Staff Process Engineer

About Us

We are Sila, a next-generation battery materials company. Our mission is to power the world’s transition to clean energy. To create this future, our team is building a better lithium-ion battery from the inside out today. We engineer and manufacture ground-breaking battery materials that significantly increase the energy density of batteries, while reducing their size and weight. The result? Smaller more powerful batteries that can unlock innovation in consumer devices and accelerate the mass adoption of electric cars to eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels. We're tackling one of the biggest challenges of our time every day, and together we're redefining what's possible. Are you ready to be a part of a team committed to changing the world?

Who You Are

As a Managing Staff Process Engineer on Sila’s Technology Team, you will be the Material Handling Team Lead Engineer responsible for the conceptual design, detailed engineering, and commissioning of all material handling equipment in Sila’s first industrial scale plant. As a mentor to other engineers, you will help set a culture of engineering rigor - you will challenge assumptions that do not align with your understanding of the first principles and convince yourself of the technical basis and constraints for the manufacturing plant design which will influence the broader team’s roadmap and work list. 

You are used to working efficiently in high pressure situations, such as commissioning high volume and complex solids handling systems and overhauling or retrofitting large manufacturing facilities with material handling equipment. You bring the experience of having seen dozens of different material handling technologies, having significant knowledge of material handling equipment vendors / integrators, and having designed and project managed dozens of specialized material handling systems for various industries over years. You also have experience working with cross functional teams ensuring material handling equipment operates as designed, meets the function of the associated processing steps and ensures product quality and reliability specifications are met. Most importantly, you are comfortable working on new problems everyday, have an extreme-ownership mentality, and have a track record of pushing yourself and your team to be better every single day.

Responsibilities and Duties  

• Hire, coach, and support talent through consistent feedback, navigation of challenges, and celebration of wins
• Lead the daily workflow of the material handling technology team, provide continuous team development and, by example, set the standard for performance
• Be an engineer and lead the team to write unit manuals, basis of design, control narratives and operations procedures, complete factory and site acceptance testing, execute commissioning & startup, and drive continuous plant and technology improvements
• Play a critical role in the long term vision and execution of production line improvements by recommending and developing technical plans to drive continuous CAPEX and COGS reduction
• Expertly balance day-to-day priorities with long term deliverables
• Work seamlessly with internal teams and 3rd party vendors to drive technical deliverables

• Develop PFDs, P&IDs, control narratives and other FEED deliverables from concept through commissioning for first-of-a-kind plant
• Able and experienced at leading all phases of commissioning of a new process unit

Knowledge and Skill Requirements 

• B.S. or M.S. in Industrial, Chemical, Mechanical Engineering or other equivalent material handling backgrounds/experiences
• Minimum of 10 years of experience directly owning a high volume production line or in a design-to-commissioning (EPC) role as a Design Engineer or Project Manager for the chemical or other related industries focused primarily on material handling equipment
• Experience with process design of green/brown field chemical plant material handling units
• Demonstrated ability to develop new ideas and progress them to fruition in spite of the possibility that the broader organization does not see your view
• Demonstrated ability to pitch ideas, request resources, and recommend new directions for an organization resulting in step-changes in the organization’s trajectory
• Deep knowledge of basic controls schemes and familiarity with advanced control strategies
• Experience with safety critical instrumentation, safety relief, and operational alarms
• Extensive experience with process integration of solids handling systems including but not limited to controls, mechanical design, material handling related codes, technology selection.
• Strong ability to make decisions based on functional requirements and technical risk (design risk, technology selection ris