Chemical Process Engineer

WHO WE ARE

Kunin Technologies is revolutionizing the critical mineral supply chain by implementing advanced separation technologies to capture value from overlooked resources.

Metals are everywhere, in solar panels, smartphones, electric vehicles, but as ore grades plummet globally, traditional extraction methods are failing. China dominates critical minerals markets by developing superior separation technologies that extract value from materials American mines discard as waste.

Utilizing Kunin Technologies' breakthrough performance, ion-exchange media significantly more value can be produced from each resource, reducing waste, and unlocking metal abundance.

To achieve metal abundance, humanity must bring separation science down its own Moore’s Law: fix the idiot cost index for micro and nano scale separation materials. This requires mass manufacturing novel ion-exchange media form factors which previously struggled from high costs.

THE ROLE

We are automating the roll-to-roll processing of ion-exchange media. This is a similar serial production challenge to battery electrodes. You are responsible for the wet-chemistry side of the line: reagent saturation, reaction residence, washing, and drying, plus the bench and demonstration-scale development work that feeds it. We expect to hire you a laboratory technician and analytical chemist for this workload 3-months post-hire. Direct web-processing experience is a strong plus, not a requirement: chemical process fundamentals transfer.

You are part of a team of ten in Chattanooga, TN delivering this line by the end of 2027.

This demonstration line becomes the basis of a greenfield manufacturing facility in Series A – B, at 10X the scale, with automated material handling and integrated back–end exchange media equipment packaging.

By 2030, we want to be the world’s largest volume producer of ion-exchange media.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Design, build, and run bench and demonstration-scale wet processing equipment: reagent saturation baths, squeeze-roll pickup control, wash and rinse trains, and drying.

• Process characterization: pickup and add-on measurement, uniformity, mass balances, and kinetics data collection – working with our radiochemist

• Scale-up documentation: PFDs, P&IDs, SOPs, and mass and energy balances for the demonstration line

• Sourcing and commissioning of wet-end / dip-coating hardware

• General plant process engineering: utilities, chemical transfers, waste streams, and safety procedures for aggressive chemistry

QUALIFICATIONS AND PREFERRED SKILLS

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering field or science - chemical engineer preferred.