VP of Process Technology

About the role

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 mass manufacturable nano-separation systems, significantly more value can be produced from each resource, reducing waste, and unlocking domestic critical mineral production. 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 Whole World Is Ion-Exchange And The Rest Are Merely Details!” – Dr. Robert Kunin of Rohm and Haas, Pioneer of the Ion-Exchange Industry, 1951

Responsibilities

• Own the selection, development, and validation of the process technologies that anchor Kunin's separation flowsheets.
• Decide which unit operations, vendors, and configurations advance from evaluation to deployment, and back those decisions with laboratory data, pilot results, and process models.
• By the end of 2026, achieve a vetted process technology portfolio, with down-selected vendors and configurations for each core unit operation.
• Complete bench and pilot validation campaigns for the priority flowsheets, with documented performance against design targets.
• Develop integrated mass balance, equilibria, and kinetics unified into process models that drive dynamic cost and design choices.
• Establish active joint-research collaborations with National Laboratories, universities, and corporate R&D teams.
• Evaluate, vet, and down-select process technology vendors and unit-operation configurations from pilot through commercialization.
• Perform hands-on laboratory experimentation to optimize kinetics, selectivity, throughput, purity, and regeneration chemistry for Kunin's separation systems and integrated flowsheets.
• Conduct pilot testing of hydrometallurgical unit operations to validate bench-scale results against commercial design targets.
• Develop process models integrating mass balance, equilibria, and kinetics to drive cost and design decisions.
• Technology roadmapping across leaching, ion-exchange, solvent extraction, precipitation, crystallization, electrowinning, and effluent management.
• Engage in joint-research collaboration with National Laboratories, universities, and corporate R&D teams.
• Align cross-functionally with the ion-exchange media team on resin and reagent choices and with process engineering on scale-up readiness.

Requirements

• Bachelor's in Chemical Engineering, Extractive Metallurgy, or Hydrometallurgy with 7+ years in hydrometallurgical process development and technology evaluation.
• Experimentalist fluent in bench and pilot campaigns across leaching, solid-liquid separation, ion-exchange, solvent extraction, and precipitation; electrowinning and crystallization preferred.
• Modeler skilled in process simulation using MetSim, HSC Chemistry, SysCAD, or Aspen Plus; comfortable with precipitate and electrolyte modeling tools such as PHREEQC or OLI Studio.
• Experienced in vendor evaluation, technology due diligence, and structuring external research collaborations.
• Hands-on technical lead, willing to work directly on bench and pilot scale operations regardless of seniority, and excited by an early-stage startup environment with high autonomy, opportunity, and expectations.
• Communicator who translates experimental and modeling results into clear technology decisions for engineering and executive audiences.
• Willing to relocate to Chattanooga, TN and available to travel to customers across the United States, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Canada, Brazil, South Africa, and Australia for process technology installation and commissioning.
• Prepared for extended hours and weekends frequently required to support critical project milestones.
• Kunin will do whatever it can to secure work authorization for the right candidate.

Pay

$160,000 - $280,000 base salary.

Benefits

Benefits and equity are included.