Process Engineer

Company: 5E Advanced Materials
Location: Houston
Posted on: May 1, 2025

Job Description:

Position Title: Process Engineer
Reports To: Technical Director
Location (s): Hesperia, CA corporate office location w/ some travel to the EPC vendor location. May be required to go to Newberry Springs, CA process plant if needed when plant begins to be built. Salary Range: $140,000 to 160,00 (based on qualifications, experience)
Company Description: 5E Boron Americas, LLC (5E BA), formerly known as Fort Cady (California) Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of 5E Advanced Materials, Inc. (5E). 5E BA's corporate office and team is currently located in Hesperia, CA and the project site is in Newberry Springs, CA. 5E BA's Borate Mine hosts a multi-generational Borate resource where boric acid will be produced for the large North American specialty chemicals market including high-end technologies such as electric vehicles, defense, and magnets. The Fort Cady project site is an exceptionally rare and large colemanite deposit.
Position Summary: The Process Engineer will be responsible for the design of the process for a large-scale, boric acid process plant. This role will develop and assist in the executing of the construction plan from a process standpoint, planning the commissioning strategy for the plant, creating training documents for future engineers and production personnel. The Chemical Process Engineer will be able to improve the design to reduce cost, improve sustainability, and maximize profitability. This person will also work with the third-party vendor data the help with the current EPC and FEL 2 and FEL 3 steps in the commercialization process.
Essential Functions and Responsibilities of the Position:

• Develop and optimize the production processes from inception through to commissioning for the new production facility.
• Provide leadership within the emerging process group
• Work with the geologists in the wellfield and offer chemical engineering insights into solving problems with in-situ solution mining
• Build design-of-experiments for lab, pilot plant or actual production to get critical equilibrium and optimization data to feed the commercial plant design
• Ensures that the process operation is designed safely
• Presents technical results concisely and effectively to the senior management team and the EPC consult group
• Gathers data, sets priorities, and meets critical deadlines
• Coordinate with vendors and carry-out projects with equipment evaluation, process optimization, and upgrades.
• Develops standard operating procedures (SOP's) for future daily operation.
• If requested assists current small scale facility production team with troubleshooting and or plant design
• Works with other engineering departments to review and or recommend process improvements
• ensures process is compliant to any required permits such as EPA, Mojave Air quality district, and or BLM.
• Assists the lab and technical director with Reasearch and Devlopment projects
• Helps create and or monitor experiments required for vendor testing
• Assists the current small-scale facility and the next phase plant of the project with vendor testing specificationsInterpersonal Competencies:
  • Extreme ownership
  • Ability to act with integrity, professionalism, discretion, and discernment in all business matters.
  • Excellent written and oral communication skills.
  • Strong interpersonal skills and team player mentality.
  • Self-motivated with the ability to take initiative, work independently and in a team environment.
  • Quick learner with the ability to adapt to consistently changing business
  • Willingness to work for a start-up company creating a novel process from the ground up in a green field construction project
  • Willing to additional tasks if needed within the engineering department
  • Ability to work with all departments in the company- especially with the Engineering and Process team
  • Willingness to work at the Newberry Springs, CA location with a home office in Hesperia, CA. There is also some travel required to the EPC location in South Carolina. Requirements:
    • Bachelor's or master's degree in chemical engineering or related technical field such as materials science, and or similar type field
    • experience working in Chemical process at industrial sites such as oil refineries, Petrochemical, drilling, and or other similar type locations. Prefer experience with borates, and or other minerals.
    • Prefer 5 or more years experience in Chemical process
    • Demonstrated experience with developing basic engineering packages and equipment specification.
    • Working knowledge of process instrumentation, control valves, and control loops
    • Experience in developing a chemical design process at a Chemical Plant and or mining location
    • Experience working with EPC's
    • Has implemented process improvements from inception to implementation especially at the pilot scale
    • Experience working with a diverse management team
    • Specific experience in process technology development, process design integration, project development, operations, commissioning, and start-up co-ordination
    • Has worked on continuous improvement projects
    • Has developed processes in extreme hot weather conditions (Site can get up to 125 F) 5E is a federally regulated company and adheres to those regulations, we are also a drug and alcohol-free workplace.
      5E is an is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to diversity in the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, citizenship, ancestry, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law.
      We offer 401 k, medical, dental, and vision insurance.
      
      Compensation details: 140000-160000 Yearly Salary
      
      
      
      PI4f26bedd6216-37248-36460000

Keywords: 5E Advanced Materials, College Station , Process Engineer, Engineering , Houston, Texas