ENGINEER - RESEARCH ENGINEER - Chemical/Process Engineer - Pilot Plants - Southwest Research Institute

ENGINEER - RESEARCH ENGINEER - Chemical/Process Engineer - Pilot Plants

Who We Are:

Fuels and Energy Development Section works in pilot plant services and process development of new first of their kind processes.

Objectives of this Role:

• This position will fill a role in supporting operations for pilot plants for process development and assist in expanding our technical portfolio of offerings to our clients.
• Increased utilization by supporting existing large projects and conducting business development for existing and new areas.
• Be a leader in operations training, procurement, and inventory control for process development and pilot plants, with expertise in technical areas of the research.
• Train operators and engineers to maintain pilot plant area and operations with a high degree of "technical" success. Emphasis on department safety culture, waste disposal, procedures, ISO.
• Assist in growing our fluidized bed reactor areas of work.

Daily and Monthly Responsibilities:

• Design processes or unit operations for chemical or refinery systems. Plan and conduct research and process development work in chemical, gas, and petroleum areas. Expand area of expertise (ideally decarbonization, pyrolysis, batch/CSTR kinetics, biomass conversion).
• Support ongoing projects through data compilation, mass and energy balances, operator training, procedure development, laboratory upkeep, maintenance, and safety review/document preparation. Department safety emphasis.
• Create process simulations using commercial software in addition to input/output, process flow and process instrumentation diagrams.
• Conduct strategic business development activities. Provide technical supervision to other engineers, technicians, and analysts.
• Emphasis will be placed on proposal writing and publications.
• Communicate with vendors, clients, and operators to set up equipment and construct systems for new processes.
• Promote and secure new work as trained through mentorship and internal business development training.

Requirements:

• Requires a Bachelors or a Masters in Chemical Engineering
• Shift work required.
• 1-3 years: Experience in any of the following areas: biomass conversion, biofuels, hydrotreating, carbon capture, carbon utilization, plastics recycling, pyrolysis, coking, distillation, electrolysis, clean hydrogen.
• High attention to detail in calculations, design, and operations. Must be able to develop process flow diagrams, process and instrumentation diagrams, I/O diagrams, and process control strategies.
• Must communicate clearly and interface with clients or potential clients as needed in the course of the project or proposal process.
• Must be able to conduct tasks in parallel.
• Experience with actual hands-on buildup of processes and test systems or an interest in learning.
• Direct experience with chemical engineering process development work (developing Excel spreadsheets for chemical engineering calculations and data compilation) to include designing and conducting lab scale to pilot scale experiments is helpful.
• A valid/clear driver's license is required