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About the Role

As we transition towards executing our industrial demo plant, we are translating our process and R&D breakthroughs into a robust, modular engineering design. This is a mission-critical role for an engineer focused on physical operability, ensuring our process can reliably run in the real world. You will be the technical owner responsible for sizing, specifying, verifying, and procuring our critical unit operations, mastering challenges with cohesive lignin powders, wetting, de-agglomeration, slurry transfer, agitation, filtration/cake washing, solvent recovery, and maintainability. You will join our core engineering team and work on real, hands-on engineering with direct impact.

Responsibilities

Perform first-principles mechanical sizing and sanity checks, and verify vendor calculations for pressure vessels, agitators, pumps, heat exchangers, centrifuges, membrane modules, and skid packages.
Act as an internal sanity-check filter and technical challenger, rigorously questioning vendor assumptions, power numbers, slurry pump head losses, and heat transfer coefficients.
Draft equipment data sheets, mechanical specifications, and material selection diagrams compatible with organic solvents, oxidants, and acidic intermediates, with an emphasis on understanding how to work with pressurized vessels.
Co-author Level Nine's basic design package deliverables, translating the process design basis into clear mechanical specifications.
Lead mechanical interactions with specialized engineering suppliers through conceptual design, basic design, detailed engineering, and construction.
Review vendor 3D CAD models for ergonomics, maintenance clearance, piping stress, transportability, and frame integration.
Oversee equipment fabrication, shop inspections, pressure testing, FAT, and SAT.
Optimize physical design, cleanability, filtration, maintenance, and partner equipment readiness to facilitate customer sampling campaigns with high repeatability and minimal batch-to-batch variation.
Maintain, upgrade, and troubleshoot mechanical systems on in-house pilot reactor, condenser and distillation setups, Nutsche filter units, pumps, and mixers.
Design quick-change mechanical fixtures and sampling ports for experimental trials.
Map physical battery limits for utilities and waste streams across candidate co-location sites.
Evaluate structural floor loadings, crane hoisting requirements, door access dimensions, and frame height constraints to inform strategic decision-making.

Requirements

3–5+ years of hands-on experience handling challenging physical streams, understanding real-world failure modes of wetting, clumping, viscosity, slurry pumping, filtration/cake washing, fouling, cleanability, and equipment access.
Proven track record performing first-principles engineering sizing, generating basic design documentation, and managing skid or modular fabricators through detail design, FAT, and SAT.
Experience with small-to-medium scale modular skid plants rather than purely managing corporate mega-scale refineries.
Comfort with structured engineering calculations, experimental/equipment logs, and lightweight data tools such as Excel, Google Sheets, Python, or dashboards.
High agency, first-principles thinker, and practical problem-solver.
Adapt quickly when process parameters evolve.

Skills

Mechanical engineering
Process engineering
Equipment sizing
Specification
Verification
Procurement
Lignin powder handling
Wetting
De-agglomeration
Slurry transfer
Agitation
Filtration
Cake washing
Solvent recovery
Maintainability
Basic design package development
FEED supplier management
3D CAD model review
Equipment fabrication oversight
Shop inspection
Pressure testing
FAT
SAT
R&D support
Pilot plant troubleshooting
Mechanical system maintenance
Mechanical system upgrades
Mechanical system troubleshooting
Fixture design
Sampling port design
Battery limit definition
Utility mapping
Waste stream mapping
Structural load evaluation
Hoisting requirement evaluation
Access dimension evaluation
Frame height constraint evaluation
Excel
Google Sheets
Python
Dashboards
Technical lignin processing
Biomass processing
Slurry handling
3D CAD modelling
Navisworks
AutoCAD
SolidWorks
ATEX equipment selection
Pressure Equipment Directive (PED 2014/68/EU)
Modular skid-mounted logistics
Entrepreneurial spirit
Can-do attitude

Location

Berlin

Work Type

Full-time

Experience Level

3-5+ years

About the Company

Europe’s chemical industry faces an existential crisis resulting from a deep dependence on volatile fossil feedstocks, regulatory pressures, and cut-throat competition from China and the Middle East. Locally abundant bio-based feedstocks offer an escape route from fossil feedstock dependency, but chemical companies lack the technologies to bring them online.
At Level Nine, we’re building an AI-driven catalyst discovery platform to produce key chemical building blocks from locally abundant bio-based feedstocks, reducing dependence on volatile global feedstock markets while using existing chemical manufacturing infrastructure.
We are an interdisciplinary team of scientists and operators, supported by leading advisors, networks, and VCs across Europe.
We’re based in Berlin, one of Europe’s leading deep-tech hubs.
We are not looking for corporate specialists who need a finished process and mature documentation. We need high-agency analytical builder who are curious, reliable, technically grounded people who can create structure while the process is still evolving.

Equal Opportunity

We strongly welcome diverse perspectives and people who have the courage and conviction to make real change.