Lead Process Engineer
Oleo Sustainable Palm Oil Solutions
Date: 3 weeks ago
City: Berkeley, CA
Contract type: Full time
Company Overview:
Oleo Sustainable Palm Oil Solutions is a venture dedicated to halting palm oil driven deforestation. Palm oil is one of the most carbon intensive commodities in the world, largely due to the deforestation that occurs at the beginning of its supply chain.
At Oleo, we transform biomass waste into a sustainable palm oil alternative with applications ranging from consumer goods products to biofuels. To enable this vision, we have developed a two-part biomanufacturing platform that (1) extracts cellulosic sugars from biomass waste and (2) uses them as a substrate for the fermentation of an oleaginous yeast strain to produce sustainable oil products. Our technology, developed at Stanford University and patent pending, can valorize a wide range of inputs, circumventing traditional feedstock availability issues and reducing the cost of biomass preprocessing. We are currently supported by Activate, Cyclotron Road, the TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy, Alpine Social Ventures, Collab Fund, Safar Partners, and G-Force.
Role Description: Lead Process Engineer
We are looking for a scientist or engineer with expertise in biomass pretreatment and related separations, analytics, and process engineering to join our team. In this position you will be responsible for leading process design, optimization, and scale-up of Oleo’s biomass deconstruction process, and its integration into Oleo’s end-to-end biomanufacturing platform. This role is laboratory-based and is in person in Berkeley, CA. Our team of four will look to you to lead biomass deconstruction experiments, as well as daily operations in our lab.
Primary Responsibilities of this Role Include:
Oleo Sustainable Palm Oil Solutions is a venture dedicated to halting palm oil driven deforestation. Palm oil is one of the most carbon intensive commodities in the world, largely due to the deforestation that occurs at the beginning of its supply chain.
At Oleo, we transform biomass waste into a sustainable palm oil alternative with applications ranging from consumer goods products to biofuels. To enable this vision, we have developed a two-part biomanufacturing platform that (1) extracts cellulosic sugars from biomass waste and (2) uses them as a substrate for the fermentation of an oleaginous yeast strain to produce sustainable oil products. Our technology, developed at Stanford University and patent pending, can valorize a wide range of inputs, circumventing traditional feedstock availability issues and reducing the cost of biomass preprocessing. We are currently supported by Activate, Cyclotron Road, the TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy, Alpine Social Ventures, Collab Fund, Safar Partners, and G-Force.
Role Description: Lead Process Engineer
We are looking for a scientist or engineer with expertise in biomass pretreatment and related separations, analytics, and process engineering to join our team. In this position you will be responsible for leading process design, optimization, and scale-up of Oleo’s biomass deconstruction process, and its integration into Oleo’s end-to-end biomanufacturing platform. This role is laboratory-based and is in person in Berkeley, CA. Our team of four will look to you to lead biomass deconstruction experiments, as well as daily operations in our lab.
Primary Responsibilities of this Role Include:
- Leading the development of an integrated process for converting biomass waste into fermentable sugars, including the evaluation of different solvents and catalysts.
- Brainstorming, designing, planning, and executing benchtop and laboratory-scale biomass deconstruction experiments, followed by scale-up tests.
- Developing and optimizing analytical methods, analyzing samples, and interpreting data to drive process development and optimization.
- Characterizing and evaluating biomass feedstocks, and the solid and liquid streams from Oleo’s biomass pretreatment process.
- Evaluating different separation, concentration, and crystallization technologies to enhance product recovery, as well as catalyst and solvent recycling.
- Identifying and implementing process improvements to enhance efficiency, product quality, and cost-effectiveness.
- MS/PhD in chemical engineering, analytical chemistry, biochemistry, biochemical engineering, or other related fields, with 1-3 years of industry experience.
- Expert knowledge of thermochemical and thermomechanical biomass deconstruction methods.
- Demonstrated competency designing and executing experiments, and making data driven decisions based on experimental outcomes.
- Ability to leverage physical and chemical characterization techniques, including mass spectrometry, to measure key properties of feedstocks, cellulosic hydrolysates and waste sludges.
- Familiarity with separation technologies for isolating compounds from dilute aqueous solutions.
- A sense of initiative and organizational acumen to prioritize research efforts and take ownership of projects from ideation to implementation.
- The resilience to overcome technical challenges and persevere through bottlenecks to ensure successful project implementation.
- The ability to effectively communicate and collaborate with teammates, stakeholders, and suppliers.
- Previous experience with techno-economic modeling in Aspen Plus.
- Experience designing and tuning ionic liquids.
- CAD competency for the design of custom laboratory equipment.
- Knowledge of statistical methods including design of experiments.
- Annual salary of $90,000 - $110,000
- Company equity
- Healthcare for employees
- Competitive PTO
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