---
title: 'Chemical Engineer @Diluvian (backed by Hexa) at Hexa'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/chemical-engineer-diluvian-backed-by-hexa-hexa-bruxelles-f35h8tgh1087'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-08'
---

# Chemical Engineer @Diluvian (backed by Hexa) at Hexa

- **Company:** Hexa
- **Location:** Bruxelles, Belgium
- **Employment:** contract
- **Posted:** 2026-10-27
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-08
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/hexa/c0a3c23d-ae12-47cf-8c94-e0b588a302b7

## Job description

## About Diluvian

Diluvian builds containerized atmospheric water generators (10ft units) that produce drinking water from ambient air, off-grid, for defense, mining and remote industrial sites. The company is incubated by Hexa, the Brussels-based venture studio, and the first units go into the field in the coming months.

## Why MOFs

Our first units run on a proven silica-gel desiccant, so we can ship fast and learn from real deployments. The next step is metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). Water-stable MOFs such as aluminium fumarate (e.g. Basolite A520) show a steep uptake step at low-to-mid relative humidity and regenerate at lower temperature than classical desiccants. That could mean more litres per kWh and per kg of sorbent, especially in arid conditions. Your role is to turn that potential into validated, system-level data that drives our next unit generation.

## What you'll do

- Co-design and build a water sorption test setup (humidity-controlled chamber, cycling bench, instrumentation) with our engineering team
- Source and benchmark commercial MOFs (e.g. BASF, Promethean Particles, NovoMOF) against our silica-gel baseline
- Measure water sorption isotherms, adsorption/desorption kinetics and regeneration temperature under realistic conditions (temperature, RH, cycle times)
- Run accelerated cycling tests (hundreds to thousands of cycles) to quantify capacity loss and structural stability
- Explore shaping and integration: pellets, binders, coatings on heat-exchanger or wheel supports, and the performance hit each implies
- Check water quality: metal and linker leaching against EU drinking water limits (Directive 2020/2184)
- Translate results into system-level numbers (L/kWh, L/kg sorbent/day, €/kg at scale) and clear material recommendations for our engineering team

## How we work

- Freelance, part-time, over the coming weeks and months; evenings and weekends are fine
- You won't build alone: our engineering team supports you hands-on on test-rig design, hardware and instrumentation
- Characterization runs in partner labs we have access to; you help decide which tests are worth running where
- You set your own experimental plan and milestones, and own the results. We provide context, budget and fast decisions
- You'll work directly with Diluvian's founders, Quentin Van Overmeere (CTO) and Arnaud Biebuyck (CEO)

Who we're looking for

- MSc in chemistry, chemical engineering or materials science; PhD students and recent graduates welcome
- Hands-on lab experience, ideally with porous materials, adsorption or materials characterization (DVS, BET, XRD, TGA)
- High agency: you design the experiments, drive them to results, and tell us what the data means
- Bonus: familiarity with sorption-based AWG literature (MOF-801, MOF-303, Al-fumarate) or thermal systems

## About Hexa

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Hexa is a multi-stage startup studio that partners with founders to build, launch, and scale software companies from scratch.
- **Entity Type**: Private (multi-stage startup studio; operates Start, Sprint, and Scale tracks)
- **Headquarters**: Paris, France (12 rue Martel 75010)
- **Founded**: 2011
- **Founders**: Not publicly listed as a single founder; built as a studio by a founding team.

## Core Business
- Primary industry/industries: Venture Building / Startup Studio / Company Creation
- Target customers: Aspiring and experienced entrepreneurs (B2B, B2C, Enterprise tech founders)
- Mission or purpose statement: "To build alongside founders, not from the sidelines" – creating companies that leave a mark on the world by combining hands-on operational support with capital.

