---
title: 'Polymer Process Engineer at Kunin Technologies'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/polymer-process-engineer-kunin-technologies-chattanooga-ywcdwqycpqcw'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-11'
---

# Polymer Process Engineer at Kunin Technologies

- **Company:** Kunin Technologies
- **Location:** Chattanooga, TN
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-10-19
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-11
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/kunin/07af116f-737a-4809-afbc-733d0db726c3

## 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, and more. 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 automating the roll-to-roll processing of ion-exchange media. This is a similar serial production challenge to battery electrodes. You own the process chemistry that turns a base polymer sheet into ion-exchange media: formulation of the reactive bath, reaction conditions and residence time, post-reaction conversion, washing and drying kinetics, and the capacity and uniformity tests that qualify every roll. You work alongside the Chemical Process Engineer, who owns the wet-end hardware. You own the chemistry that runs through it. If you have experience in any of the following: running a pad-dry-cure finishing line, a slot-die coater, a membrane casting line, a dye range, battery electrode coating, paper coating, membrane casting, textile dyeing and finishing, and nonwovens, these are the backgrounds we are looking for and we’re interested in talking to you. Direct experience with ion exchange is not required although a plus: continuous coating and finishing fundamentals transfer. Ultimately, we are looking for someone that would thrive and be excited to sit at the interface of polymer chemistry, chemical process engineering, and mechanical engineering. You report to the Director of Polymer and are part of a dozen-person, rapidly growing team in Chattanooga, TN delivering this line by the end of 2027. Your first deliverable is a complete process chemistry package: locked recipes, operating windows, QC methods and release specifications, and the reagent and water mass balances the demonstration line is designed to. 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 back-end exchange media equipment packaging. By 2030, we want to be the world’s largest volume producer of ion-exchange media.

## RESPONSIBILITIES

- Develop and lock the reactive process chemistry for continuous production of ion-exchange media: bath formulation, solvent system, additive levels, temperature, and residence-time windows.
- Develop the post-reaction conversion, wash, and drying steps: conversion kinetics, rinse-water quality, residual reagent limits, and drying profiles.
- Build the QC method set: degree of functionalization, ion-exchange capacity, uniformity across and along the roll, and release specifications for finished media.
- Run bench and mini-pilot trials with the laboratory technicians and analytical chemist; close reagent, water, and waste mass balances.
- Translate bench recipes to the demonstration line with the Chemical Process Engineer: pickup targets, line speed, bath turnover, and reagent recovery.
- Write the process chemistry package: recipes, operating windows, SOPs, QC methods, and hazard reviews for aggressive chemistry.
- Specify reagent handling, solvent recovery, and waste treatment for the chemistry you develop.

## QUALIFICATIONS AND PREFERRED SKILLS

- Bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, plastic/polymer engineering, textile engineering, materials engineering or chemistry.
- Good foundation in organic and polymer synthesis.
- Hands-on experience with a continuous coating or finishing process: battery electrode coating, paper coating, membrane casting, textile dyeing and finishing, or nonwovens, heavily preferred.
- Experience handling aggressive chemistry: acids, reactive monomers, solvents, or inert-atmosphere work.
- Practitioner of designed experiments with measured control of concentration, temperature, residence time, and pickup.
- Comfortable with Python or Matlab for data analysis and automating test or analysis tasks.
- Creative problem solving that brings together polymer chemistry, material handling, and fluid mechanics disciplines.

## 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.

"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)

## Other roles at Kunin Technologies

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- [Head of Manufacturing](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-manufacturing-kunin-technologies-chattanooga-krky86pgqk1e) — Chattanooga, TN
- [Head of Controls](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-controls-kunin-technologies-chattanooga-gtcd05qbsryh) — Chattanooga, TN
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- [Chemical Process Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/chemical-process-engineer-kunin-technologies-chattanooga-hfzfqwf7fcbv) — Chattanooga, TN
- [Summer Intern - Metallurgy and Chemistry](https://feeny.ai/job/summer-intern-metallurgy-and-chemistry-kunin-technologies-chattanooga-hp54hxchvhgf) — Chattanooga, TN
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- [Head of Finance](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-finance-kunin-technologies-chattanooga-xf4jt96dx6w7) — Chattanooga, TN
- [Director of Government Relations](https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-government-relations-kunin-technologies-washington-39361rcv1yfm) — Washington, DC