---
title: 'Principal Process Engineer at Kunin Technologies'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/principal-process-engineer-kunin-technologies-chattanooga-zkrr4n8b07qy'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-14'
---

# Principal Process 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/c0c9ff8d-bb71-40f4-a13a-246b5b5ff78c

## 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 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.

## WHAT YOU’LL LEAD

You will be tasked with a specific project that Kunin is developing (or co-developing) and tasked with owning the full technical scope. Success is driving that project forward through a stage-gated process , including killing it as early and cheaply as possible when that's the right answer. If your project doesn't survive a gate, you move to the next one. This includes:

- Leading flowsheet development end to end , comminution and physical concentration through leaching, solid–liquid separation, ion exchange, solvent extraction, precipitation, crystallization, electrowinning, and product polishing, plus residue disposition, reagent regeneration, water balance, and effluent management.
- Owning techno-economics of the flowsheet to assess project viability and inform company Go/No-Go decisions.
- Determining where scaled testing is necessary to de-risk key unit operations, define critical engineering parameters, and produce sufficient product samples for offtake partners.
- Leading pilot testing where necessary to collect above data and produce the necessary samples.
- Leading basic and detailed engineering including process design, major equipment design, brownfield integration design, FEED, and the complete engineering package including managing EPCM support.
- Identifying, vetting, and selecting key process technology vendors from pilot through commercialization.
- Leading Kunin’s facility construction scope including managing EPCM support.
- Ensuring successful facility start-up driving the facility to nameplate capacity producing on-spec product.

## WHO YOU ARE

- 10+ years in process engineering including both flowsheet development and detailed engineering.
- Capable of developing a hydrometallurgical process from paper, to lab, to pilot, to construction, and even to operation.
- Willing to author PFDs, P&IDs, equipment specifications regardless of level of experience.
- Intentional about project stage-gates and comfortable killing a project and moving onto the next.
- Excited about working hard to push projects farther, faster in an early-stage startup environment with extreme autonomy, opportunity, & high expectations.
- Confident enough to lead a team of talented people, and humble enough to listen to them. Eager to change your mind in the face of new information.

## COMPENSATION

This role will pay $155,000 - $300,000, benefits, and equity.

## 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 site visits, on-site testing, detailed engineering, and start-up. Relocation support will be provided.
- Extended hours and weekends frequently required to support critical project milestones.
- Kunin will do whatever it can to secure work authorization for the right candidate.

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)

## Other roles at Kunin Technologies

- [VP of Manufacturing](https://feeny.ai/job/vp-of-manufacturing-kunin-technologies-chattanooga-krky86pgqk1e) — Chattanooga, TN
- [Controls Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/controls-engineer-kunin-technologies-chattanooga-gtcd05qbsryh) — Chattanooga, TN
- [Mechanical Engineer - Facilities](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-facilities-kunin-technologies-chattanooga-4311d8fth3vk) — Chattanooga, TN
- [Facilities Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/facilities-engineer-kunin-technologies-chattanooga-kngfhyk8e3nb) — Chattanooga, TN
- [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
- [Summer Intern - Engineering](https://feeny.ai/job/summer-intern-engineering-kunin-technologies-chattanooga-9ph7kzpmmwez) — Chattanooga, TN
- [Summer Intern - Commercial](https://feeny.ai/job/summer-intern-commercial-kunin-technologies-chattanooga-z3qtgkr9cvfw) — Chattanooga, TN
- [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