Director of Process R&D

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor the R&D team, fostering a high-performance, collaborative, and innovative culture.
• Develop and execute a cohesive R&D roadmap that aligns with Travertine’s commercial deployment goals.
• Manage multiple R&D projects in parallel, ensuring timely progress, resource allocation, and technical rigor.
• Design and oversee experiments that inform process development and optimization at pilot and commercial scales.
• Guide the translation of laboratory results into process designs, collaborating with engineering and simulation teams.
• Drive professional development and structured work planning across the R&D organization.
• Communicate technical updates, tradeoffs, and priorities to cross-functional teams and executive stakeholders.
• Interface with third parties (e.g., vendors, academic partners) to expand R&D capabilities and accelerate progress.
• Contribute to process scale-up efforts, including integration with pilot plant operations and commercial systems.
• Ensure safety, data integrity, and regulatory compliance across all R&D activities.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering or a related discipline (civil/environmental engineering may be acceptable with strong experience)
• Proven ability to design experiments and translate results into scalable process designs
• 8+ years of applied chemical process design experience
• 5+ years of formal management experience leading R&D teams
• Experience managing a diverse portfolio of R&D projects
• Background in chemical process engineering, especially in hydrometallurgy
• High emotional intelligence and excellent communication skills across technical and executive teams
• Strategic thinker with a structured approach to program management and reporting
• Advanced degree (MS/PhD) in a relevant discipline

Preferred Qualifications

• Electrochemical process experience (e.g., electrolysis, electrodialysis, chlor-alkali)
• Experience with membrane separation, ion exchange, crystallization, and solid-liquid separation techniques
• Familiarity with chemical/physical analytical methods (e.g., spectroscopy, mineralogical characterization)
• Experience writing scopes of work (SOWs) and interfacing with external vendors or collaborators
• Background in phosphate fertilizer production
• Demonstrated ability to guide R&D through pilot and commercial scale-up phases
• Competency in reading PFDs and creating mass and energy balance models (MEBs)
• Start-up or high-growth company experience

Benefits

• Competitive pay 
• Stock options
• Health, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance
• 401k with 100% match up to 3% of salary
• Flexible time off policy