Hydrometallurgical Process Engineer | San Francisco, CA | Houston, TX
Job Description
Company: Mariana Minerals
Location: San Francisco, California; Houston, Texas, United States (On-site)
Category: Mineral Processing and Metallurgy
Job Type: Full-time
Experience Level: Senior-Level
Salary: $100,000 – $175,000 USD/year
Job Summary
Mariana Minerals is seeking a highly motivated Hydrometallurgical Process Engineer to support the development of critical minerals refining processes for the energy transition.
This role focuses on hydrometallurgical process engineering, equipment design, chemical refining systems, process modeling, commissioning, ramp-up, and automated plant optimization.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead hydrometallurgical process equipment scopes from concept development through procurement, detailed engineering, fabrication, installation, commissioning, and ramp-up
- Manage external technology licensors, equipment vendors, and engineering partners
- Develop heat and material balances for complex hydrometallurgical process trains
- Support process areas including leaching, solution purification, solvent extraction, ion exchange, precipitation, crystallization, and residue handling
- Build hydraulic models, process flow diagrams, and P&IDs for hydrometallurgical circuits
- Create first-principles models of chemical reactors and unit operations to validate scale-up and reduce commercial design risk
- Evaluate and implement engineering solutions to optimize extraction, purification, and recovery processes
- Collaborate with R&D, lab staff, pilot-plant engineers, and operations teams to translate bench-scale insights into scalable flowsheets
- Work with software and machine learning teams to automate process-engineering workflows
- Support development of advanced control, optimization, and digital-twin models for hydrometallurgical reactors and plants
Qualifications
– Strong foundation in chemical engineering, metallurgical engineering, or process engineering
– Experience with hydrometallurgical mineral processing, metal refining, or complex chemical process systems
- Strong understanding of engineering fundamentals and ability to solve complex technical problems
- Experience with equipment engineering and process equipment design
- Experience with brownfield modifications and upgrades of process equipment
- Experience with greenfield design of hydrometallurgical unit operations and integrated circuits
- Experience troubleshooting, evaluating, and optimizing hydrometallurgical or chemical-process equipment
- Knowledge of leach tanks, reactors, filtration systems, and solvent extraction circuits
- Experience in large-scale mining, critical minerals processing, or battery materials production preferred
- Experience with industrial chemical manufacturing and complex aqueous reaction systems preferred
- Experience with EPC or EPCM firms supporting mining and mineral processing projects preferred
What We Can Offer You
- Estimated base salary of $100,000 – $175,000 USD/year
- Equity offer as part of the compensation package
- Opportunity to support first-of-a-kind critical minerals refining processes
- Collaboration with R&D, pilot-plant, operations, software, and machine learning teams
- Exposure to automation, digital-twin models, and data-driven process optimization
- Opportunity to help build responsible mineral sourcing and supply infrastructure
- Collaborative culture focused on ownership, automation, and knowledge sharing
Why This Role Matters
This role is important because it helps Mariana Minerals design, scale, and optimize hydrometallurgical refining systems needed to support critical minerals production and the global energy transition.
Apply
👉 Apply online: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/marianaminerals/135febfe-5b74-455a-825d-3fab6bcd1854
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