Director of Catalyst and Process Development

Company

NGT-synthesis LLC is a startup technology developer and licensor in renewable fuels and chemicals. Our technology converts various feeds (e.g. alcohols, naphthas, ethers, light olefins) into standard fuels (jet fuel or SAF, gasoline, LPG) or chemicals (BTX, durene). Depending on the feeds, the products can be fully or partially renewable, allowing the operator to manage the speed of their energy transition. The technology builds on a solid foundation of commercialized technology for upgrading feeds unsuitable for traditional oil refining pathways.

The NGTS office and the existing lab/demo facility are in Moscow, but a suitable candidate may be offered relocation to our sister company in California.

This is a challenging position at a critical junction of science and industrial commercialization. It requires complete dedication, significant creativity, and high-quality teamwork in a multicultural team: the company needs to set up a lab/demo facility in a new location from scratch, transfer catalyst manufacturing to a new factory in a new country/region, and ensure adequate IP protection.

Key Responsibilities

• Director of Catalyst and Process Development will be the science mastermind of the business, in charge of everything related to developing our proprietary catalysts and the overall conversion process. They will direct a small team (starting with one person) and lead a cross-functional effort in process development.
• Brings current catalyst recipe(s) to commercial production (optimizes existing recipes, adapts them to local conditions, scales).
• Develops new catalyst recipes for various pathways/applications, brings them to manufacturing as appropriate.
• Develops the process for various applications (e.g. ethanol-to-jet, naphtha + ethanol to jet, ethanol to toluene…): conceptualizes and models promising pathways and process parameters and plans experiments.
• Liaises with the colleagues working on Process Analytics, IP protection and Process Engineering over the matters of joint or overlapping interest to ensure the accurate representation and overall optimization of the process in regard of carbon intensity, commercial attractiveness, certification, IP protection, and practical implementation.
• Leads the design and ordering of lab plants and software for data collection.
• Liaises with Laboratory over matters of planning and conducting experiments.

Required Qualifications

• PhD (preferred), M.Sc. in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering.
• Overall professional experience in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering – 10 years or more.
• Experience in a similar line of activity (development and commercialization of processes of hydrocarbon conversion with heterogeneous catalysts, ideally zeolite) – 5 years or more.
• Experience with laboratory equipment, particularly fixed-bed reactor systems, as well as GC analysis of both liquid and gas phases.
• Familiarity with commercialization of novel chemical processes.
• Proficient in English and Russian languages: minimum B2.
• Desirable:
  • Practical experience of bringing novel catalysts to industrial-scale manufacturing;
  • Practical experience of developing catalyst production recipes for lab-, demo- and industrial-scale manufacturing;
  • Knowledge of industrial equipment and technologies used in zeolite catalyst manufacturing;
  • Practical experience of manufacturing or using petrochemical catalysts, and scaling up of chemical production processes.
  • Familiarity with Aspen, Chemcad, Mathcad, GREET software.

Terms

• Reporting to the Vice President of Engineering (one of the Company's founders).
• Full-time employment. Location: initially Moscow (Russia); the right candidate will be offered visa support and relocation to California (USA).
• One paid trip to the region of prospective employment before relocation.
• Annual conference budget.