Mariana Minerals ยท 1 day ago
Lead Process Engineer
Houston, TX
Full-time
Onsite
Senior Level, Lead/Staff
$150K/yr - $210K/yr
10+ years expMariana Minerals is a software-first, vertically integrated minerals company on a mission to supply the critical minerals powering modern energy, AI, and defense technologies. As the Lead Process Engineer, you will lead the development and deployment of innovative chemical refining processes and support the buildout of an in-house process engineering team.
Mining & Metals
Responsibilities
Lead equipment scopes from concept and modeling validation, through procurement, engineering, fabrication, installation, commissioning, and ramp
Manage external equipment providers, technology licensors, and engineering companies to deliver fully integrated and functional mineral refining scopes
Drive cross-functional teams of lab technicians, pilot plant engineers, process engineers, and project engineers to lead the technical equipment scale-up and de-risk the commercialization of novel mineral refining processes
Support the hiring, mentorship, and day-to-day management of junior process engineers
Develop technoeconomic models of new project opportunities, acquisition targets, and new technologies to inform business development
Prepare and present bankable engineering deliverables to support project financing partners due diligence reviews
Identify, evaluate, and implement engineering solutions to optimize extraction, purification, and recovery processes under varying chemistry, feedstock qualities, and operating conditions
Collaborate deeply with R&D, lab staff, pilot-plant engineers, and operations teams to translate bench-scale insights into robust and scalable flowsheets
Identify, evaluate, and implement process engineering and project management software tools
Identify and support opportunities for the software and machine learning teams to automate capital project execution workflows and develop advanced plant control algorithms
Qualification
Required
10+ years of engineering experience in industrial, chemical, mineral processing, or similar process-intensive environments
Strong understanding of engineering fundamentals and demonstrated ability to leverage the understanding to solve challenging problems
Strong foundation in chemical engineering, metallurgical engineering, or process engineering, with demonstrated ability to apply engineering fundamentals to complex hydrometallurgical systems
Experience with equipment engineering and design, including but not limited to: Brownfield modifications and upgrades of process equipment (e.g., leach tanks, reactors, filtration systems, solvent extraction circuits), Greenfield design of hydrometallurgical unit operations and integrated circuits, Troubleshooting, evaluation, and optimization of operating hydrometallurgical or chemical-process equipment
Experience with the following industries and/or production environments: Hydrometallurgical mineral processing or metal refining, Lithium processing and refining, Large-scale mining, critical-minerals processing, or battery-materials production, Industrial chemical manufacturing with complex aqueous/chemical reaction systems, Engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC/EPCM) firms supporting mining and mineral processing industry projects
Experience with direct or indirect leadership of engineers and technicians
Company
Mariana Minerals
Mariana Minerals is a software-first, vertically integrated minerals company focused on supplying the minerals critical to modern energy, AI, and defense technologies.
11-50 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Mariana Minerals has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (7)
Funding
Current Stage
Early StageCompany data provided by crunchbase