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Magrathea Verified

Demonstration Plant Superintendent

Salt Lake City, UTOnsiteFull Time$160,000–$200,000 /yrPosted 1 month ago

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Required skills

  • demonstration plant
  • magnesium metal production
  • electrolytic process
  • seawater
  • brines
  • critical mineral production
  • heavy industry
  • hazardous-process environment
  • PSM practices
  • HAZOP

Nice to have

  • titanium production
  • chlor-alkali
  • skid-based facilities
  • modular facilities
  • lithium processing

Role summary

Magrathea is seeking a Demonstration Plant Superintendent to build and run its magnesium metal production demonstration plant in the Salt Lake City Area. This hands-on role involves overseeing operational readiness, daily operations, safety, cost, quality, and data collection. The Superintendent will be involved from detailed engineering through startup and operations, ensuring reliable data for process validation and future commercial development. The ideal candidate has 7+ years of experience in chemical or minerals processing, metals, manufacturing, or heavy industry, with at least 5 years in the chemicals/metals industry and 5+ years of direct operator supervision. Demonstrated experience in plant startup, process safety management, and leading operations teams is crucial. Experience with hydrometallurgy or molten salt processing is a plus.

About Magrathea

Based in Oakland, California, Magrathea is a global category leader in critical mineral production technology. Our mission is to rebuild the magnesium metal supply base, delivering secure access to one of the most critical materials on Earth. Magnesium is essential to the aluminum, steel, titanium, nuclear, defense, and aerospace industries but 95% of global supply comes from China where large amounts of coal are used to make metal. This isn’t just an economic risk: it’s a national security threat, and Magrathea is fixing it. We’ve developed a next-generation electrolytic process to make magnesium metal from seawater and brines, unlocking a new path to industrial independence and to a cleaner environment for future generations. We’re backed by the earliest believers in Tesla and SpaceX, major European industrial families, and the U.S. Department of Defense. If you’re ready to make a lasting real-world impact, let's talk.

Is Magrathea For Me?

You'll be joining a small, high-trust team of builders developing an electrolytic magnesium production demonstration plant in the Salt Lake City Area. You will be the person who builds the team and runs it. The facility will produce magnesium metal and the reliable operating data needed to validate the process and inform future commercial project development. You'll be hands-on from day one, on the ground and shaping the facility from detailed engineering drawings through construction, startup, and demonstration operations. If you're the kind of person who is energized by hard, consequential problems, stays clear, calm, and effective when the work is ambiguous or urgent, and wants to build something that will matter far beyond the company, this role is for you.

What This Role Involves

This is a hands-on plant superintendent role, with responsibility for operational readiness and daily operation of a demonstration plant where disciplined operating campaigns and reliable data are central to success.

You'll help prepare the facility for startup, bring it to life, and then run it. You'll review P&IDs and 3D models with engineers, walk the site with our host-site partner and contractors, identify operating needs and readiness gaps, write the operating procedures, lead the operations scope of commissioning and startup, and then own day-to-day production, safety execution, controllable operating cost, quality, and operating data.

One day you may be flagging an operability problem before it gets built into steel; the next you may be reviewing a system turnover checklist, coordinating safe maintenance, or training the first operators we hire. This role is for someone who wants to build an operating team and run a plant, not inherit one. Operate, not observe.

Ideal Background

  • 7+ years in high-accountability operating environments in chemical or minerals processing, metals, manufacturing, energy, or heavy industry, including direct supervision of operators or shift teams; equivalent practical experience is welcome
  • 5+ years in the chemicals, metals, or related industry in the Salt Lake City Area
  • Demonstrated experience commissioning and starting up a new plant or process unit, not just running an established one
  • Demonstrated ability to lead an operations team, set clear expectations, and hold operators accountable for safe production and reliable data collection; experience coaching and qualifying operators through practical training
  • Demonstrated ability to interpret process trends, diagnose deviations, and translate findings into corrective actions and documented learning
  • Practical process fluency: able to read and use PFDs, P&IDs, mass/energy balances, operating procedures, and equipment specs, and to troubleshoot process deviations with engineering
  • Proven safety leadership in a hazardous-process environment, with working knowledge of applicable PSM practices, HAZOP/PHA, OSHA/EPA requirements, permit-to-work systems, and management of change
  • Track record delivering production, reliability, and quality targets while managing controllable operating costs
  • Comfort with spreadsheets, production reporting, and computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS), including coordination of maintenance work orders
  • Comfort working shoulder-to-shoulder with engineers, operators, vendors, contractors, and EHS and maintenance resources
  • Bonus: hydrometallurgy, magnesium/brine/lithium processing, titanium production, chlor-alkali, molten-salt or high-temperature processing, electrolyzers, or skid-based/modular facilities

