Staff Process Engineer, Commissioning & Startup

Sila Nanotechnologies•Alameda, CA

56d

About The Position

As a Staff Process Engineer on Sila's Technology team, you will be responsible for commissioning and start-up of a critical step in Sila's first industrial scale plant. You'll also start working on the next generation technology after Sila's first plant is running. You will be surrounded by some of the brightest minds in the world working on Silicon Anodes and will leverage this team to continually refine your understanding and convince yourself of the technical basis and constraints for the manufacturing plant design. As a result, you will make recommendations and decisions that will impact the trajectory of the development of the technology forever. You are used to working efficiently in high pressure situations, such as chemical plant startups, new grade trials, or turnarounds, to deliver product on-spec and on-time. You also have the ability to do deep work and fruitfully think outside the box. You bring the experience of having seen dozens of different chemical plant technologies and have expert level competency in at least one chemical technology so you know what process engineering excellence looks like. You bring a collaborative and bias for action energy to the team. You have seamlessly worked with a chemical company's R&D and Technology teams as well as the Manufacturing Engineering, Operations and Maintenance teams. Most importantly, you are comfortable working on new problems everyday, have an extreme-ownership mentality, and have a track record of pushing yourself and your team to be better every single day.

Requirements

B.S. or M.S. in Chemical Engineering
Minimum of 5 years of experience directly owning a high volume production line or in a design-to-commissioning role as a Production or Process Design Engineer for a chemical plant
Ability to visualize in great detail and have a first-principles understanding of an operating plant
Experience with process design of new chemical plant units or retrofits of existing units
Deep knowledge of basic controls schemes and familiarity with advanced control strategies
Extensive experience with daily and long-term process optimization and production constraints
Experience with safety critical instrumentation, safety relief, and operational alarms
Extensive risk management, management of change and HAZOP experience
Years of experience creating, reading and edited PFDs, P&IDs, and Operating Procedures
Ability to determine and solve for key parameters for process scale-up to commercial volumes
Have developed dozens of basis of design and project scope document for new ideas or MOCs
Have a bias for action and extreme ownership mentality while exhibiting humility and frugality
Ability to challenge your teammates, raise them up, and be vocally self-critical
Track record of relentlessly challenging accepted practices and inefficiencies
Excellent communication skills enabling you to be the cliff note author and the technical expert
Have demonstrated ruthless prioritization in high stress situations over long periods of time
A career of never missing an opportunity to build rapport with your co-workers

Responsibilities

Commission Sila's manufacturing plant to produce next-generation battery materials
Be the Lead Chemical Process Design Engineer for a critical unit in the manufacturing process
Collaborate with all engineering disciplines, operations and others required for a chemical plant
Expertly balance day-to-day priorities with long term deliverables
Work seamlessly with internal teams and 3rd party vendors to drive technical deliverables
Play a critical role in the long term vision and execution of production line improvements
Create complex management of change requests and basis of design documents
Drive design and control scheme modifications for large scale first-of-a-kind plant during startup
Comfortable leading commissioning of a new process unit during startup, shutdowns or upsets
Develop HMBs, P&IDs and other FEED deliverables starting at concept for the next gen plant
Drive ideas through R&D, Material Dev, and Pilot Test Teams for at-scale implementation
Influence others across the org and drive technical solutions without authority