Vice President Performance Optimization Jobs in Basking Ridge, NJ

Reports to: Chief Technology Officer
Close collaboration with: VP of Commercialization, VP of Operations, Director of R&D
Location: Kenilworth, NJ (hybrid is possible)
Salary starts at: $279,000
Meaningful equity participation reflecting the seniority and impact of this role
Competitive Benefits
Position Summary
Still Bright is bringing the first viable hydrometallurgical alternative to copper smelting to market at a moment when global copper demand is outpacing supply by historic margins. Our proprietary RACER (Rapid and Complete Electrochemical Reduction) process delivers fast, complete copper extraction while recovering precious and critical co-products, and as a closed-loop system it offers precise control over outputs and radically reduces environmental impact. Backed by top-tier investors including Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Material Impact, the team is moving from pilot execution into the next stages of commercial deployment.
The Vice President of Engineering is accountable for building out RACER's demonstration and commercial facilities: leading the engineering execution and physical build of the RACER process from the current pilot through the demonstration phase and into the first commercial modules, working alongside the Chief Technology Officer, who retains authority over the core technology, intellectual property, and scientific roadmap. This role owns the engineering that brings RACER to commercial scale-reactor and process design, mass and heat balance optimization, equipment selection and procurement, construction and commissioning, and the technical commitments embedded in commercial agreements-and is responsible for delivering on scope, schedule, and budget. The Vice President of Engineering leads and manages the hydrometallurgy and electrochemistry departments.
This role represents Still Bright externally to mining counterparties at the senior technical level. The Vice President of Engineering is the named technical principal for recurring engagement with the process engineering, plant operations, and ore characterization teams at copper majors, mid-majors, and offtakers across the active partnership pipeline, and partners with the VP of Commercialization to provide technical credibility and pre-sales engineering support without becoming a deal-making principal. Internally, the role builds, hires, and develops the engineering organization across the hydrometallurgy and electrochemistry departments, and owns technical and execution risk identification across the scale-up program.
Key Responsibilities

• Own the build of RACER's demonstration and commercial facilities from pilot through demonstration and into the first commercial modules-directing engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning (EPC) and delivering on scope, schedule, and budget.
• Lead and manage the hydrometallurgical and electrochemical engineering departments, setting technical standards, organizational structure, and headcount as the engineering organization scales, and mentoring senior engineers and managers.
• Lead the engineering function across all disciplines (process, mechanical, electrical, and controls) from pilot through commercial scale, including reactor design, process integration, mass and heat balance optimization, and equipment selection at each stage of scale-up.
• Lead the technical design, construction, and commissioning of on-site demonstration units and the first commercial modules, managing EPC contractors and project controls (cost, schedule, and risk), partnering with the VP of Operations on commissioning and with the modeling team on the economic implications of design choices.
• Serve as the senior technical principal in mining partner engagement-attending recurring meetings with partner process engineering and operations leadership, presenting technical results, defending performance assumptions, and negotiating the technical scope of commercial agreements.
• Own site-specific feedstock testing programs, including ore characterization, recovery curve development, deleterious-element handling, and the translation of partner-specific ore variability into commercially defensible performance guarantees.
• Partner with the VP of Commercialization on every active partnership conversation, providing technical credibility and pre-sales engineering support.
• Coordinate closely with the Director of R&D (who reports to the Chief Technology Officer) to translate validated science into engineering execution, ensuring a clean handoff from the research pipeline into design and build.
• Own technical and execution risk identification across the scale-up program and define go/no-go criteria tied to feedstock suitability, engineering readiness, and scale-up readiness.
• Establish and maintain engineering and process-safety standards across the demonstration and commercial facilities.
• Contribute to building Still Bright's external reputation in the mining and metallurgy community through targeted conference presence (SME, CIM, ALTA, the Copper conferences), technical publication, and industry relationships.
• Travel will be required for counterparty meetings, demonstration site visits, and industry engagement.

