Director, Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment

Mobius Renewables operates a growing fleet of plants across the USA, currently 13, that convert biogas derived from the anaerobic digestion of wastewater in covered lagoons into renewable natural gas (RNG).

• Serve as Mobius Renewables’ primary technical authority for industrial wastewater treatment within the anaerobic digestion business.
• Evaluate wastewater characteristics including COD/BOD, TSS, FOG, nutrients, pH, alkalinity, toxicity/inhibition, temperature, and other factors affecting biological treatment and anaerobic digestion performance.
• Provide technical guidance related to aerobic and anaerobic biological treatment, clarification, solids handling, DAF, nutrient management, pretreatment, polishing, and related wastewater technologies.
• Maintain knowledge of emerging wastewater and resource-recovery technologies and assess their applicability to Mobius projects.
• Candidate should have strong technical background covering both the biology and physical operation of these systems, including: (i) Covered anaerobic lagoons and high-strength industrial wastewater; (ii) hydraulic short-circuiting, dead zones, retention time, and inlet/outlet configuration; (iii) sludge accumulation, lagoon capacity loss, dredging, and solids management; (iv) FOG accumulation, floating crusts, and fat-cap prevention or removal; (v) mixing, recirculation, heating, pH, alkalinity, nutrients, and organic loading;
  
  (vi) process upsets, inhibition, foaming, odor, and declining gas yield; (vii) cover condition, gas collection, condensate, pressure, and methane recovery; (viii) field diagnostics and practical corrective-action planning.

• Partner with Development and Commercial teams during evaluation of new wastewater and anaerobic digestion opportunities.
• Conduct or oversee technical due diligence of wastewater streams, existing treatment infrastructure, and proposed projects.
• Assess the treatability and variability of prospective feed stocks and wastewater streams and identify potential process risks.
• Identify opportunities to improve project economics through process optimization, resource recovery, reduced chemical or energy consumption, and improved biogas production.

• Partner closely with Operations to optimize wastewater treatment and anaerobic process performance across operating facilities.
• Diagnose process upsets and recurring performance issues and lead development of corrective actions.
• Analyze operating data and identify trends affecting treatment efficiency, system stability, biogas production, chemical consumption, solids generation, and operating cost.
• Develop operating parameters, KPIs, monitoring requirements, and performance standards for wastewater systems.
• Support root-cause investigations following significant process or treatment events.
• Lead technical discussions with customers, regulators, engineering firms, and other external stakeholders as appropriate.
• Develop capital and operating-cost budgets for improvements to the wastewater treatment systems, including any solutions identified for mitigations of problems, and work with operations to integrate into financial planning.

• Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Biological Engineering, or a related technical discipline; advanced degree preferred.
• 10+ years of progressively responsible experience in industrial wastewater treatment, process engineering, biological treatment, anaerobic digestion, or related fields.
• Deep technical knowledge of high-strength industrial wastewater treatment and biological processes.
• Demonstrated experience designing, commissioning, operating, optimizing, or troubleshooting wastewater treatment systems.
• Experience with anaerobic treatment technologies and/or anaerobic digestion strongly preferred.
• Experience with food and beverage, agricultural, manufacturing, or other high-organic-load wastewater streams strongly preferred.
• Strong understanding of wastewater characterization, mass balances, biological kinetics, process controls, nutrient requirements, solids management, and treatment-system performance.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex technical matters to nontechnical audiences.
• Ability and willingness to travel (up to 50%) to Mobius facilities, customer sites, and project locations as required.