VP / SVP of Engineering

We are seeking a VP / SVP of Engineering to stand up RecycLiCo's U.S. engineering bench, take our hydrometallurgical purification and refinement process from validated pilot into commercial-scale deployment, and lead the design, build, and commissioning of co-located refining facilities at strategic mining, battery, and recycling sites across North America.

Location: Remote (United States), with regular travel to project sites, our Vancouver pilot facility, and our U.S. office

Reports to: Chief Executive Officer

Direct Reports: Process Engineer, Project Engineer (with team scale-up as deployments grow)

About The Company:

RecycLiCo is commercializing a proprietary hydrometallurgical process for the purification and refinement of critical materials, recovering and refining market-grade metals to close the loop on a truly circular critical-materials economy.

We are a publicly listed critical-materials company with a validated pilot facility in Vancouver and white papers on file with the U.S. Department of Defense and Department of Energy. Our process is feedstock-agnostic, from black mass to mining concentrates to recycling streams and beyond, and our commercial model is to co-locate (or nearly co-locate) our refining facilities directly alongside the feedstock: next to mines, battery plants, and recycling operations. We go where the feedstock is and plug purification and refining capacity into the infrastructure that already exists, turning today's linear supply chains into closed loops. Our most active engagement today is with Alaska Energy Metals on the Nikolai nickel deposit in Alaska, the largest nickel deposit in the U.S. and among the largest in the world, where our goal is to design, build, and potentially operate the co-located refining facility.

Your mission (first 12 months)

• Build the U.S. engineering function. Stand up the bench (Process Engineer, Project Engineer, and
• beyond), define the engineering operating model, and establish the standards, documentation, and IP discipline that will support deployment after deployment.
• Translate technology to product. Take our pilot-validated purification and refinement process and produce a commercial-scale, modular refining line design package, engineered, costed, and ready to drop into a partner site.
• Anchor a first commercial deployment. Partner with a mining, battery, or refining operator, starting with our flagship Alaska Energy Metals engagement, to scope, design, cost, and commission RecycLiCo's first co-located commercial refining facility.
• Carry the engineering voice externally. Represent RecycLiCo's technical credibility to government stakeholders (DOD, DOE), mining majors, refining partners, and capital sources.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end engineering function for U.S. refining-facility design, build, and commissioning
• Translate Vancouver pilot data into commercial-scale process and facility design packages
• Lead site integration with partner operators, EPC selection, vendor management, and capital project execution
• Manage and grow the U.S. engineering team; recruit, mentor, and structure the function
• Partner closely with the Vancouver technical team on technology transfer and continuous process optimization
• Represent engineering in government, customer, partner, and investor conversations
• Build the documentation, IP, and replication-ready engineering playbook so each subsequent refining facility deploys faster and cleaner than the last
• Ensure safety, environmental, and regulatory compliance across U.S. operations

Must-Have Qualifications

• 10 years of progressive engineering experience in hydrometallurgical refining, purification, or critical-materials processing, with at least 5 years at the Director/VP level
• Hands-on experience designing and commissioning at least one commercial-scale hydrometallurgical refining or processing facility (battery materials, base metals, rare earths, or similar)
• Proven ability to carry a process through the full lifecycle: pilot, FEED, detailed design, construction, commissioning, and ramp
• Deep working knowledge of hydromet unit operations: leaching, solvent extraction, ion exchange, precipitation, crystallization, filtration, and effluent management
• Track record managing EPC partners and multi-million-dollar capital projects
• Working knowledge of U.S. permitting, environmental, and safety frameworks for chemical and refining facilities (EPA, OSHA, applicable state and local)
• Comfort and credibility as the senior engineering voice in government, customer, and capital-partner-facing conversations
• Advanced degree in Chemical, Metallurgical, or Process Engineering, or equivalent operational track record
• Willingness to travel regularly to partner sites, our Vancouver pilot, and our U.S. office

Nice-to-have

• Experience designing and integrating co-located, modular, or distributed refining or processing
• lines into existing operator footprints
• Battery materials, cathode, lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, or rare-earth refining experience
• Familiarity with DOE / DOD critical-materials grants, contracting, and reporting frameworks
• Prior experience at a public-company or grant-funded scale-up
• Network across U.S. mining, refining, and EPC ecosystems
• Professional Engineer (PE) license

What we offer

• Direct ownership of a mission-critical commercialization effort: bringing circular critical-materials capacity to North America by plugging purification and refining into existing mining, battery, and recycling infrastructure
• Founding-team-style scope — build the engineering function, the team, and the deployment playbook from the ground up
• Remote-first U.S. role with meaningful travel to partner sites and our Vancouver pilot
• Equity participation in a publicly-listed company commercializing breakthrough hydromet IP
• A seat at the table on company strategy, partner selection, and capital deployment