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Salary: USD 145,000 - 175,000 / annual
Alta Resource Technologies is a next-generation mining company founded in 2023 that uses synthetic biology to separate critical minerals from conventional and unconventional resources, including e-waste. The company is expanding its engineering team in Boulder, Colorado to address the historic surge in mineral demand driven by new tech and IT sectors.
You will lead instrumentation, electrical, controls, and operations technology (OT) efforts across R&D, pilot, demonstration, and commercial-scale plants. This is a dual-track role combining hands-on technical work with strategic technical leadership.
**Operational & Maintenance Responsibilities:**
Own all EIC and OT equipment and systems at pilot and demonstration scale. Provide hands-on troubleshooting for instrumentation, analyzers, controls, PLC/SCADA, and electrical systems. Set up and manage PLC/SCADA, safety systems, alarm management, and data historians. Create and execute maintenance strategies including reactive, preventive, sparing, redundancy, and availability planning. Commission instrumentation and control systems on the demonstration plant, including loop checks, calibration, and vendor coordination. Drive reliability initiatives through performance analysis and root cause investigations. Configure and troubleshoot VFDs, control valves, actuators, and motor controls. Support operations with loop tuning.
**Design & Engineering Responsibilities:**
Liaison with EPC/EPCM partners on all EIC and OT activities. Lead vendor evaluation and engagement. Specify and size field instrumentation (flow, level, pressure, temperature, density, pH, ORP, CEMS, BMS, conductivity). Specify PLC/DCS/SIS requirements and network architecture. Develop design documentation including control narratives, cause-and-effect matrices, instrument indices, I/O lists, loop diagrams, and single-line diagrams. Develop company control system strategies covering architecture selection, SIS requirements, automation levels, and control room design. Establish company and engineering standards for EIC and OT across all commercial projects. Lead FAT/SAT and loop checks during commercial plant construction and commissioning. Coordinate electrical engineering activities on equipment selection, sizing, specifications, grounding, and hazardous area classification.
The role requires flexibility across design, testwork support, and commissioning as projects progress through front-end engineering toward FID, construction, and startup. Travel is required for partner meetings and manufacturing site visits.
**Requirements:**
- B.S. in Instrumentation, Electrical, Controls, or Chemical Engineering
- 7+ years of I&C experience in industrial/chemical processing (chemicals, petrochemicals, oil & gas, hydrometallurgical, mining, biotechnology)
- Working knowledge of DCS/PLC platforms, field instrumentation selection and troubleshooting
- Working knowledge of ladder logic, structured text, and function blocks
- Working knowledge of control loop tuning
- Working knowledge of industrial protocols (OPC UA, Modbus RTU/TCP, Serial, Ethernet/IP)
- Demonstrated both hands-on experience and technical leadership
**Preferred Qualifications:**
- Rockwell Studio 5000, Logix family controllers, and Ignition experience
- DeviceNet, ControlNet, Profibus, Fieldbus knowledge
- Chemical process control (Batch and ISA88)
- Industrial cybersecurity (ISA99, IEC62443)
- IEC-61511 (ISA-84) knowledge
- Experience scaling from lab/pilot to demonstration to commercial plants
- PE license (not required)
- Project management capabilities
