Senior Process Engineer – Engineering and Pilot Plant

About IFDC

IFDC is a public international organization active in 27 countries in Africa, Asia, and America. IFDC uniquely approaches the global issues of food security and poverty by bridging the gap between research and impact, combining science-based innovations, holistic market systems development, an enabling policy environment, and strategic partnerships to assist farmers and countries to identify and scale sustainable agricultural solutions, including improved nutrient use efficiency. These approaches are needed to boost soil health and crop productivity while reducing the environmental impact of fertilizer use. IFDC translates research into action by using locally driven, environmentally sound, and impact-oriented solutions. With our partners, we seek to close the yield gap, eradicate global hunger, safeguard the soil on which our lives depend, and generate economic resilience for farming households and the countries in which they live.

IFDC is currently seeking passionate individuals to join its team, as the organization continues to expand its impact and work towards creating positive changes in agriculture and sustainable soil management across the world.

Responsibilities

This position will serve as a technical resource for fertilizer technology and take a lead role in supporting the IFDC Pilot Plant and research facilities.

• Define and design process and product development experiments for nitrogen and phosphate-based fertilizers at pilot and/or bench scale. This may involve designing the experiment, determining the viability and benefits, predicting variables, evaluating results, summarizing the results in writing, and/or presenting the results.
• Lead customer-based contractual research and development projects in the IFDC Pilot Plants and provide process engineering guidance to operators and other engineers. This may require small, medium, and/or large-scale pilot testing for a wide range of existing and/or new fertilizer products, such as nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers, NPK’s, organic fertilizers, phosphoric acid, etc.
• Serve as a subject matter expert (SME) for fertilizer production and technology for other IFDC employees and outside parties, such as answering questions, developing proposals, presenting papers at conferences, etc.
• Apply fertilizer technology expertise to research projects and programs. This may involve developing new technologies or expanding existing technologies at the lab, bench, and/or pilot scale.
• Review current literature, industry publications, etc. regarding nitrogen and/or phosphate-based fertilizers to stay current on relevant technologies and processes.
• Lead Process Design Packages (PDP). This may include equipment design/sizing, instrumentation specification/selection, conducting heat and material balance calculations, and/or assisting other engineers with these actions. PDP’s may be part of engineering scale-up projects based on pilot-scale data or may be standalone engineering designs.
• Provide engineering support for technical issues and troubleshooting associated with the operation of the IFDC Pilot Plants.
• Be a role model for safety and adhere to IFDC safety program.
• Work with engineers, technicians, chemists, and scientists on various aspects related to project execution.

Job Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering or related field from an accredited institution.
• A minimum of 10 years of relevant experience.
• Demonstrated expertise in nitrogen and/or phosphate-based fertilizers.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively in cross-functional teams.

Reporting and Work Relationships

This position reports to the Director of Engineering and Pilot Plant and collaborates with all Research Division staff. This position will require domestic and international travel associated with project and program objectives.

Location

This is a international recruitment with a duty station in the IFDC office based in IFDC HQ, Muscle Shoals, AL.

Benefits

IFDC's benefits include annual and sick leave, health, dental, vision and group life insurance coverage, a 13th-month salary, social security and pension contribution in compliance with local laws.

Salary Clause

The salary grade for this position is BG-10 with a minimum annual starting salary of USD 82,841.

The determination of new employee salaries takes into account various factors. These include the salary range linked to the assigned job grade, the candidate's qualifications in relation to the job's responsibilities and prerequisites, internal fairness, the competitive state of the job market, as well as potential organizational and budgetary considerations.

Diversity Clause

IFDC is committed to fostering, cultivating, and preserving a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion, and offers equal employment opportunities based on ability, performance, and potential. Equal opportunity is integral to the recruitment and selection practices at IFDC. IFDC recognizes the value in recruiting employees with different backgrounds, knowledge, experiences, perspectives, and beliefs. IFDC recognizes and values the contribution of people with a diverse background in capabilities, experience, and perspectives. Diversity encompasses gender, age, experience, education, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and cultural backgrounds as well as other dimensions such as lifestyle and family responsibilities.