---
title: 'Fluid Dynamics Engineer at Kunin Technologies'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/fluid-dynamics-engineer-kunin-technologies-chattanooga-z0smt7w0c82h'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-14'
---

# Fluid Dynamics Engineer at Kunin Technologies

- **Company:** Kunin Technologies
- **Location:** Chattanooga, TN
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-10-12
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-14
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/kunin/3873d1c9-5aeb-40cb-883a-bb3b6018a864

## Job description

## WHO WE ARE

Kunin Technologies is revolutionizing the critical mineral supply chain by implementing advanced separation technologies to capture value from overlooked resources. Metals are everywhere, in solar panels, smartphones, electric vehicles, but as ore grades plummet globally, traditional extraction methods are failing. China dominates critical minerals markets by developing superior separation technologies that extract value from materials American mines discard as waste. Utilizing Kunin Technologies' breakthrough performance, ion-exchange media significantly more value can be produced from each resource, reducing waste, and unlocking metal abundance. To achieve metal abundance, humanity must bring separation science down its own Moore’s Law: fix the idiot cost index for micro and nano scale separation materials. This requires mass manufacturing novel ion-exchange media form factors which previously struggled from high costs.

## THE ROLE

We are packaging ion-exchange media elements into modules, the pressure-housing assemblies our customers deploy. You are responsible for the flow behavior inside the module: inlet and outlet manifolds, distribution across elements, pressure drop, channeling, dead zones, residence time, and mass transfer. Your CFD models and measurements decide the module's internal geometry and its performance specification. You are part of a new team in Chattanooga, TN dedicated to the module: how fluid moves through the housing and its elements, how the hardware is engineered and sourced, and how elements become finished modules at production rate. Your teammates are a mechanical engineer and a mechatronics engineer. This demonstration line becomes the basis of a greenfield manufacturing facility in Series A – B, at 10X the scale, with automated material handling and integrated module assembly and packaging. This role matures to cover the hydraulic scale-up of modules across sizes and applications, in-line hydraulic QA methods, and performance modeling that feeds directly into customer project design. By the end of Q4 2027, we expect our media production line to be integrated with automated assembly into finished modules. By 2030, we want to be the world’s largest producer of ion-exchange equipment solutions. This role requires collaborating with internal production and operations teams & external joint-development partners.

## RESPONSIBILITIES

- Model flow through modules and their elements: manifold design, distribution across elements, pressure drop, channeling, and residence time distribution, using CFD and reduced-order models
- Design and run bench flow loops to validate models: pressure, flow, and tracer measurements on single elements and full modules
- Module internals design with the mechanical engineer: inlet and outlet headers, element seating and seals, spacers, and flow distribution hardware
- Mass transfer and breakthrough performance characterization – working with our chemists
- Hydraulic test protocols and QA specifications for production modules

## QUALIFICATIONS AND PREFERRED SKILLS

- Bachelor’s degree in mechanical, chemical, or aerospace engineering - advanced degree a plus.
- 1+ years of experience with CFD tools such as ANSYS Fluent, COMSOL, or OpenFOAM.
- Experience with experimental flow measurement: pressure, flow rate, and tracer or dye studies.
- 1+ years of experience using software tools such as Matlab or Python.
- Ability to work in fast paced and demanding atmosphere
- Creative problem solving that brings together fluid mechanics, porous media flow, separation chemistry, and mechanical design disciplines.

## COMPENSATION

This role will pay $110,000 - $210,000, benefits, and equity.

## ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS

- Position located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Travel to partners' facilities may be intermittently required.
- Must be a U.S. citizen.
- Extended hours and weekends frequently required to support critical project milestones.

