Start date:           As soon as possible

Location:              Oxford, United Kingdom

About Us:

Seloxium Ltd. is a dynamic and diverse spin-out from the University of Oxford, and we are looking to expand our team of chemists. We are based near Oxford and offer a competitive salary, a great range of benefits and the opportunity to grow your career with us.

What we do: Seloxium is revolutionising the mining & refining sectors by selectively extracting valuable metals from water. Our multi-patented ‘selective flocculation’ technology will change the way we mine, refine and process metals, offering a greener and more sustainable alternative as part of the circular economy.

Among the harmful contaminants in wastewaters and mine tailings are valuable and strategically important metals like gold, platinum, and rare-earth metals - which are difficult and costly to remove.  In general, they are not effectively recovered, and instead discharged and lost to the environment.

30,000 tonnes of precious metals are lost annually, and the global metal value in ‘waste’ is greater than the total of all known metals underground. Seloxium is developing its SelectalTM technology which is capable of selectively flocculating and recovering a variety of metals from process or waste streams which are extremely difficult to extract otherwise. Mining valuable metals from wastewater using SelectalTM not only combats freshwater pollution but also turns effluent treatment plants into 'resource factories'.

Seloxium helps mining, refining and industrial companies to achieve their ESG goals by:

1.       Turning their wastewater into a highly profitable and sustainable source of valuable metal resources; and

2.       By improving the purity and hence the value of highly concentrated metal processing or mining streams.

Seloxium is a VC-backed University of Oxford spinout company. We have a strong Board with decades of experience in the water, mining, refining and chemical industry and a team of 7 laboratory / office staff. We want to recruit capable and committed chemists to expand this team.

For more information, please visit our website: www.seloxium.com

The opportunity:

We are looking for a passionate innovator who is inspired by the sustainable and circular economy and wants to help build Seloxium into a green and profitable company that can make a real impact in achieving our climate goals.

Key benefits:

·         Competitive salary

·         Generous pension scheme

·         Private healthcare

·         Minimum of 25 paid holidays + UK bank holidays

·         Cycle-to-work scheme (with gym membership forthcoming)

·         Staff social events and away-days

·         Flexible working arrangements

·         Friendly working environment in dynamic science park near Oxford

·         Opportunity to progress your career in an evolving start-up with strong links to the University of Oxford

What the role entails:

Our Head of Technology will be responsible for helping the research team translate innovation directly from R&D to real customer solutions and will have a main focus on IP protection. Another focus will be on developing fully automated processes that are deployable for large mining & refining applications. This includes

·         Working in a laboratory or at pilot scale

·         Carrying out international site visits to work with customers

·         Helping to scale technical solutions from bench to full scale

·         Developing innovative ideas and bringing new products and solutions to market

·         Leading the R&D and processing teams across multiple sites.

Seloxium’s ideal candidate:

We are looking for a passionate and highly motivated individual who can help with the development of our technology as the Head of Technology. The applicant should have:

Essential

·         A PhD, or good first degree, in process/chemical engineering or a related area

·         Hands-on experience in designing, developing, scaling, and building automated processes & developing control philosophies. Specifically, the applicant should be capable of building and managing the construction and testing of a pilot rig with external contractors. This includes the development of Block Flow Diagrams, Process Flow Diagrams, Material and Heat Balances, P&IDs, Control Philosophies, HAZOP P&ID, issue of equipment and instrument list and commissioning.

·         Experience with selective metal separation technologies & hydrometallurgy (Ion exchange, membranes, solvent extraction, and electrolysis) in a manufacturing or environmental context

·         Experience with water treatment, mining and/or refining processes and operations

·         Extensive experience with patents and IP management and ideally has managed patent portfolios before

·         Ability to work with & manage a small team of 5-20 chemists & engineers across multiple sites

·         Experience with scaling solutions from lab to full-scale in a chemical or process engineering environment 

·         Capable of formulating and developing procedures for operations, health & safety, material production & plant operation

·         Ability to communicate with chemists, chemical engineers, and Oxford University research students and post-doctoral researchers

·         Ability to translate customer input into technically and economically feasible solutions

·         A willingness to learn and the ability to work independently

·         The ability to form good relationships with colleagues while resolving conflicts considerately and professionally

Desirable

·         Experience with process automation, sensing and control

·         Ability to communicate and obtain essential and pertinent information in a professional manner in collaboration with external parties

HOW TO APPLY:

Please send your CV and a 1-page cover letter to info@seloxium.com