Engineer III/Senior Engineer, Adsorbent Chemistry

About Us
Alta is reinventing how the world sources critical minerals — using protein-based chemistry to extract rare earth elements and other essential materials from challenging feedstocks with unmatched selectivity. By dramatically reducing the cost and environmental impact of mineral separation, Alta is making it possible to unlock new sources of supply for 21st-century technologies. As global demand accelerates, securing these materials has become one of the most urgent challenges facing U.S. competitiveness and national security. Backed by top investors and government partners, Alta is growing fast and hiring mission-driven scientists and engineers to help us scale our platform and transform the future of mining.

How we work

Speed is part of our DNA. We’re building first-of-a-kind technology and facilities, which means the path isn’t always mapped. We’re comfortable with ambiguity: making sound, timely decisions guided by clear priorities, adapting quickly as we learn, and keeping a relentless focus on moving our business forward. We commit to fixed milestones on compressed timelines and hold ourselves accountable without compromising on safety or rigor.

Location: Boulder, CO   ·   

Reports To: Principal Scientist / Group Lead — Adsorbent Chemistry

Role Summary

You’ll be joining a small R&D team working on the resins and adsorbents at the center of Alta’s separation process. This role establishes in-house resin synthesis and functionalization capabilities, develops analytical methods to characterize resin properties and performance, and drives iterative improvements in adsorbent materials to meet process performance, reproducibility, and scale-up requirements.

Key Technical Responsibilities

•  Resin Synthesis & Functionalization: Develop and implement in-house methods for porous resin synthesis, surface functionalization, and ligand attachment to produce adsorbents with defined chemical and physical properties.
•  Resin Characterization: Develop and qualify analytical methods for resin composition, functional group density, ligand loading, porosity, and particle properties — and know the limits of each method well enough to say when a result should not be trusted.
• Performance Evaluation: Connect those material properties to process outcomes — protein immobilization, adsorption capacity, selectivity, stability, and separation performance — working alongside our protein chemistry and process engineering teams.
•  Process Development: Establish reproducible synthesis and functionalization workflows at the bench, optimize reaction conditions, and identify the critical process parameters that govern resin quality.
• Tech Transfer: Translate those workflows into process specifications that let others produce the same resin at larger scale, and support integration into Alta’s adsorbent manufacturing workflows.

This is a bench-heavy role; expect roughly 70% hands-on laboratory work.

Communication and Documentation

• Maintain rigorous experimental records, author SOPs and test methods, and analyze and interpret data.
• Communicate results, risks, and recommendations clearly to cross-functional R&D and process engineering teams, to executives, and to external stakeholders.
• Plan, document, and execute detailed experiments for projects related to sorbent synthesis and characterization, including troubleshooting and identifying next steps. 

Required Qualifications

• B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. in chemical engineering, polymer science and engineering, materials science, chemistry, or a closely related field, with hands-on laboratory experience working with porous materials, M.S. or Ph.D. highly preferred
  • B.S.: 5–7+ years
  • M.S.: 3–5+ years
  • Ph.D.: 2+ years
• Hands-on experience synthesizing porous polymer or inorganic materials — you can explain which formulation and process variables you changed and how the pore structure responded.
• Working command of at least two porosity or particle characterization techniques, such as N₂/Ar physisorption (BET, BJH or DFT pore size distributions), mercury intrusion porosimetry, inverse size-exclusion chromatography, SEM, or laser diffraction particle sizing.
• Practical wet chemistry on solid supports: running covalent surface modifications and quantifying the result by titration, elemental analysis, colorimetric assay, or equivalent.
•  Demonstrated ability to run structured experimental campaigns — isolating variables, designing around confounds, and drawing defensible conclusions.
• Rigorous documentation habits, including detailed ELN records and authorship of SOPs or test methods that other people have successfully followed.
• Comfort operating with limited supervision amid shifting priorities in a fast-paced R&D environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct experience making cross-linked porous beads by suspension, emulsion, or dispersion polymerization using a porogen or diluent to drive phase separation — styrene–divinylbenzene, methacrylate/acrylate systems, polyHIPE, or seeded-swelling (Ugelstad) routes.
• Post-polymerization modification of a porous support: chloromethylation, epoxide ring-opening, amination, and activation chemistries (NHS ester, maleimide, aldehyde, tosyl, epoxy).
•  Immobilization of proteins, peptides, or enzymes on a solid support, with measurement of loading, retained activity, and leaching.
• Packed-bed column evaluation: breakthrough curves, dynamic binding capacity, pressure drop, and multi-cycle load/elute/regenerate studies.
• Materials lifetime and degradation testing: evaluating chemical and mechanical stability under aggressive process conditions over repeated use cycles.
• Scale-up from gram to kilogram batches, and tech transfer to a toll manufacturer or CMO.
• Design of experiments and statistical analysis
• Prior experience at a resin, chromatography media, or adsorbent manufacturer.
• Proven ability to lead projects, method development, and data analysis, and provide advanced technical leadership across projects. 

Backgrounds We Welcome

We do not expect any one candidate to arrive with all of the above. Strong applicants have come to this problem from several directions, and we read all of them seriously:

• Bioseparations / protein chromatography — you understand how a protein moves inside a pore and why it sometimes cannot.
• Polymer and colloid chemistry — you have made porous materials and controlled their structure through formulation.
• Sorbent and separations engineering — you have built a functional material and used it for separations.

If you are strong in one of these and curious about the rest, apply.

Compensation & Benefits

The starting pay range for this position is $125,000 - $150,000 USD, plus equity, commensurate with educational background and work experience.

Benefits include:

•     401(k)
•     Medical, dental, and vision plans (or equivalent)
•     Flexible time off
•     Paid parental leave
•     Paid sick leave
•     Company holidays

Certain project activities require advance approval from the U.S. Government sponsor before individuals who are not U.S. citizens may participate. Alta will coordinate this process as needed.

EOE

Alta Resource Technologies is an equal opportunity employer committed to building a workforce that reflects the diversity of the communities we serve. We believe that varied perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds strengthen our team and drive better outcomes for our clients and partners.

We welcome and encourage applications from all qualified individuals regardless of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Our hiring decisions are based solely on qualifications, merit, and the needs of the business. Alta participates in e-Verify for all positions. 

If you require accommodations at any point in the hiring process, please let your recruiter know.

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