Senior Materials Development Scientist – ELYSIS

Shape Your World

At Alcoa, you will become an essential part of our purpose: to turn raw potential into real progress. The way we see it, every Alcoan is a work-shaper, team-shaper, idea-shaper, world-shaper.

A New Era for the Aluminum Industry – ELYSIS 

Carbon Free Aluminum                                                                         

The ELYSIS™ technology is the greatest breakthrough in the aluminum industry since its beginnings in 1886. Work is underway now to further develop this revolutionary new way to produce aluminum, eliminating carbon dioxide and all other greenhouse gas emissions from the traditional smelting process.

The ELYSIS process eliminates the use of carbon anodes, replacing those with proprietary materials. It is the first industrial process that emits oxygen as its by-product and has the potential to transform an entire industry.

In 2018, two international aluminum producers, Alcoa and Rio Tinto, came together to form the ELYSIS joint venture with the provincial government of Quebec. With support from the Canadian Government and Apple, the technology is progressing and is currently being designed to support the construction of new smelters or retrofits.

ELYSIS is headquartered in Montreal, with Technology Research & Development locations in Alma, Quebec, (Canada), in Jonquiere, Quebec, (Canada), in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, (United States), and in France.

Commercial quality metal produced by ELYSIS during the ongoing R&D process is already being used by Apple in a variety of products (The 16-inch MacBook Pro and the iPhone SE); Ab InBEV (cans); Audi (e-tron GT wheels produced by the RONAL Group), and Corona (cans).

Join the ELYSIS team in this exciting work!

About the location

The ELYSIS US Research & Development facility is located in the Alcoa Technical Center (ATC) in New Kensington, Pennsylvania. Located near Pittsburgh, the carbon-free smelting process was first developed at ATC, where a dedicated team is working to reinvent the aluminum industry for a sustainable future.

About the position

The Materials Development Scientist will use their wide breadth of knowledge and expertise of ceramic material processing to lead research and development efforts associated with technical readiness level advancement of an industrial electrode manufacturing process. This role also serves to be the technical liaison, providing data-based decisions, guidance, and support to Elysis electrode production and industrialization teams. This role will report to Elysis R&D management.

Key Activities / Responsibilities:

• Creates and executes technical programs aimed at developing fundamental understanding of the impact of raw material properties, process conditions and processing parameters on a novel electrode production process’s performance and resultant product properties.
• Leads projects, defines objectives, develops work plans, and conducts research that builds-off of past advances and scientific understanding of the breakthrough materials used in Elysis’s advanced smelting processes.
• Provide data-based guidance for equipment and process design that promotes an overall reduction in risk associated with industrialization of the processes associated with the Elysis technology.
• Supports the development of technical specifications for key commercial scale equipment sets by executing continuous improvement initiatives, and/or creating technology development programs that identify and close specific knowledge gaps associated with existing processes or equipment sets.
• Use a competent, hands-on approach that applies fundamental engineering principles to practical solutions and applications in laboratory, pilot, and commercial scale environments.
• Use root cause analysis tools to provide robust and sustainable solutions to new material, process, or production issues.
• Seeks-out and identifies opportunities for improvements and implements innovative solutions required to advance materials development goals and/or production initiatives required for the success of the Elysis program.
• Meets relevant project objectives by developing internal or external relationships, managing scopes, schedules, and budgets of vendors, service providers or institutions.
• Organizes results in clear, traceable formats, communicates progress an