Definition of Success
In the first 12 months, success looks like: a high-performing engineering organization in seat across the hydrometallurgy and electrochemistry departments and producing high-quality work; a named technical-principal relationship established with two to three partner technical organizations; site-specific feedstock testing complete for at least one demonstration site; demonstration-unit process design approved and into engineering, procurement, and construction; and a clear, credible scale-up path defined and resourced from pilot through the first commercial module.
Qualifications & Experience
Expected Competencies

• Master's or Doctorate in chemical engineering, metallurgical engineering, mechanical engineering, or a related field; or equivalent senior experience.
• Minimum of 15 years of experience, including 5+ years at the Director or VP level, in process engineering, hydrometallurgy, capital project execution, or related disciplines within copper, gold, or base metals.
• Demonstrated track record of process scale-up from bench through pilot to commercial in a hydrometallurgical or pyrometallurgical context.
• Proven accountability for delivering capital projects through engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning (EPC) on scope, schedule, and budget.
• Experience building and leading multidisciplinary engineering organizations spanning process, mechanical, electrical, and controls engineering.
• Strong reputation among mining technical executives, including credible peer-level conversations at the VP or C-suite level with copper majors.
• Direct experience in commercial agreement negotiation where process technology was a load-bearing commitment.
• Comfort representing a process technology externally with credibility and authority.

Strongly Preferred Experience

• Prior senior leadership at a top-10 copper producer (Freeport-McMoRan, Rio Tinto, BHP, Glencore, Antofagasta, Anglo American, Codelco, Southern Copper, First Quantum, or similar), at a senior hydrometallurgical or engineering consultancy (Hatch, Wood, Ausenco, FLSmidth), or at a mining-technology company that has gone through commercial scale-up.
• Direct experience with vanadium electrochemistry, electrochemical reactor design, sulfide leaching chemistry, or closed-loop hydrometallurgical processes.
• Experience leading EPC contractors and owning project controls (cost, schedule, and risk) on first-of-a-kind or first-commercial facilities.
• Experience with complex feedstocks: arsenic-bearing ores (enargite), mixed sulfide-oxide bodies, refractory copper oxides (chrysocolla), and tailings reprocessing.
• An active network among copper-major technical executives.

Nice-to-Have

• Spanish-language proficiency (Chile target market).
• Experience presenting technical work to Boards of Directors, investor diligence, or scientific advisory bodies.
• Prior experience commissioning demonstration or first commercial units.
• Process safety management (PSM) experience in chemical or hydrometallurgical facilities.

Boundary with the Chief Technology Officer
The Chief Technology Officer owns the technology and the science: the RACER process chemistry and flowsheet, intellectual property strategy and patent prosecution, the next-generation research pipeline, the scientific advisory board, and external engagement with investors and academic collaborators. In simple terms, the CTO owns what RACER can be. The CTO also manages the Director of R&D and the research organization.
The Vice President of Engineering owns the build and external mining engagement: the engineering execution and physical project build that bring RACER to commercial scale, demonstration and commercial module design, construction, and commissioning, recurring mining partner technical engagement, process commitments in commercial agreements, and the hydrometallurgy and electrochemistry departments. In simple terms, the VP of Engineering owns RACER implementation. The Vice President of Engineering and the Director of R&D work in close partnership across the science-to-engineering handoff, but the Director of R&D reports to the CTO, not to the VP of Engineering. The operating rule that makes the split work: the VP is the named technical principal for recurring partner engagement; the CTO enters partner conversations only for specific strategic moments that warrant a co-inventor's presence, articulated in advance.
This job description is not intended to be a comprehensive list of the duties and responsibilities of the position. Still Bright provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, Still Bright complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.
Still Bright expressly prohibits and will never tolerate any form of workplace harassment based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status. Still Bright especially encourages applicants from historically marginalized communities to join our mission of sustainable metals extraction.