---
title: 'Hydrometallurgist at Kunin Technologies'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/hydrometallurgist-kunin-technologies-process-engineering-8f7v3n3pj0ng'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-09'
---

# Hydrometallurgist at Kunin Technologies

- **Company:** Kunin Technologies
- **Location:** Process Engineering
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2025-10-20
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-09
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/kunin/c357b29a-e977-419e-af4b-966e2b384467

## 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 mass manufacturable nano-separation systems, significantly more value can be produced from each resource, reducing waste, and unlocking domestic critical mineral production.

## MISSION FOR YEAR 1

You will lead hydrometallurgical flowsheet development for critical mineral recovery across diverse process streams – focused on the integration of leaching, IX, SX, precipitation, crystallization, and electrowinning unit operations.

By the end of 2026, we expect:

- Two in-field pilots delivered, installed, and operating.
- Integrated mass balance, equilibria, and kinetics into a unified process model that drives dynamic cost and design choices.

## WHAT YOU’LL LEAD

- Development of hydrometallurgical flowsheets across leaching, solid–liquid separation, ion-exchange, solvent extraction, precipitation, crystallization, electrowinning, polishing, and effluent management
- Hands-on laboratory experimentation to optimize kinetics, selectivity, throughput, purity, and regeneration chemistry for Kunin’s separation systems and integrated flowsheets.
- Pilot testing of hydrometallurgical unit operations to validate bench-scale results.
- Process cost modeling, converting key process equilibrium, mass transfer, and reaction rates into value model assumptions.
- Cross-functional alignment with the ion-exchange media team on resin and reagent choices and with the process controls development team on operating windows.
- Scale flowsheets from bench to pilot to commercial deployment.
- Identify, vet, and down-select key process technology vendors from pilot through commercialization.
- Lead engagement and joint-research collaboration with National Laboratories, Universities, & Corporate R&D teams.

## WHO YOU ARE

- Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering, Extractive Metallurgy or Hydrometallurgy
- Hydrometallurgist with 3+ years in flowsheet development and unit-operation optimization.
- Hands-on laboratory and pilot experience across leaching, solid–liquid separation, ion-exchange, solvent extraction, and precipitation; electrowinning and crystallization preferred.
- Process modeling and transport analyst using MetSim, HSC Chemistry, SysCAD, and Aspen Plus.
- Excited to work in an early-stage startup environment with high autonomy, opportunity, & expectations.
- Hands-on technical lead, willing to work directly on bench and pilot scale operations regardless of seniority.
- Precipitate/electrolyte modelling tools (PHREEQC, Oli Studio)

## COMPENSATION

This role will pay $80,000 - $150,000, benefits, and equity.

Company facilities include gym, sauna, and ice bath.

## ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS

- Must be willing to relocate to Chattanooga, TN and available to travel to customers across the United States, Canada, Brazil, South Africa, and Australia for process technology installation and commissioning.

Chattanooga is more beautiful than expected, and Tennessee has no income tax.

- Flexibility for extended hours during critical project phases

## 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)

## Other roles at Kunin Technologies

- [Lab Technician](https://feeny.ai/job/lab-technician-kunin-technologies-process-engineering-62k61s3z37ya) — Process Engineering
- [Damn Good Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/damn-good-engineer-kunin-technologies-process-engineering-sgqrj2ewz67s) — Process Engineering
- [Senior Scientist - Ion Exchange](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-scientist-ion-exchange-kunin-technologies-process-engineering-bwb8590we4jf) — Process Engineering