Process Safety Engineer

FMC is seeking an experienced process safety engineer who specializes in reactive hazards evaluation for new agricultural active ingredients to join our staff at the Stine Research Center. Our business has a robust pipeline of new products and solutions that anticipate our customers’ needs and contribute to their long-term prosperity while advancing agriculture.

This role requires chemical engineering/organic chemistry knowledge, as well as work experience in calorimetry, process development, pilot plant or commercial operations. This role is ideally suited for someone with knowledge of process safety engineering principles and engineering calculations for process safety studies. The successful candidate will conduct laboratory-based calorimetry studies to generate R&D process safety information to help define safe operating conditions and critical limits for commercial manufacturing processes. The role supports a cross-functional team of process chemists, analytical chemists, and engineers through all phases of process development, with responsibility from early stage to commercial launch. 

Responsibilities of the role include:

• Serve as a technical expert in calorimetry and reactive hazards evaluation with the ability to provide technical advice to stakeholders including management, engineering, and operations teams.
• Work with process chemists and engineers to perform a thorough evaluation of all known and potential hazards for the safe scale-up of chemical processes for preparing intermediates and active ingredients.
• Conduct process safety studies for chemical synthetic routes/manufacturing processes.

• Reduce process risks and enable a safer, smarter, and faster development. Additionally, maintain FMC’s process safety database and promote data-driven decisions.
• Effectively document R&D process safety information and know-how for the design, construction, and operation of pilot plants and commercial facilities.
• Design, direct, and coordinate work with external research partners to supplement internal experimental program.
• Manage all aspects of laboratory EHS and apply technical knowledge to advance laboratory safety of the group.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. with 3+ years of industry experience; M.S. with 7+ years; B.S. with 10+ years of industry experience in Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Safety Engineering, Chemistry, or closely related field.
• Previous experience in process safety in the agricultural, pharmaceutical, fine or specialty chemicals industry required.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills to effectively communicate technical and non-technical information with global internal and external partners required.
• Firsthand experience with calorimetry equipment such as RC1, DSC, TGA, ARC and TSU required.
• Strong background in kinetic modeling and mechanistic models for identifying critical safety limits in reaction chemistry.
• Manufacturing or scale-up experience ideal.
• Application/use/understanding of Stoessel’s criticality index is highly desirable.
• Working knowledge in Process Hazard Analysis (PHA, HAZOP, LOPA) is highly desirable.
• Flexible work schedules to accommodate different geographies required.
• Travel to international sites may be required (less than 5%).