Reaction Engineer

Ammobia•San Francisco, CA

13d•$105,000 - $165,000•Onsite

About The Position

Ammobia is seeking a motivated and creative Reaction Engineer to develop and optimize our ammonia production process. You will be a key member of our reaction engineering team, developing and scaling our catalytic reaction process at the bench and pilot scales. Your primary focus will be the reactor – process parameters, active materials, and architectures; you will interface directly with equipment, materials, and process engineers and contribute to technical development across the company. There is significant opportunity to grow your role alongside the company. Successful applicants will have most of the following qualifications.

Requirements

3+ years’ experience in a relevant industrial setting (5 preferred)
Demonstrated expertise and deep knowledge of reaction engineering, heterogeneous catalysis, thermodynamics, kinetics, heat and mass transport
Demonstrated expertise in process development, experimental design, and optimization
Demonstrated expertise in data analysis, especially for time-series data from dynamic processes, e.g. with Python, MATLAB, or similar
Hands on experience operating bench scale reactor equipment, working knowledge of bench scale gas handling/sensing instrumentation (mass flow controllers, pressure regulators, temperature sensors, pressure sensors)
Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Experience and enthusiasm to mentor junior engineers
Self-motivated, proactive, and able to work both independently and collaboratively
Passion for sustainability and excitement about working at an early-stage start-up
PhD or equivalent experience in chemical, mechanical, or materials engineering

Nice To Haves

Hands on experience designing and building bench-to-pilot scale reactor equipment, especially developing PFDs, P&IDs
Demonstrated expertise in modeling of reaction processes (including kinetics, heat and mass transport) and validation with experimental data, e.g. with Aspen, gPROMS, ChemKin, Python, MATLAB, or similar
Experience synthesizing, manufacturing, and/or procuring catalysts
Experience in adsorbent separations, PSA, TSA or similar
Experience in pilot scale chemical processing
Experience in start-up environments
Experience in ammonia synthesis, cracking, or separations

Responsibilities

Conduct bench and pilot scale catalytic reaction process development, directly performing experimental and or model/simulation-based development
Design and optimize processes and reactor systems at increasing scales, alongside process and equipment engineers
Design, analyze, and optimize thermocatalytic experiments and processes
Operate, modify, and maintain state-of-the-art custom reactor systems
Transfer test results and reaction processes to process engineering and scale up
Characterize, specify, and select active materials for ammonia synthesis and separation