Sr. Lab Engineer, Catalyst Research and Development

Location: Palo Alto, California, USA; onsite

Salary: $82,602–$110,136 annually, including base salary and annual incentive bonus; final offer depends on skills, experience, and internal equity.

Company

hirify.global is a Swiss-based global specialty chemicals company operating across Care Chemicals, Catalysts, and Adsorbents & Additives.

What you will do

• Evaluate catalytic materials using conventional and high-throughput catalyst testing techniques.
• Design and execute laboratory experiments supporting catalyst development and product improvement.
• Operate, maintain, troubleshoot, and upgrade parallel fixed-bed reactors, gas chromatographs, data acquisition and analysis systems, and high-throughput screening equipment.
• Develop high-throughput testing methodologies to improve efficiency and accelerate product development.
• Analyze experimental data and communicate findings through technical reports and presentations.
• Support multiple research projects, collaborate with scientists and engineers, coach less experienced team members, and maintain laboratory safety and quality standards.

Requirements

• M.S. in Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Chemistry, or a related technical discipline with 2–6 years of relevant industrial experience.
• Experience with heterogeneous catalyst synthesis, characterization, and performance evaluation using conventional and high-throughput testing methods.
• Hands-on experience operating laboratory reactor systems, gas chromatographs, and other analytical instrumentation.
• Strong analytical, technical writing, and presentation skills, with the ability to interpret and communicate experimental results.
• Ability to collaborate in a laboratory-based R&D environment, manage multiple priorities, and take ownership of projects and equipment.

Nice to have

• Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Chemistry, or a related technical discipline with 0–5 years of industrial experience in heterogeneous catalysis, catalyst development, or related research.
• Experience with chemical kinetics, statistical analysis, data visualization, Python, MATLAB, design of experiments, machine learning, or large-scale data analysis.

Culture & Benefits

• Collaborative, self-driven R&D environment focused on innovation, safety, quality, and sustainability.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance; life, disability, and pet insurance.
• Paid holidays, PTO with carry-over, and tuition reimbursement.
• Wellness and employee assistance programs, spending and savings accounts, and legal services.
• Additional auto/home insurance, identity theft protection, and online discount benefits.