    • You’ll Thrive Here If

  • You get energy from preparing a new plant for startup and building a capable operating crew
  • You are comfortable switching between operability review and hands-on problem-solving many times in the same day
  • You are a strong writer, clear thinker, and persistent, thoughtful, and dependable follow-through person
  • You can earn credibility with engineers, operators, maintenance teams, contractors, and host-site partners
  • You do not need a large team, a clean org chart, or perfect information to be effective
  • You take pride in doing unglamorous work - the checklist, the punch list, the procedure - extremely well when that is what the mission requires
  • You treat safety as personal and non-negotiable, stop unsafe work, and stay calm when operating conditions are abnormal

    • Compensation

  • Salary range: $160,000-$200,000 annually, commensurate with experience
  • Equity, stock options, and/or milestone-based compensation
  • Health, dental, and vision insurance
  • 401k from day 1 with pre-tax and post-tax investing options

    • Role Expectations

  • Own safe, compliant day-to-day operation of the Ogden demonstration facility (CP1), producing magnesium and reliable scale-up data; maintain approved operating limits and exercise stop-work authority. Enforce permit-to-work, lockout/tagout, hot-work, confined-space, and chemical-handling requirements
  • Serve as our hands-on operational presence on the ground, interfacing daily with our host-site partner, engineering firms, contractors, and equipment vendors; coordinate safe handoffs between construction, commissioning, and operating teams
  • Bring operational judgment into detailed engineering: review PFDs, P&IDs, 3D models, and skid layouts, and flag operability, safety, and maintainability issues before they are built in; participate in equipment walkdowns, punch-list reviews, and system turnover
  • Plan and lead the Operations scope of commissioning and startup: procedures, run books, practical training, operator qualification, pre-startup safety reviews, first feedstock, and ramp-up; keep startup, normal, abnormal, shutdown, and emergency operating procedures current as the process evolves
  • Own daily plant performance: production, uptime, yield, quality, and controllable operating cost; manage feedstock and consumables efficiently and oversee safe material receipt and handling. Monitor operating spend and provide factual production, staffing, maintenance, and cost reports to leadership
  • Set daily operating priorities, maintain shift coverage, lead production meetings and shift handovers, review operating rounds, shift logs and process trends, and coordinate troubleshooting and corrective actions with operators and engineers; promptly escalate safety, quality, and equipment issues
  • Work with engineering and R&D to plan operating campaigns, define data collection requirements, and document results that guide process improvements and commercial scale-up; maintain complete operating logs, sampling and quality data, material balances, and records of process changes
  • Coordinate preventive maintenance, inspections, repairs, planned outages, safe isolation, and return-to-service with engineering and maintenance resources to support reliable operation; use CMMS work orders and equipment histories to address recurring failures and identify critical operating spares
  • Implement operating elements of applicable process-safety and environmental programs with the designated EHS lead, including training, management of change, hazard-review actions, incident reporting, emergency drills, emissions, discharges, and waste handling. Lead safety meetings and inspections, support audits, and close corrective actions; apply site-specific safeguards for chlorine, molten salts, hot equipment, and magnesium metal
  • Recruit, hire, and develop the operating crew within approved staffing plans; directly manage all plant operators, including practical training, competency sign-off, work assignments, shift coverage, coaching, and performance

    • Location

  • Full-time in-person at our facility in Salt Lake City Area, Utah
  • Magrathea sponsors visas for candidates from Canada, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand

    • A Note on Qualifications

    Research shows that some candidates are less likely to apply unless they meet every listed qualification. We do not want that to stop the right person from reaching out. If you are excited by Magrathea’s mission and believe you can succeed in a hands-on, high-ownership role, we encourage you to apply even if you do not meet every requirement.

    Join Us

    If you’re looking for the most challenging, consequential, and meaningful work of your career - this is the moment. Help us build the clean industrial base future generations will inherit. Help us restore independence to a security-critical strategic metal. Make history with us.

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