Lead Process Engineer

Position:
Lead Process Engineer
Classification:
Full-Time, Exempt

Location:

Santa Fe, NM (field travel required)

The Lead Process Engineer (LPE) is the single accountable technical authority for the company’s production process across all project phases: technology development, design basis preparation, detailed design, fabrication oversight, installation, commissioning, and plant operation. The LPE reports to the CEO. The LPE will oversee direct reports: assigned process engineering team members. This position will interface with all discipline leads; project owner representatives;

commercial laboratory contacts.

This position involves work related to U.S. Federal Government contracts and requires U.S. citizenship. Employment is contingent upon successful completion of a background check and participation in a random drug testing program. Work location is primarily at Molten Salt Solutions' facilities in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Occasional travel to vendors and project sites may be required. Some lifting, climbing, and work around industrial equipment should be expected.

Technology Development and Design Basis

The LPE establishes the technical foundation that justifies capital commitment and bounds the design envelope.

Responsibilities include:

Critically reviewing existing literature, bench-scale data, and prior experimental results for the selected lithium processing pathway; explicitly identifying what is established by data versus assumed;

Defining process chemistry, reaction stoichiometry, conversion targets, selectivity, and phase equilibria governing the flowsheet;

Evaluating alternative flowsheet configurations against lithium enrichment, reagent consumption, waste generation, operability, and scale-up risk; documenting the basis for concept selection;

Preparing the Basis of Design (BOD) document fixing feed characterization, product specification, design throughput, utility constraints, environmental limits, and governing codes and standards;

Specifying bench-scale or laboratory experiments required to fill critical data gaps before design freeze; engaging qualified laboratories; interpreting results against design requirements;

Identifying and mitigating scale-up risks specific to lithium processing, including solids handling, crystallization kinetics, membrane or resin fouling, and materials compatibility;

Preparing a technology readiness assessment documenting what has been demonstrated, at what scale, and what the pilot plant must prove to support a commercial decision.

Scope, Schedule, and Budget

Determines, documents, and maintains process scope from concept through construction;

Develops and manages project schedule in milestone-based and resource-based forms; issues weekly variance updates;

Owns the Process Work Breakdown Structure across all phases per appropriate project management standard.

PFDs and Heat and Material Balances

Develops, issues, and revises PFDs covering all process piping, flow direction, preliminary line sizes, major equipment, and primary control instruments;

Prepares a complete H&MB with every PFD issue covering normal, startup, shutdown, end-of-run, and worst-case conditions; a PFD without a complete H&MB is an incomplete document.

P&IDs

Manages P&t from Issue for Comment through Issue for Construction and As-Built;

Serves as gatekeeper for all revisions after IFD issue; maintains P&IDs current per OSHA PSM requirements.

Equipment Design

Performs or directs equipment sizing; prepares, reviews, and issues equipment data sheets through all revision levels;

Reviews vendor technical bids for process-critical equipment including hydrometallurgical vessels, heat exchangers, evaporators,…