Senior Engineer, Chemical Reaction Engineering

Overview

We are looking for a Senior Engineer, Chemical Reaction Engineering to join our team. This role will report to our Director of Engineering. This position will provide technical contributions in the area of chemical reaction engineering (CRE) with emphasis on advanced kinetics over heterogeneous catalysts, reactor design and modeling across our lab, pilot, demonstration and commercial scales. This role will fall within our engineering Science group, but will work closely with scientists and engineers from our R&D and plant operations teams.  The role will be located at Air Company’s Innovation Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Ideal candidates will have some exposure to detailed engineering design and development around petroleum refining or chemical/petrochemical processing applications with a focus on reactor unit operations  covering both novel and traditional types, configurations (e.g. continuous stirred vessel packed-bed, multi-quench, multi-tubular, reactor-membranes, microreactors, plasma, microwave, electrochemical), and modes of continuous flow operation (e.g. adiabatic, non-isothermal, isothermal, fluidized, ebullating, trickle bed, slurry). Ideal candidates will have the ability to design novel reactor configurations and unit operations with a broad, multi-scale understanding on how to incorporate atomistic and ab-initio level information into working models. Candidates with work experience specifically in the area of gas-to-liquids (GTL) reactor design and modeling along with a good understanding of Fischer-Tropsch chemistry are preferred.

At Air Company we value employees for their unique perspectives. We are an inclusive Equal Employment Opportunity employer we consider applicants without regard to gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, disabled or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. 

Job Requirements 

• Completing simultaneous experimental and modeling campaigns across multiple scales managing intra-particle, interphase bulk fluid to particle, reactor-scale gradients. 
• Developing robust kinetic expressions and rate laws (first principles and empirical) using micro-kinetics (MK), transition-state-theory (TST), multivariate statistical approaches, residence time distribution analysis
• Designing unique experiments to independently measure fundamental kinetic parameters, exploring hydrodynamics and intrinsic kinetic analysis along with deactivation mechanisms
• Providing data analysis, visualizations, schematics, drawings and illustrations that capture the heat, mass and momentum gradients and physico-chemical phenomena taking place within a reactor system, as well as, reaction network analysis, and/or reaction graph theory, reaction coordinate analysis and catalytic cycle/turn-over diagrams. 
• Providing support to scientists and engineers in R&D for reactor development, as well as, inventing/developing new  reactor technologies. Capable of understanding catalyst functionality, interpreting and incorporating catalyst characterization information back into the reactor modeling
• Inventing and creating new reactor technologies and exploring process intensity solutions.
• Providing technical evaluations of existing novel reactor technologies relative to state-of-the-art traditional solutions while suggesting realistic configurations and designs that show viability at scale
• Working closely with EPCs in support of front-end engineering activities and serve as a liaison between Air Company and outside EPCs, clients, vendors on all activities related to reactor technologies 
• Clearly explaining difficult and complex elements of CRE across science and engineering disciplines, as well as to senior management
• Performing data analysis, presenting findings and recommendations in oral presentation and/or written reports
• Ensuring compliance with relevant engineering design standards/guidelines, as well as, environmental, health and safety regulations.

Preferred Skills

• Master's degree (minimum) in Chemical, Bio-Chemical or Petroleum Engineering with emphasis on Chemical Reaction Engineering (CRE)
• 5-year minimum industrial working experience focused on reactor design and kinetics through experiments and models.
• Work experience as a commercial-scale reactor process unit engineer and/or process design engineer within any of the following industries: petroleum refining, petrochemical processing, chemical processing, renewable energy, bio-energy.  Additional experience at the R&D pilot-scale will be strongly considered as well.
• Ability to assist in the physical set-up of experimental apparatus and test rigs.
• Familiar with modeling engineered catalysts (e.g. pellets, spheres, rings) and engineered reactor structures (e.g. foams, monoliths, microchannels, grooves, fins).
• Experience with software drawing and schematic development tools (e.g. AutoCAD, SolidWorks, Viseo)
• Experience with numerical and computational modeling tools (e.g. Matlab, Maple, Mathematica, Polymath, Python, COMSOL, Fluent, ANSYS, OpenFOAM)  and statistical algorithms ((e.g. neural Networks, partial least squares, projection to latent structures, PCR, SIMCA-P, Monte-carlo simulations, machine learning)
• Active professional society memberships are valued (e.g. AIChE-CRE), as well as, publications (e.g. patents and peer-reviewed journal articles ) and presentations
• A strong knowledge and commitment to personal and process safety protocols is desired.
• Great attitude with an ability to work collaboratively, proactively and independently along with an eagerness to share knowledge and learn from others
• Team player with a strong passion for fostering a safe collaborative work environment