Solcoa Industries

Solcoa Industries

Research Engineer

Alameda, California

H1B sponsorship availableDetected 323 days ago
PythonMATLABSEMSupply ChainSolidWorksFEAThermal AnalysisResearchThermodynamics

About the role

  • MAKING THE METALS POWERING THE WORLD Solcoa exists to stabilize the western rare-earth metal supply chain-powering every fighter jet, EV, wind turbine, phone, and generator.
  • We're among the very few companies outside China producing rare-earth metals-and the only one delivering a 100% U.S. supply of both light and heavy rare earths.
  • Our carbon-zero process converts end-of-life magnets directly into metal, accelerating energy independence and securing one of the world's most vital resources.

Responsibilities

  • Build/operate furnace systems, vacuum/inert atmospheres, retorts/crucibles.
  • Develop and validate PFD-level experimental flows
  • Collaborate with machinists/technicians to fabricate fixtures
  • Develop and validate PFD-level experimental flows; compute mass/energy balances; establish operating envelopes.
  • Collaborate with machinists/technicians to fabricate fixtures; specify sensors, heaters, seals, and vacuum hardware.
  • We're building a world-class team to solve this crisis.
  • Own difficult, first-principles R&D that unlocks rare-earth metal production at scale.
  • You will design and execute high-temperature experiments, build and operate custom rigs, extract mechanisms from data, and translate lab breakthroughs into reproducible unit operations for our demo plant.
  • molten-salt/molten-oxide electrolysis, cell design, anode/cathode materials, current efficiency.

Requirements

  • familiarity with HAZOP/MOC culture.
  • Required
  • Typically 3+ years (flexible) as a research engineer/assistant or PhD-level researcher with demonstrated research achievements (papers, patents, prototypes).
  • Proven ability to build experimental setups, write/control test scripts, and produce decision-grade data.
  • Preferred
  • Corrosion/materials compatibility at high temperature
  • selection of refractories and crucible/alloy systems.

Nice to have

  • specify sensors, heaters, seals, and vacuum hardware.
  • Enforce safety for molten metals, reactive powders, hot work, compressed gases, and magnetized materials.
  • Depth in at least one focus area above
  • strong foundation in thermodynamics, transport, reaction kinetics, and materials.
  • Hands-on with furnaces, vacuum/inert gas systems, gloveboxes, and high-T instrumentation
  • meticulous lab discipline.
  • Data fluency (Python/MATLAB, spreadsheets)
  • uncertainty analysis

Compensation

  • Competitive base salary

Benefits

  • Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance

Company info

  • We are a lean, well-funded team rapidly accelerating Western rare-earth production.

Visa & Work Authorization

  • Visa sponsorship available if needed

This listing is sourced directly from Solcoa Industries's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.