Senior Materials Development Engineer - ELYSIS

Senior Materials Development Engineer – ELYSIS

At Alcoa, you will become an essential part of our purpose: to turn raw potential into real progress. The way we see it, every Alcoan is a work-shaper, team-shaper, idea-shaper & world-shaper.

There is a new, revolutionary way to make aluminum. It eliminates all greenhouse gases. And it produces oxygen! The ELYSIS™ technology is the greatest breakthrough in the aluminum industry since its beginnings in 1886. It has the potential to drastically reduce the environmental footprint of the global aluminum industry.

The ELYSIS™ technology effectively puts an end to the use of carbon anode in the aluminum smelting process. It features the newly developed breakthrough proprietary materials that are stable and do not react during the process. Thus, it eliminates all direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the aluminum smelting process and is the first technology ever that emits oxygen as its by-product.

An unprecedented world-class partnership of two major aluminum industry pioneers - Alcoa and Rio Tinto - led to the formation of ELYSIS, announced in 2018. The Canadian Government and the Quebec Government, through participation of Investment Quebec, have decided to support and be part of this industry revolution. The world's technology giant Apple has helped facilitate the collaboration between Alcoa and Rio Tinto on the carbon-free smelting process and has agreed to provide ELYSIS with technical support.

ELYSIS is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada with Technology Research & Development locations in Alma, Quebec, Canada, in Jonquière, Quebec, Canada, in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, United States, and in France.

ELYSIS provides a unique solution for drastic reductions in the carbon footprint of many products used in our daily lives, including transportation, construction, electrical and consumer goods industries.

ELYSIS metal is now being used by Apple (Mac Book Pro and iPhone 12 SE), Ab InBEV (cans), Audi (e-tron GT wheels), and Corona (cans).

The ELYSIS US Research & Development facility is in the Alcoa Technical Center (ATC) located in New Kensington, PA which is the birthplace of the aluminum industry. Near Pittsburgh, PA, the ATC is where the process being scaled-up by ELYSIS was first developed with a dedicated team who continues to reinvent the aluminum industry for a sustainable future.

Majority of the work will be hands-on and onsite. Opportunities for remote reporting and documentation activities.

About the position:

The Senior Materials Development Engineer will use their wide breadth of knowledge and expertise in ceramic materials and processes to lead research and development efforts associated with technical readiness level advancement of a ceramic process used to produce proprietary and novel ceramic electrodes for the Elysis smelting process. This role also serves to be the technical liaison, providing data-based decisions, guidance, and support to Elysis electrode production and industrialization teams.

This role will report to Elysis R&D management.

Key Activities / Responsibilities:

• Creates and executes technical programs aimed at reducing industrialization scale-up risks for critical equipment and processes,
• Leads projects, defines objectives, develops work plans, and conducts research that builds-off of past advances and scientific understanding of the breakthrough materials used in Elysis's advanced smelting processes.
• Provide data-based guidance for equipment and process design that promotes an overall reduction in risk associated with industrialization of the processes associated with the Elysis technology.
• Supports the development of technical specifications for materials and key commercial scale equipment sets by executing continuous improvement initiatives, and/or creating technology development programs that identify and close specific knowledge gaps associated with existing processes or equipment sets.
• Use of a competent, hands-on approach that applies fundamental engineering principles to practical solutions and applications in laboratory, pilot, and commercial scale environments.
• Use root cause analysis tools to provide robust…