The RoleMariana Minerals is looking for a highly motivated Engineering Technician to join the San Francisco Pilot Plant team. You will support the design, deployment, and operation of first-of-its-kind refining processes for critical minerals, while also supporting development of software for automated plant optimization. This position is highly hands-on and will play a critical role in bridging R&D, Process Engineering, and Operations, ensuring processes are robust, safe, cost-effective, and suitable for commercial production.
What You'll Do- Support bench-top R&D, pilot-scale experiments, technical evaluations, and other scale-up trials
- Monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize equipment performance.
- Drive evaluations of recovery, throughput, product quality, and equipment reliability.
- Assist with equipment design, installation, commissioning, and modification
- Create SOPs, engineering drawings, and other process design documentation
- Train on all pilot plant operating steps and fill in when needed to help keep pilot plant running to plan
Desired Qualifications- Bachelor's degree in engineering, materials science, or equivalent field
- 3+ years of hands-on pilot plant, R&D scale-up, or industrial operations experience
- Experience supporting experiments, process trials, or equipment testing
- Ability to collect quality data, document observations, and communicate results clearly
- Experience with process equipment design, procurement, setup, and troubleshooting
- Strong understanding of pH, inorganic chemistry, mass balance, fluid handling, and solid-liquid separation
- Experience creating and maintaining SOPs, PFDs, P&IDs, and equipment/process design documentation
