Lead Pyrometallurgist

Job Description

Lead Pyrometallurgist
Reports to the Project Manager.

About the Opportunity
The US doesn't currently produce any domestic manganese ore, even though manganese is essential to steelmaking, infrastructure, and national defense. Most of the world's manganese ferroalloy supply comes out of China, and the handful of US ferroalloy facilities that do exist only cover a fraction of what the country actually needs. Our client is changing that. They're building a domestic manganese ferroalloy supply chain from the ground up, alongside a lithium project expected to meaningfully grow US lithium production.
That's where this role comes in. Our client needs a true subject matter expert in pyrometallurgy to lead the technical side of a roughly $150 million ferromanganese production facility, from concept through early operations. This isn't a role someone grows into over time. It was built specifically to bring expertise the current team doesn't have, and you'll be the one setting technical direction across R&D, engineering, construction, and commissioning.

What You'll Do
Process Leadership & Innovation

• Lead development and scale-up of a novel ferromanganese production process, including adapting it to non-traditional feedstocks.
• Drive process innovation while keeping a close eye on operability, safety, and commercial viability.
• Design and optimize slag chemistry and metallurgical systems, including control of impurity partitioning and alloy quality, applying deep expertise in thermochemistry, phase equilibria, and kinetics.
• Bring knowledge from steel melt shop, foundry, ferroalloy, or similar operations to inform process design, furnace practice, and product quality strategies.

Furnace Operations & Engineering Support

• Provide technical leadership for electric furnace operations, including AC/DC electric arc furnaces (EAF), submerged arc furnaces (SAF), and associated auxiliary systems.
• Support engineering teams through Pre-FEED, FEED, detailed engineering, and equipment selection, making sure metallurgical requirements are fully captured. Review PFDs, P&IDs, and equipment specifications.
• Develop and guide refractory selection, design, and maintenance programs to support long campaign life and safe furnace operation. Evaluate wear mechanisms and recommend mitigation strategies.

Testing & Technical Collaboration

• Lead collaboration with third party labs, research institutions, and engineering partners on testwork as needed, and translate experimental data into actionable process design decisions.
• Design and oversee internal pilot-scale and bench-scale testing programs as needed, with a focus on rigor and reproducible results.

Construction, Commissioning & Early Operations

• Provide oversight during construction and commissioning, including on-site troubleshooting, system validation, and readiness assessments.
• Participate in early-stage operations, guiding ramp-up, tuning process parameters, and stabilizing production. Support the operations team in hitting quality, throughput, and efficiency targets.
• Support HAZOP and other risk assessments, and help build a strong safety culture across every phase of the project.

Documentation & Mentorship

• Develop and maintain process documentation systems, and make sure knowledge transfer to operations and engineering teams actually happens.
• Provide technical mentorship to junior engineers and colleagues, and act as a go-to advisor to leadership on metallurgical strategy.

Location & Schedule

• Plan on approximately 2 months on-site at the start of the project to learn the process, team, and technical history.
• After that, this shifts to a remote or hybrid arrangement with roughly 0 to 50% travel, depending on project needs.
• Commissioning will require another 4 months or so on-site.
• Relocation isn't required, but our client is open to it for the right person and will help arrange housing during extended on-site stretches.

What You Bring
Education

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Metallurgical Engineering or a closely related field.

Experience

• 15+ years of experience in pyrometallurgy, with hands-on work in ferroalloy, steel production, or metal refining.
• Direct experience with silicomanganese or ferromanganese production is ideal.
• Strong melt shop backgrounds also translate well here, including blast furnace, refining furnace, ladle operations, steel production, rod steel, casting, or foundry work. What matters most is deep, high-temperature metallurgical and process expertise.
• Experience or knowledge of zinc vaporization technologies such as Waelz kilns is a plus.

Key Skills

• Deep technical grounding in thermochemistry, phase equilibria, and kinetics.
• Comfortable being the technical authority in the room, from R&D through commissioning.
• Strong communicator who can translate complex metallurgical concepts for engineering, operations, and leadership teams.
• Steady in a fast-moving project environment, with the flexibility to adjust as things evolve.

Why Join
This is a rare chance to help build something that doesn't exist yet in the US supply chain. You won't just be operating an established plant. You'll be one of the technical people responsible for standing up domestic manganese production from the ground up, at a company that's also working to grow US lithium output. For senior technical people who want their next move to matter beyond the day to day, this is about as significant as it gets.
A Note on Fit
We understand no candidate will meet every single desired qualification. If your experience looks a little different from what we've identified and you think you can bring value to the role, we'd love to learn more about you!

Contact
Samantha Larson
775-291-3062
Samantha@MRCrecruiting.com