Lead Chemical & Process Engineer

About KIRA KIRA is building modular, on-site wastewater transformation systems for critical industrial operations. Backed by a16z, Activate, and MIT, our mission is to enable critical resource recovery and reduce waste from the toughest wastewater streams across heavy industries. Our core technology leverages highly efficient heat-pump-driven evaporation and condensation (humidification-dehumidification) in a containerized module. We treat water at the source for a wide variety of industries - from manufacturing waste to mining - drastically reducing disposal costs, reducing freshwater intake requirements, and recovering resources.

The Role We are looking for a Lead Chemical & Process Engineer to join our core engineering team. Working directly alongside our CTO (electronics, software, & controls) and our Product Engineering team (hardware design), you will own the thermodynamic architecture and complex process chemistry of our system. Your initial mission is to enhance our technical process models, iterating with them on our physical prototype. Because our systems must adapt to incredibly diverse and harsh feed streams (up to 250,000 ppm TDS), you will be responsible for ensuring our process maintains efficiency while accomplishing practical metrics, including fouling and scaling prevention. In the next phase, we will be scaling up this process model and design to larger systems at hundreds of thousands of liters per day in feedstock processed.

Key Responsibilities

• Thermodynamic & Process Modeling: Build and own the mass, energy, and enthalpy balances for the complete separations cycle. Optimize internal heat recovery to maintain a high system COP and GOR.
• Diverse Water Chemistry & Scale Mitigation: Analyze and model complex wastewater characterizations across manufacturing, energy, and mining sectors. Determine precipitation behavior, scaling indices, and mitigation strategies to prevent fouling of heat exchangers and internal components while ensuring reliability.
• Pre-Treatment & Process Design: Define the chemical and physical boundaries for incoming feedwater. Specify pre-treatment requirements for separating volatile organics, heavy metals, or suspended solids before they enter the core thermal loop.
• Prototyping & Validation: Work hands-on to test and validate our initial field units. Compare your theoretical thermodynamic models against real-world sensor data (flow, temperature gradients, pressure drops) and iterate the overall process design.
• Cross-Functional Integration: Translate process flow diagrams (PFDs) to our mechanical team for 3D packaging, and provide control loop boundaries to our software team for automation and system optimization.

Background and Experience Required

• Education: B.S. or M.S. in Chemical Engineering, Process Engineering, or a closely related field.
• Thermodynamics Expertise: Deep understanding of psychrometrics, heat and mass transfer, and multi-phase thermal systems.
• Modeling Chops: Proficiency in process simulation tools or custom scripting (Python, Aspen, DWSIM) to build proprietary mass/energy balances from scratch.
• Water Chemistry Knowledge: Experience with high aqueous contaminant concentrations, complex industrial effluent, precipitation/crystallization behavior, and water treatment chemistry.
• Startup DNA: You are comfortable transitioning from writing complex thermodynamic equations in the morning to turning valves and troubleshooting on a physical prototype in the afternoon!
• Communication: Excellent organization, communication, and reporting skills.

Optional

• Direct experience with Humidification-Dehumidification (HDH), distillation column design, membrane distillation, mechanical vapor recompression (MVR) systems, or other thermal liquid separations techniques.
• Experience scaling up the design of a chemical process from a bench-top prototype to a pilot-scale skid.
• Familiarity with industrial regulations and discharge limits (e.g., zero liquid discharge, municipal guidelines, RCRA 8), especially within the context of manufacturing, mining, and energy industries.

What We Offer

• Impact: You will be the foundational process engineer for a technology that fundamentally shifts the environmental impact and economics of industrial water management across heavy industries.
• Ownership: Early-stage equity and the autonomy to design a core process loop from the ground up alongside the founding team.
• Growth: A clear trajectory for leadership as we scale our modular fleet across industrial verticals.

Contact Interested candidates should forward their resume/CV, cover letter (optional), and a project portfolio to [email protected].

• KIRA at Activate
• KIRA at a16z speedrun