pH gradients, mass balances, and statistical process control.
- Ability to lift, carry, push, or pull up to 50 pounds occasionally.
- Ability to travel and respond to emergency callouts outside normal working hours.
- Ability to walk and stand for extended periods in a plant environment; climb stairs and platforms; access elevated or restricted areas; and bend, stoop, kneel, crouch, and reach for inspections.
- Ability to visually inspect equipment, systems, drawings, gauges, and work areas, and hear alarms, equipment sounds, and communications in a noisy environment.
- Ability to work safely around machinery, dust, noise, vibration, and temperature extremes, and wear required PPE while complying with plant safety requirements.
Nice To Haves
- Graduate degree in a related discipline.
- Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt certification, or ASQ Quality Engineer or Quality Manager credentials.
- Experience with solvent-extraction metallurgy of rare earth elements.
Responsibilities
- Supervise quality checkpoints across multi-stage solvent-extraction cascades, including extraction, scrubbing, and stripping, to prevent cross-contamination and emulsion breakdowns.
- Work with process engineers and operations personnel to establish feed and product specifications, track critical inputs and outputs, and support accurate packaging and on-specification production.
- Direct laboratory testing, equipment calibration, and process analytics to ensure product purity and circuit stability.
- Oversee elemental and purity assays using ICP-MS, ICP-OES, and XRF across feed, intermediate, and final rare earth oxide streams.
- Oversee high-frequency circuit testing using auto-titration, ion chromatography, and online or at-line process analytical technology systems, including pH, conductivity, and XRF monitoring.
- Manage organic-phase checks using GC/GC-MS, FT-IR, Karl Fischer, interfacial tension testing, and centrifuges to monitor extractant degradation, moisture, entrainment, crud, and emulsion risks.
- Lead physical quality testing using laser particle-size analysis, BET surface area, XRD, and C/S/O/N/H analyzers.
- Maintain and update ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and other standards applicable to chemical and mineral processing; implement and sustain the Quality Management System.
- Establish and lead the internal audit program, including audit planning, execution, and reporting, and manage third-party certification and audit activities.
- Establish and execute the ISO 9001 Management Review process, including defining inputs, reporting, and record retention.
- Ensure the Quality Management System complies with required third-party standards and requirements, particularly ISO 9001 certification.
- Establish quality standards for incoming leachates, chemical reagents, and recycled feedstocks.
- Train, mentor, and lead QA/QC technicians, shift chemists, and inspection staff.
- Develop and implement statistical process control and structured problem-solving training for operations and engineering staff.
- Develop and manage annual operations budgets for the Quality Department.
- Lead root-cause analysis of processing issues, including time to recovery.
- Support equipment installations, startup, and commissioning of manufacturing and facilities equipment.
- Perform other tasks as directed by management.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Manager
