Scientist I/II, Adsorbent Chemistry

Alta Resource Technologies, Inc.•Boulder, CO

7d•$100,000 - $125,000•Onsite

About The Position

Alta Resource Technologies is a next-generation mining company using synthetic biology to separate critical minerals from conventional and unconventional resources, including e-waste. The Scientist I/II will join a small R&D team working on the resins and sorbents central to Alta’s separation process. This role establishes in-house resin synthesis and functionalization capabilities, develops analytical methods for characterizing resin properties and performance, and improves adsorbent materials to meet process performance, reproducibility, and scale-up requirements. The role is bench-heavy, with roughly 70% hands-on laboratory work. The scientist will work with protein chemistry and process engineering teams, as well as communicate findings to cross-functional R&D and process engineering teams, executives, and external stakeholders. The position is based in Boulder, Colorado, and reports to the Principal Scientist / Group Lead — Adsorbent Chemistry.

Requirements

M.S. or Ph.D. in chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science, polymer science, or a closely related field, with hands-on laboratory experience.
Scientist I: M.S. plus 3–5 years of experience, or Ph.D. plus 0–2 years; a record of strong technical expertise and independent contributions to research projects.
Scientist II: M.S. plus 5+ years of experience, or Ph.D. plus 2–5 years; demonstrated ability to lead projects, method development, and data analysis.
Hands-on experience making or modifying materials, such as polymers, porous solids, inorganic or hybrid materials, surfaces and coatings, catalysts, membranes, or functionalized particles, and relating preparation methods to resulting properties.
Experience characterizing materials with several complementary techniques, such as spectroscopy, thermal analysis, microscopy, surface or porosity analysis, titration, elemental analysis, or chromatography, and sound judgment about measurement reliability and valid ranges.
Practical wet chemistry skills, including running reactions and handling reagents safely, and converting chemical outcomes into quantitative results through assays, titration, gravimetry, or instrumental analysis.
Ability to conduct structured experimental campaigns, isolate variables, design around confounds, and draw defensible conclusions from noisy data.
Rigorous documentation habits, including detailed lab notebook or ELN records and reproducible written procedures.
Comfort working with limited supervision amid shifting priorities in a fast-paced R&D environment.

Nice To Haves

Direct experience making cross-linked porous beads by suspension, emulsion, or dispersion polymerization using a porogen or diluent to drive phase separation, including styrene–divinylbenzene, methacrylate/acrylate systems, polyHIPE, or seeded-swelling (Ugelstad) routes.
Experience immobilizing proteins, peptides, or enzymes on a solid support and measuring loading, retained activity, and leaching.
Experience with post-polymerization modification of a porous support, including chloromethylation, epoxide ring-opening, amination, or activation chemistries such as NHS ester, maleimide, aldehyde, tosyl, or epoxy.
Working command of at least two porosity or particle characterization techniques, such as N₂/Ar physisorption (BET, BJH, or DFT pore size distributions), mercury intrusion porosimetry, inverse size-exclusion chromatography, SEM, or laser diffraction particle sizing.
Packed-bed column evaluation, including breakthrough curves, dynamic binding capacity, pressure drop, and multi-cycle load/elute/regenerate studies.
Materials lifetime and degradation testing, including evaluation of chemical and mechanical stability under aggressive process conditions over repeated use cycles.
Design of experiments and statistical analysis experience.
Prior experience at a resin, chromatography media, or sorbent manufacturer.
Background in bioseparations or protein chromatography, polymer and colloid chemistry, sorbent and separations engineering, or synthetic, surface, or bioconjugation chemistry.

Responsibilities

Develop and implement in-house methods for porous resin synthesis, surface functionalization, and ligand attachment to produce adsorbents with defined chemical and physical properties.
Develop and qualify analytical methods for resin composition, functional group density, ligand loading, porosity, and particle properties, while recognizing the limitations of each method.
Relate material properties to protein immobilization, adsorption capacity, selectivity, stability, and separation performance in collaboration with protein chemistry and process engineering teams.
Establish reproducible bench-scale synthesis and functionalization workflows, optimize reaction conditions, and identify critical process parameters governing resin quality.
Translate workflows into process specifications to support reproducible production at larger scale and integration into adsorbent manufacturing workflows.
Maintain rigorous experimental records; author SOPs and test methods; and analyze and interpret data.
Communicate results, risks, and recommendations clearly to cross-functional R&D and process engineering teams, executives, and external stakeholders.
Plan, document, and execute detailed experiments related to sorbent synthesis and characterization, including troubleshooting and identifying next steps.
Run structured experimental campaigns, isolate variables, design around confounds, and draw defensible conclusions from noisy data.