Senior Process Engineer Frontier (Pocatello, ID)

Simplot•Pocatello, ID

About The Position

The Senior Process Engineer - Sulfuric Acid serves as the subject matter expert for sulfuric acid production within Simplot’s Mining & Manufacturing Division. The role provides technical leadership and strategic support for sulfur burning, conversion, absorption, acid handling, steam generation, and emissions control systems. Its primary focus is developing, implementing, and supporting optimization, reliability, environmental, and process safety strategies to improve plant performance and ensure safe and sustainable operations. The engineer works with operations, maintenance, reliability, environmental, and capital project teams to maximize throughput, energy efficiency, equipment reliability, and environmental compliance. The primary work locations are the Don Plant in Pocatello, Idaho, and Rock Springs, Wyoming. The position supports sulfuric acid operations and related process units across the Mining & Manufacturing Division as needed. Travel is expected to be approximately 25–40%, depending on project assignments and facility support requirements. The position reports to the Director of Process Engineering based in Pocatello, Idaho.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering or a related technical discipline.
Minimum 10 years of experience in sulfuric acid production or closely related heavy chemical manufacturing processes.
Strong understanding of sulfur burning systems, gas conversion, absorption towers, acid circulation systems, heat recovery and steam generation systems, and emissions control technologies.
Working knowledge of OSHA Process Safety Management regulations, environmental compliance and permitting requirements, root cause analysis methodologies, and Process Hazard Analysis techniques.

Nice To Haves

Experience with phosphoric acid manufacturing and sulfuric/phosphoric acid integration.
Experience supporting large capital projects and plant startups.
Proficiency with process simulation and modeling software such as CHEMCAD, Aspen Plus, or Aspen HYSYS.
Experience managing technical aspects of turnarounds and major outages.

Responsibilities

Serve as the division’s technical authority for sulfuric acid production, including sulfur combustion, gas conversion, absorption systems, acid circulation, and associated utility systems.
Develop and implement best practices for sulfuric acid production, handling, storage, and distribution.
Provide technical leadership during plant upsets, complex troubleshooting events, and major reliability issues.
Mentor and develop process engineers and operations personnel.
Evaluate process performance and identify opportunities to improve safety, reliability, throughput, energy efficiency, and product quality.
Lead process optimization initiatives involving converter performance, acid plant energy recovery, steam systems, emissions reduction, and sulfur utilization efficiency.
Monitor and evaluate process metrics, including sulfur conversion efficiency, SO₂/SO₃ emissions, acid strength, steam generation, and overall plant capability.
Develop and support reliability improvement strategies for critical process equipment.
Provide technical leadership and support for Process Safety Management activities, including Process Hazard Analyses, Management of Change, incident investigations, Process Safety Information, and operating procedure development.
Participate in root cause analyses and incident investigations.
Support environmental permitting, compliance, and regulatory initiatives, and develop strategies to improve environmental performance and reduce plant emissions.
Lead process engineering support for capital projects, debottlenecking initiatives, and major maintenance efforts.
Provide technical oversight for process design deliverables, including Process Flow Diagrams, Piping & Instrumentation Diagrams, heat and material balances, equipment specifications, control narratives, and operating procedures.
Support project definition, detailed design, startup, commissioning, and performance testing.
Provide day-to-day technical support to operations and maintenance personnel.
Support turnaround planning and execution activities.
Identify and implement continuous improvement opportunities.
Collaborate with site leadership to establish long-term operating and reliability strategies.