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Salary: USD 70,000 - 110,000 / annual
Phoenix Tailings is a venture-backed clean mining and metals production startup building domestic capacity for rare earth processing and separation. The company is developing the Freedom Facility in Rochester, New York—a commercial-scale rare earth separation facility designed to process and separate rare earth materials essential for electric vehicles, wind turbines, robotics, aerospace, and defense applications.
As an Analytical Chemist, you will provide critical chemistry data to control rare earth recovery, process stability, and product quality at this new operating facility. You will prepare and analyze process and product samples to assess rare earth recovery and separation performance, operate or coordinate inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) testing, and select established methods appropriate to samples and operating questions.
Key responsibilities include maintaining analytical methods, reference standards, calibration, and quality-control checks to ensure results are consistent and suitable for operating decisions. You will review sample inconsistencies and unexpected results by checking preparation, instrument performance, and test records before reporting findings. You will report analytical results clearly to operations and engineering teams while maintaining traceable laboratory records and safe reagent and sample-handling practices.
This role supports a new operating team launching toward operations in 2027–2028, providing reliable chemistry data that helps operations and engineering understand process performance. The company values learning, innovation, and resourcefulness, with a culture that encourages open communication and team collaboration.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, or a related technical field
- Hands-on analytical laboratory experience through academic or industrial work, including sample preparation and ICP-OES, XRF, or related instrumental methods
- Knowledge of calibration, reference standards, method consistency, and quality-control checks, with the ability to recognize unreliable or unexpected results
- Strong data accuracy and documentation skills and the ability to communicate chemistry results clearly while handling laboratory chemicals and samples safely
