Engineer III/Senior Engineer, Adsorbent Chemistry

<div class="content-intro"><p><strong>About Alta</strong></p> <p>Alta Resource Technologies (Alta) is a next generation mining company that uses synthetic biology to separate critical minerals from conventional and unconventional resources, including e-waste. Founded in 2023, the company is expanding its team in Boulder, CO. The exponential growth of new tech industries, as well as the information technology sector, are driving historic growth in mineral demand and stressing existing supply streams. Meeting new demand, diversifying the supply chain, and producing minerals in a more sustainable manner requires the rapid development, deployment and scaling of new technologies. This mineral challenge represents a historic opportunity for technology development and value creation. Alta is proud to be at the vanguard of this mega trend. </p></div><p><strong>Location</strong>: Boulder, CO   ·   </p> <p><strong>Reports To</strong>: Principal Scientist / Group Lead — Adsorbent Chemistry</p> <h2><strong>Role Summary</strong></h2> <p>You’ll be joining a small R&D team working on the resins and adsorbents at the center of Alta’s separation process. This role establishes in-house resin synthesis and functionalization capabilities, develops analytical methods to characterize resin properties and performance, and drives iterative improvements in adsorbent materials to meet process performance, reproducibility, and scale-up requirements.</p> <h2><strong>Key Technical Responsibilities</strong></h2> <ul> <li> <strong>Resin Synthesis & Functionalization: </strong>Develop and implement in-house methods for porous resin synthesis, surface functionalization, and ligand attachment to produce adsorbents with defined chemical and physical properties.</li> <li> <strong>Resin Characterization: </strong>Develop and qualify analytical methods for resin composition, functional group density, ligand loading, porosity, and particle properties — and know the limits of each method well enough to say when a result should not be trusted.</li> <li><strong>Performance Evaluation: </strong>Connect those material properties to process outcomes — protein immobilization, adsorption capacity, selectivity, stability, and separation performance — working alongside our protein chemistry and process engineering teams.</li> <li> <strong>Process Development: </strong>Establish reproducible synthesis and functionalization workflows at the bench, optimize reaction conditions, and identify the critical process parameters that govern resin quality.</li> <li><strong>Tech Transfer: </strong>Translate those workflows into process specifications that let others produce the same resin at larger scale, and support integration into Alta’s adsorbent manufacturing workflows.</li> </ul> <p><em>This is a bench-heavy role; expect roughly 70% hands-on laboratory work.</em></p> <h2><strong>Communication and Documentation</strong></h2> <ul> <li>Maintain rigorous experimental records, author SOPs and test methods, and analyze and interpret data.</li> <li>Communicate results, risks, and recommendations clearly to cross-functional R&D and process engineering teams, to executives, and to external stakeholders.</li> <li>Plan, document, and execute detailed experiments for projects related to sorbent synthesis and characterization, including troubleshooting and identifying next steps. </li> </ul> <h2><strong>Required Qualifications</strong></h2> <ul> <li>B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. in chemical engineering, polymer science and engineering, materials science, chemistry, or a closely related field, with hands-on laboratory experience working with porous materials, M.S. or Ph.D. highly preferred <ul> <li><strong>B.S.:</strong> 5–7+ years</li> <li><strong>M.S.:</strong> 3–5+ years</li> <li><strong>Ph.D.:</strong> 2+ years</li> </ul> </li> <li>Hands-on experience synthesizing porous polymer or inorganic materials — you can explain which formulation and process variables you changed and how the pore structure responded.</li> <li>Working command of at least two porosity or particle characterization techniques, such as N₂/Ar physisorption (BET, BJH or DFT pore size distributions), mercury intrusion porosimetry, inverse size-exclusion chromatography, SEM, or laser diffraction particle sizing.</li> <li>Practical wet chemistry on solid supports: running covalent surface modifications and quantifying the result by titration, elemental analysis, colorimetric assay, or equivalent.</li> <li> Demonstrated ability to run structured experimental campaigns — isolating variables, designing around confounds, and drawing defensible conclusions.</li> <li>Rigorous documentation habits, including detailed ELN records and authorship of SOPs or test methods that other people have successfully followed.</li> <li>Comfort operating with limited supervision amid shifting priorities in a fast-paced R&D environment.</li> </ul> <h2><strong>Preferred Qualifications</strong></h2> <ul> <li>Direct experience making cross-linked porous beads by suspension, emulsion, or dispersion polymerization using a porogen or diluent to drive phase separation — styrene–divinylbenzene, methacrylate/acrylate systems, polyHIPE, or seeded-swelling (Ugelstad) routes.</li> <li>Post-polymerization modification of a porous support: chlor