Principal Electrochemical Engineer

US·Austinlead

Other

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Quick Summary

Key Responsibilities

electrode materials and geometry, flow field and hydrodynamics, current and potential distribution, gas management, sealing, and materials of construction Select, develop,

Technical Tools

Other

VVater is America’s Next Water Company, delivering the future of purification through its award-winning Farady Reactor (CES Best of Innovation 2025, World Future Award 2025, Time Best Invention Award 2025), proprietary ALTEP (Advanced Low Tension Electroporation Process), Advanced Dissolved Air Flotation, and Micro & Nano Bubble technologies. Unlike outdated chemical, filter, and membrane systems, VVater’s electric-field breakthroughs eliminate PFAS, microplastics, microorganisms, and other contaminants with record retention times, without toxic byproducts or costly consumables.

With over 4.3B gallons treated and validation from global leaders, VVater is scaling into municipal drinking water and wastewater, DPR/IPR, onsite reuse for data centers, commercial buildings, and resorts, residential purification, and consumer health water, delivering a 60% smaller footprint, 40% CapEx savings, 80% OpEx savings, and 40% less energy use.

Responsibilities

~2 min read

→Lead the design of electrochemical reactors, cells, and stacks: electrode materials and geometry, flow field and hydrodynamics, current and potential distribution, gas management, sealing, and materials of construction

→Select, develop, and qualify electrode materials and coatings for activity, selectivity, conductivity, and service life in real water matrices

→Diagnose and solve degradation mechanisms, including passivation, scaling, fouling, corrosion, and coating loss, and design reactors

→Collaborate with the electrical engineering team to define power delivery and relate electrical operating parameters to electrochemical performance and energy use

→Elucidate reaction mechanisms and kinetics for target contaminants and byproducts, and quantify efficiency, selectivity, and specific energy consumption

→Apply electroanalytical methods (CV, LSV, EIS, chronoamperometry, chronopotentiometry, rotating disk, and reference-electrode techniques) to extract kinetic, thermodynamic, and mass-transport parameters

→Build multiphysics and CFD models (e.g., COMSOL, ANSYS) of current distribution, mass transport, bubble-laden multiphase flow, and heat generation to guide design and scale-up

→Use structured experimental design and data-driven optimization (DOE, Bayesian and machine-learning methods) to accelerate development cycles

→Scale reactors from bench cells to pilot and commercial modules, defining scale-up rules and validating performance at each step

→Support Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT), Site Acceptance Testing (SAT), field commissioning, and troubleshooting of deployed reactors

→Develop SOPs, operating envelopes, and safety protocols for electrochemical systems, including gas evolution, electrical safety, and byproduct management

→Pulsed, pulse-reverse, or AC electrochemical processes, and working knowledge of power electronics and how waveform shapes electrode behavior and electrochemical processes

→Commercial scale-up of electrochemical systems (electrolyzers, flow reactors, electrochemical separation stacks, or similar), including skid integration and field commissioning

→Electrode or stack manufacturing, coatings, or design for manufacturability in a production environment

→Support the technology roadmap with company leadership, aligned with reuse, industrial, and data center market needs. Generate intellectual property

→Mentor engineers and scientists, build out Technology Development laboratory capabilities, and raise the technical bar across the team

→Represent VVater technically with customers, partners, universities, and national labs, and at conferences and in publications

Requirements

~1 min read

PhD in Chemical/Electrical Engineering, Electrochemistry, Materials Science, or a related field; exceptional candidates with an MS and equivalent depth will be considered

8+ years of post-degree experience in electrochemical engineering, technology development, or applied electrochemical research; doctoral research counts toward this experience

Demonstrated record of designing, building, and scaling electrochemical reactors, cells, or stacks from bench to pilot or commercial scale, including hands-on testing on real feeds

Deep command of electrochemical engineering fundamentals: thermodynamics, electrode kinetics, mass transport, current and potential distribution, and Faradaic efficiency

Hands-on expertise with electroanalytical techniques and potentiostat/galvanostat instrumentation

Experience with electrode materials, coatings, and degradation and durability analysis

Proficiency with multiphysics modeling (COMSOL or equivalent) and with Python, MATLAB, or similar tools for data analysis

Hands-on fluency with modern AI tools (Claude, or equivalents); ability to vibe-code internal engineering tools, models, and automations

Exceptional written and verbal communication; Research proposal, design specification, and a customer-facing technical report

Comfort with ambiguity and the judgment to decide what to test next without waiting for direction

Nice to Have

~1 min read

Experience in a startup or applied R&D organization taking first-of-kind Echem technology to market

Multiphase flow and bubble management in gas-evolving electrochemical reactors; CFD

Corrosion science and materials selection for aggressive aqueous environments

Instrumentation, data acquisition (e.g., LabVIEW), and PLC/SCADA integration for test stands and pilot systems

Familiarity with drinking water and reuse requirements that affect electrochemical systems, such as byproduct formation limits and NSF/ANSI 61 materials compliance

**As a part of our process to ensure a comprehensive evaluation of all applicants, assessment tests are required as part of our recruitment process. Unfortunately, should you elect not to participate in completing the assessment tests, your application will not be able to progress to the next stage or will not be taken into consideration during evaluation.