The posting
Facet Amtech is developing a world-first clean ammonia process — producing ammonia directly from air and water, without the hydrogen infrastructure (SMR or electrolysers) that conventional grey, blue and green ammonia plants require. Our process feeds air and water into a reactor where the catalyst simultaneously separates hydrogen from water and reduces nitrogen from the air, combining the two directly into ammonia. This removes major plant infrastructure costs, improves energy efficiency by avoiding generated waste heat, and drives production costs below grey ammonia prices.
We are seeking an exceptional Process Engineer to take our world-first clean ammonia process from bench-scale discovery to industrially scalable technology. Reporting to the CEO, you will design, build and operate the reactor systems in which our catalyst runs, and carry the process engineering discipline that ensures what works at gram scale can be defended at world scale. This is a role for someone who wants to use their skills to bring cutting-edge research into the real world, contributing directly to global decarbonisation and sustainable industrial development. As Facet Amtech grows, this role is expected to play a key part in building and leading the future of our process and pilot plant engineering capabilities.
Working with the science and engineering team, you will contribute across the design, construction and commissioning of bench-scale and continuous pilot-scale reactor systems; mass and energy balances, reaction engineering and process modelling; gas and liquid handling, instrumentation, control and data acquisition; and process safety, hazard identification and safe operating procedures. The role is deliberately hands-on — in the near term you will be in the laboratory building, instrumenting and troubleshooting your own systems, working alongside the R&D team on equipment that has never been built before, before transitioning into the design authority for our pilot and demonstration plants as the technology and company mature. It's a unique opportunity to work on complex technical problems that demands a high level of attention to detail and the tenacity to identify and resolve unexpected system behaviours.
We're based in Newcastle, one of Australia's fastest-growing energy transition hubs, having recently moved into an independent facility to accelerate lab-based R&D, catalyst manufacturing scale-up and pilot work. The region combines a strong industrial and research base with a coastal lifestyle, easy access to the Hunter Valley, and a cost of living well below Australia's capital cities.
Key Responsibilities
Process and System Design
- Develop process designs for experimental, pilot and demonstration scale systems, including process flow diagrams, P&IDs, equipment sizing and materials selection.
- Establish and maintain mass and energy balances for the process, and keep them current as experimental understanding evolves.
- Translate catalyst performance requirements into reactor geometry, operating conditions, feed conditioning and product recovery strategies.
- Specify instrumentation, control and data acquisition to ensure experiments produce data of sufficient quality to support engineering decisions.
- Select and procure equipment, and manage external fabricators, suppliers and contractors.
- Drive a culture of critical thinking, evidence-based decision making and engineering rigor across the technical team.
- Ensure designs comply with relevant Australian standards and workplace health and safety obligations.
- Undertake hazard identification, risk assessment and the development of safe operating and emergency procedures.
Build, Commissioning and Operation
- Build, assemble and commission bench-scale and continuous flow systems, including gas and liquid handling, heating, pressure control and sealing.
- Operate experimental systems and support the R&D team in the execution of test programs.
- Diagnose and resolve unexpected system behaviours, distinguishing instrument artefacts and mechanical faults from genuine process phenomena.
- Develop reliable, repeatable operating procedures, commissioning protocols and quality control practices.
- Ensure designs, modifications, data and decisions are appropriately documented and traceable.
- Develop technical reports, design summaries and strategic recommendations for internal and investor audiences.
Scale-Up and Industrial Translation
- Define and continually refine the scale-up pathway from laboratory apparatus to industrial plant, identifying the scaling risks that must be retired at each stage.
- Apply reaction engineering, thermodynamics, heat and mass transfer to understand which phenomena govern performance at each scale.
- Identify the engineering constraints that will ultimately determine commercial viability, and feed them back into experimental priorities early rather than late.
- Contribute to techno-economic analysis, utility and energy demand estimates, and equipment cost models.
- Contribute to intellectual property generation covering process and reactor innovations.
Requirements
Essential Qualifications & Experience
- Degree in Chemical Engineering, Process Engineering or a closely related discipline.
- Demonstrated process design capability, including mass and energy balances, equipment sizing and selection, and materials of construction.
- Hands-on experience building, commissioning and troubleshooting experimental, prototype or pilot-scale systems.
- Strong grounding in thermodynamics, reaction engineering and heat and mass transfer, with the ability to reason from first principles in unfamiliar systems.
- Demonstrated ability to translate scientific results into engineering requirements, and engineering constraints back into experimental design.
- Sound process safety judgement and a rigorous approach to hazard identification.
- Comfort operating with ambiguity and incomplete information, where the underlying science is still being established.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Desirable Experience
- PhD or postgraduate research training in chemical engineering, catalysis, materials science or a related discipline or equivalent industrial experience.
- Ammonia synthesis, nitrogen activation, hydrogen, Power-to-X, electrolysis or related energy transition technologies.
- Heterogeneous catalysis and catalytic reactor design, including fixed bed, fluidised bed, structured or membrane reactor configurations.
- Technology scale-up from laboratory to pilot, demonstration or full-scale operation.
- Process simulation and modelling packages
- Kinetic model development and parameter estimation from experimental data.
- Programming for data analysis, automation and modelling.
- Instrumentation and control, sensor integration and automated data logging.
- Analytical instrumentation relevant to gas and liquid phase quantification, such as mass spectrometry, gas chromatography, ion-selective electrodes or colorimetric assays.
- Familiarity with Australian standards and regulatory frameworks relevant to pressure equipment, gas storage, hazardous areas and dangerous goods.
- Participation in or facilitation of HAZOP, LOPA or equivalent structured hazard studies.
- Techno-economic analysis, front-end engineering design or capital cost estimation.
- Industrial R&D, technology development, start-up or scale-up environments where individuals carry broad scope.
- Experience contributing to intellectual property generation and patent development.
- Chartered professional status or equivalent professional recognition.
Benefits
- Company ESOP (Stock Option Plan)
- Superannuation
- Training & Development
- Hands-on engineering role on a genuinely novel, world-first clean technology
- Newcastle location — coastal lifestyle, Hunter Valley access, cost of living below capital cities Questions about this role? Reach out to us at [email protected].
