Senior Scientist

About General Flash

General Flash is re-inventing the process to convert metal oxides to metal. We are a dedicated team of builders - experts in materials, physics, chemistry, process and hardware engineering - united in our goal to re-shore metal production for critically important metals. We’re looking for exceptional candidates to join us!

The Role

We are looking for a hands-on Senior Scientist to advance our oxide reduction process at a fundamental level. You will design and run experiments, combine them with modeling to extract and predict what governs process performance, and turn those insights into improvements to our process and reactor design. This role suits an experimental scientist who is equally at home building equipment and modeling new processes. You will join a small team, with real ownership from day one.

Primary Responsibilities

• Design definitive, high-inference experiments to improve our metal oxide reduction process, guided by first-principles insights.

• Serve as an in-house expert on non-equilibrium materials processing under extremes of temperature, voltage, current and strongly reducing environments.

• Investigate the fundamental, atomic-scale phenomena that govern reduction in metals and ceramics.

• Develop, together with our engineering team, the experimental setups and diagnostics needed to study oxide reduction under extreme conditions.

• Develop models and simulations, from first-principles estimates to multiphysics simulations, and validate them against experimental data.

• Collect experimental data carefully and keep meticulous records of experimental actions and outcomes.

• Communicate results clearly to our multidisciplinary team, translating experimental data and models into insights that drive reactor and process improvements.

• Use research findings to develop new and improved approaches to oxide reduction and to guide reactor and process development.

Required Qualifications

• PhD (or equivalent) in physics, applied physics, chemistry, materials science, engineering science or a related field, with 3+ years of hands-on research experience in a research-intensive environment and a track record of productive output (publications, conference talks, white papers or patents).

• Strong fundamentals in physics and chemistry, including thermodynamics, kinetics, and heat and mass transport, ideally applied to high-temperature processes.

• Excellent laboratory skills, with familiarity across a wide range of analytical techniques, such as microscopy, spectroscopy and sample preparation for metals and ceramics.

• Proven ability to design, build and operate custom experimental setups to answer open technical questions.

• Ability to apply first principles to develop models, simulations and engineering estimates of key physical phenomena and process behavior, with strong data analysis skills in Python, MATLAB or similar tools.

• Demonstrated ability to plan and run research independently and turn analysis and synthesis into new technologies and technical insights.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, and thorough, well-organized documentation of experiments and data.

Preferred Qualifications

• Background in solid-state physics, solid-state chemistry, high-temperature materials processing, semiconductor processing equipment or hydrometallurgy.

• Experience using simulation software, commercial or purpose-built, to model materials behavior under extreme processing conditions.

• Familiarity with powder handling, powder characterization and powder metallurgy techniques for metals and/or ceramics.

• Familiarity with parametric CAD software (for example Onshape, Creo or SolidWorks) and mechanical design principles to build jigs, fixtures and experimental apparatus.

• Familiarity with designing and building prototype electrical systems, including wiring and integrating sensors and basic control systems.

• Experience at an early-stage hardware or materials startup.

Work Environment and Safety

This is a 100% in person position, at our location in Cambridge, MA.

This position involves hands-on work in a laboratory with equipment that may operate at high temperatures, under vacuum, with high electrical power, and may utilize flammable compressed gases. Training and appropriate protective equipment will be provided.

What We Offer

• Competitive salary, commensurate with, and based on, skills and experience.

• Equity sign-on package.

• Mentorship and the opportunity to grow across engineering disciplines.

• Work in a small team, where your contributions directly shape our technology.

• Benefits: Employee health insurance and dental plan.

• Highly collaborative, 100% in-person environment

• Paid holidays and flexible PTO

We do not work with recruiting or staffing agencies and will not pay fees for unsolicited referrals.

General Flash Corp. is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.