Chattanooga is more beautiful than expected, and Tennessee has no income tax. "The Whole World Is Ion-Exchange And The Rest Are Merely Details!" Dr. Robert Kunin of Rohm and Haas, The Pioneer of the Ion-Exchange Industry, 1951

## About Kunin Technologies

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Kunin Technologies develops modular ion-exchange equipment to recover critical minerals from U.S. mining waste streams, helping mines unlock byproduct metals.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Early-stage, pre-revenue)
- **Headquarters**: Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States
- **Founded**: 2025
- **Founders**: Daniel Rau (CEO)

## Core Business
- Primary industry/industries: Critical mineral extraction, mining technology, industrial process engineering
- Target customers: U.S. mining operations (B2B, Industrial/Enterprise), particularly mines that produce copper, lithium, or other primary metals and want to recover secondary byproducts like gallium, germanium, scandium, rhenium, and vanadium
- Mission or purpose statement: “Bringing mining back to America” by recovering trillions of dollars in stranded critical minerals from existing mining waste

## Products & Services
- **Modular Ion-Exchange Skids**: Pre-assembled, prefabricated treatment trains that use proven ion-exchange resin technology (invented by the company’s namesake, Robert Kunin, during the Manhattan Project) to separate target metals from mining wastewater and tailings streams.
- **Byproduct Financing & Asset Ownership Model**: Kunin helps mine owners finance critical mineral byproduct assets, sharing upside from recovered metals that would otherwise be lost.
- **Multiphysics Digital Twins & Process Controls**: Automated optimization systems that maximize metal capture rates and speed of recovery for each specific mining operation.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (early-stage startup)
- **Key Metric**: Small team of ~2-6 employees (as of mid-2026); active hiring spree with 4 open positions
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Tied into Department of Energy projects; selected by the DOE Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation to restart domestic primary gallium recovery; based at Brickyard in Chattanooga
- **Growth Signals**: Selected for DOE critical minerals program; reports its technology can uplift mine revenue by 10–30% over 10 years; U.S. mining industry facing critical supply shortages due to Chinese export restrictions on gallium, germanium, and other metals — creating massive tailwind for its market

## Competitive Advantages
- **Proven Chemistry, Novel Form Factor**: Uses ion-exchange resin chemistry with decades of in-field operating experience — no new material science required. The innovation is in the modular form factor and automated process controls, which dramatically reduce cost.
- **Vertically Integrated**: Kunin is America’s only vertically integrated ion-exchange technology developer, covering design, manufacturing, deployment, and financing.
- **Strategic Positioning**: Headquarters in Chattanooga strategically near Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory — all hubs for engineering talent.
- **Massive Addressable Market**: Estimates over $3 trillion in stranded critical minerals across U.S. mining waste that are currently not recovered.

## Strategic Focus
- Moving from pilot-scale demonstration to full production and deployment across the United States
- Scaling manufacturing to apply a lithium-ion battery-style learning curve to skidded system costs
- Building automated process controls for optimized metal recovery at existing mine sites
- Helping restore U.S. competitiveness in critical mineral production amid geopolitical supply chain disruptions

## Why Work Here
- **High-Impact Mission**: Directly contribute to U.S. critical mineral independence, domestic manufacturing, and national security — with measurable environmental benefit by recovering metals from existing waste rather than new mining
- **Tiny Team, Huge Ownership**: Currently 2-6 people; new hires (titles include “Damn Good Engineer,” Senior Scientist, Hydrometallurgist, Mechanical Lead) will have outsized influence on technology and company trajectory
- **Engineering-First Culture**: Emphasis on chemical process engineering, mechanical design, and multiphysics simulation — building real hardware that goes into the ground
- **Location**: Chattanooga, Tennessee — lower cost of living with proximity to top engineering universities and DOE national labs
- **EY: Remote/Hybrid/Office**: Likely onsite/hybrid given the hardware and lab focus; careers page does not specify remote options
- **Backed by DOE**: Credibility from federal selection for critical mineral recovery projects
- **Growth Trajectory**: Active hiring spree signals company is scaling from R&D toward deployment — early-stage equity opportunity

## Sources
1. [kunin.tech](https://www.kunin.tech/)
2. [Jobs.ashbyhq.com/kunin](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/kunin)
3. [Hypepotamus](https://hypepotamus.com/startup-news/kunin-technologies-critical-minerals-mining-waste/)
4. [LinkedIn - Kunin](https://www.linkedin.com/company/kunin)

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- [Chemical Process Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/chemical-process-engineer-kunin-technologies-chattanooga-hfzfqwf7fcbv) — Chattanooga, TN
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