## Products & Services
- **Hexa Start**: A 12-month, intensive program for entrepreneurs who want to build a company from scratch (often before they have a concrete idea). Hexa provides the idea, team, co-founder, and covers all costs until the company becomes independent.
- **Hexa Sprint**: A 6-month program for founding teams who already have an idea and are looking for their first check (pre-seed). Offers €500k (€20k convertible note for 4% + €480k convertible note with MFN & cap at €8M).
- **Hexa Scale**: A growth-stage program for post-product-market-fit companies ($1–10M ARR, 10–40% YoY growth). Hexa invests €5–20M per company, takes a majority stake, and provides hands-on operational support (GTM, product, AI strategy, international expansion, hiring) for 9–12 months.
- **In-house Expertise**: 30+ experts in Product Design, Product Management, Engineering (via hired teams), GTM, Sales, Marketing, Finance, Legal, People & Talent, Comms & Brand, Community, and Investing.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Combined valuation of launched companies exceeds **$5 billion**.
- **Key Metric**: **50+ companies launched**; **2,600+ employees** across portfolio companies; **12 exits**.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not explicitly listed on the site, but the studio itself acts as the primary investor and operator. Portfolio includes multiple billion-dollar companies (names not publicly listed in the provided data).
- **Growth Signals**: Studio has been operating since 2011 and has scaled from 0 to 50+ companies. The addition of the Scale track indicates a pivot to later-stage growth. Receives ~1,000 founder applications per year, selecting ~12 founders (2 per project) annually for the Start track.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Hands-on, not hands-off**: Unlike traditional accelerators or VCs, Hexa provides a full in-house team of operators (product, design, GTM, legal, finance) working alongside founders for 12 months (Start) or 9–12 months (Scale).
- **Founder-friendly majority stake**: For Scale, Hexa takes a majority stake but claims to be "the world’s most founder-friendly majority investor" – founders remain in the driver's seat with active board support.
- **Proven track record**: 50+ companies, $5B combined valuation, 12 exits, spanning 12+ years of SaaS expertise.
- **End-to-end platform**: Covers the entire lifecycle from idea (Start) to pre-seed (Sprint) to growth (Scale) – rare in the startup studio space.
- **Built-in network & resources**: Founders get immediate access to a team of 30+ experts, legal, finance, recruiting, and a community of other founders.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scaling the Scale track**: The newer Hexa Scale program is a key growth driver, targeting profitable, capital-efficient B2B SaaS companies with $1–10M ARR.
- **AI & embedded finance**: Hexa Scale explicitly helps companies with AI strategy and adding fintech/embedded finance capabilities.
- **International expansion**: Helping portfolio companies expand into new geographies and verticals.
- **Maintaining high selectivity**: Keeping the Start track highly curated (~12 founders/year) to ensure deep support and quality outcomes.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: "You'll never build alone" – the studio emphasizes deep collaboration, ambition, humility, and execution. The team is composed of entrepreneurs and expert operators.
- **Remote/Hybrid Policy**: Hexa is based in Paris. For the Start track, a presence at HQ is important to benefit from resources and mentorship. Sprint is remote-friendly but based in France/Europe for events. Scale is likely remote-friendly with in-person board/partner meetings.
- **Perks & Engineering Culture**: No software engineers in the core team – each startup's product is built by engineers recruited specifically for that company. This means engineers get to join a funded startup with a built-in support system from day one. The studio provides legal, finance, recruiting, and strategic support so engineers can focus on product.
- **Career Path**: Two kinds of roles: (1) the core team that builds the machine (partners, product managers, designers, GTM, finance, legal) and (2) founding hires inside the startups coming out of the studio. Either way, you're in "before it exists" – a high-risk, high-reward environment with significant ownership and impact.

## Sources
1. [hexa.com](https://www.hexa.com/)
2. [hexa.com/positions](https://www.hexa.com/positions)
3. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/hexa](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/hexa)
4. [hexa.com/team](https://www.hexa.com/team)
5. [hexa.com/faq](https://www.hexa.com/faq)

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