Process Design Engineer - Plant Process

San Francisco, California
Technology /
On-site
About Ammobia

Ammobia is on a mission to revolutionize the ammonia industry. We are a seed-stage startup developing Haber Bosch 2.0 – a next-generation ammonia synthesis process enabling cost-effective and clean ammonia production. Our proprietary swing reactor system runs at 10x lower pressures and 4x higher conversions than the state of the art, enabling economical production at any plant scale or energy source.
 
Clean ammonia will support ammonia’s growing role in our decarbonized world, tackling some of the most difficult to abate sectors including chemicals, fertilizers, and heavy-duty transportation. We are supported and recognized by leading climate tech organizations including Starlight Ventures, the US Department of Energy, Collaborative Fund, Third Derivative, Forbes 30u30, and more.

Job Description


Ammobia is seeking a motivated and creative Process Design Engineer to develop and optimize process designs for next generation ammonia production plants. You will play a key role in designing Ammobia's product, the ammonia plant, and its integrations with various feedstock and energy sources.

You are an experienced and creative process engineer looking for a high impact role in an early-stage startup. You value teamwork, data-based decisions, and rapid iteration.
 
Successful applicants will have most of the following

Job Description

    • Design, simulate, and optimize plant process designs incorporating our proprietary swing reactor
    • Develop novel separations, energy integration, and process integration schemes
    • Build flowsheets BFDs, PFDs, HMBs to iterate on process designs to de-risk and cost-down the plant, including through internal cost estimation and collaboration with external parties
    • Develop plant designs and optimizations for specific plant scales and customer use cases
    • Work closely with our reaction engineering team and other process engineers to design an integrated and optimized system
    • Develop and implement techno-economic models for our ammonia production scheme, especially from low carbon and variable energy sources

Qualifications

    • 5+ years’ experience in a relevant industrial setting, likely an EPC, technology licensor, boutique engineering firm, or similar
    • Expertise in plant process design, for example in energy, O&G, chemicals
    • Advanced knowledge of flow sheeting and custom modeling software, eg, Aspen, gPROMS, etc
    • Advanced knowledge of chemical processing unit operations and systems, eg, gas separations, heat recovery, purge systems, etc
    • Experience generating capital cost estimates through Aspen capital cost or public cost data
    • Experience generating class 4-5 cost estimates through fabricator/EPC outreach
    • Experience building dynamic process models and modeling dynamic unit operations
    • Excellent written and verbal communication skills
    • Self-motivated, proactive, and able to work both independently and collaboratively
    • Propensity towards teamwork and collaboration
    • Located or willing to relocate to SF

Nice-to-have

    • Experience with cyclic reaction or separation processes, eg, TSA, PSA, similar
    • Experience modeling reactors, especially gas phase catalytic reactors
    • Experience building system optimization models for variable renewable energy driven processes
    • Experience in ammonia synthesis, cracking, or separations
    • PhD or equivalent experience
    • Experience in a startup       
$100,000 - $200,000 a year
Benefits include:
Competitive equity grants
Healthcare, dental, vision, life insurance, 401k
Gym benefit
Regular team social events
Paid time off, including closure between Christmas and New Years
Who we are

We are a small and passionate team of scientists and engineers. We value teamwork, accountability, open communication, and rapid iteration. We emphasize career growth, mutual feedback, and a fun and exciting working environment. Check out ammobia.co/careers for our full values statement and ammobia.co/team to learn more about us.

The position is full-time and in-person in San Francisco, CA. Compensation and job title will be commensurate with experience.