R&D Engineer

About Lydian

Lydian’s mission is to reduce CO2 emissions in some of the hardest-to-decarbonize sectors, including aviation, shipping, and heavy industry. We are pioneering a new reactor technology for the production of synthetic fuels and chemicals from CO2. Lydian was founded in 2021 and is funded by top venture capitalists including Union Square Ventures, Voyager Ventures, Congruent Ventures, and Global Founders Capital.

As a founding Research and Development Engineer, you will be one of Lydian’s first employees and will help lead materials R&D initiatives for Lydian’s proprietary reactor system. You will play a critical role in shaping Lydian’s technical roadmap. This role will report directly to Lydian’s co-founder and CTO and is expected to develop into a managerial position.

Company culture and benefits

• Challenging, collaborative, and meaningful work and an important voice in company development

• Competitive salary commensurate with experience

• Meaningful equity compensation. You will be a core part of Lydian and should reap the rewards of the company’s success

• Unlimited PTO and expectation that all employees take significant time off to rest, recharge, and enjoy life outside work

• Flexible working style to the extent that work allows. While much of the technical development will require significant in-person presence, the portions that do not can be completed wherever works best for you

• Excellent health, vision, and dental insurance with 100% of premiums covered

Your responsibilities

• Define and lead catalyst development initiatives to augment and scale the capabilities of our reactor system

• Identify opportunities in advanced manufacturing, reactor architecture, and/or catalyst development to improve system efficiency, throughput, stability, and cost

• Collaborate with our systems engineering team to develop a product roadmap and translate research findings into reactor prototypes

• Give regular updates and recommendations to the broader team

About you

• You enjoy being in the laboratory and working with your hands to develop and advance applied materials technologies

• You are execution-oriented with a focus on delivering clear, simple, and scalable solutions

• You are able to break complex problems down into achievable goals and communicate them clearly

• You enjoy multi-disciplinary problems, learning on-the-go, and collaborating closely with your teammates

• You have a strong appreciation for laboratory safety
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s or Ph.D. in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science (or similar) with a focus on inorganic/physical chemistry and heterogeneous catalysis, or Bachelor’s degree plus several years of outstanding work experience

• Experience leading research efforts to develop and integrate catalytic processes

• Experience with catalyst preparation and testing

• Experience with materials characterization techniques such as SEM, TEM, XPS, BET, XRD

• Experience with analytical equipment including gas chromatography and mass spectrometry

• Experience with advanced manufacturing techniques, metallurgy, and prototyping