Back to jobs
New

R&D Process Engineer

El Segundo, CA

About Us

At Arbor Energy & Resources Corporation ("Arbor Energy"), we’re creating technology to power our lives while protecting the planet that sustains them.  Our advanced power systems deliver clean, reliable baseload electricity with zero operating emissions—modular, fuel-flexible, and engineered for the realities of today’s energy demand. At the core is a supercritical CO₂ turbine with integrated carbon capture, designed to bring carbon-neutral power online quickly at meaningful scale. 

Our team includes aerospace engineers, combustion experts, and systems thinkers with a shared goal: to build technology worthy of the world we want to live in. While many of us began our journeys looking to the stars, we’re applying that expertise here at home to deliver dependable, emission-free baseload power and a future of lasting abundance.  

If you share our values and are drawn to rigorous work with lasting impact, we’d love to learn more about you. Come build what the future will run on.

Steward our planet: We build for tomorrow, ensuring every bolt we tighten and every hand we lend leaves our environment stronger than we found it.

Lead with Love: We champion the success of our people, partners, and planet, nurturing excellence through camaraderie and rigor.

Explore the Uncharted: We embrace the unknown with curiosity, using courage and discipline to transform uncertainty into opportunity.

Role Overview

We're looking for an R&D Process Engineer to bring process engineering rigor to Arbor's fast-paced R&D programs—turning ambitious test plans into operating reality on first-of-a-kind hardware. Our current center of gravity is a high-pressure gasification program operating at conditions never before attempted at any scale, on an aggressive path to commercial operation. You'll own the process side of test stand design, problem-solve at the P&ID and control-scheme level to bring test plans to life, and lead troubleshooting on a challenging fouling-, plugging-, and erosion-prone service. You'll partner closely with senior systems team engineers, gasification engineers, and test engineers, and bring the same rigor to other R&D programs across Arbor as priorities evolve. This is hands-on, high-stakes engineering work on first-of-a-kind technology at the frontier of carbon-negative baseload power.

Responsibilities

  • Own the process engineering deliverables for R&D test stand design—design basis, process flow diagrams, heat and material balances, equipment and line sizing, and supporting calculations that take a new test rig from concept to ready-to-run.
  • Apply that rigor first to the gasification program's hardest subsystems—high-pressure oxygen and CO2 control, refractory-lined reactor zones, and syngas analysis, cooling and cleanup.
  • Develop and maintain steady-state and dynamic process models to predict performance, explore design space, and inform test planning across active R&D programs.
  • Translate test campaign objectives, set by gasification and test engineers, into P&IDs, control narratives, instrument specifications, and safe operating envelopes—bringing rigorous process design to ambitious experimental plans.
  • Reduce, analyze, and interpret test data—closing mass and energy balances, reconciling instrumentation, and turning campaign results into design decisions and next-test recommendations on the parts of the system you know best.
  • Lead root-cause investigations on fouling, plugging, erosion, instability, and other off-design behavior in a challenging high-temperature, high-pressure service; drive corrective actions through to verified resolution.
  • Develop operating procedures, run sheets, and startup/shutdown sequences, and participate in process hazard analyses (PHA/HAZOP) as the test program evolves.

Requirements

  • Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical, Chemical, Aerospace, or related Engineering field.
  • 5+ years of hands-on process engineering experience, with meaningful time spent in an R&D, pilot plant, or test stand context.
  • Demonstrated experience troubleshooting fouling, plugging, erosion, instability, or off-design behavior on real hardware—able to walk through specific events, diagnostic approaches, and outcomes.
  • Comfort with commercial process simulation tools (Aspen HYSYS, Symmetry, or equivalent), including both steady-state and dynamic simulation.
  • Strong fundamentals in chemical engineering and a broad appreciation of adjacent disciplines (mechanical, instrumentation, controls, materials).
  • Willingness and ability to travel to Arbor's test site in San Bernardino, CA (approximately 20–40%, weighted toward active campaign windows).
  • Highly self-driven, with the ability to identify technical mysteries and pursue them to root cause when operating with loose guidance.
  • Strong ownership mentality and curious, inventive mindset comfortable driving rigorous problem-solving in a small, fast-paced startup environment.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Direct experience with gasification, oxy-combustion, slag-forming combustion, FCC, coker, hydrocracking, refractory-lined reactors, ash- or solids-handling, or other high-temperature, high-pressure, fouling-prone systems.
  • Hands-on operating experience in a pilot plant, test stand, hardware startup, national lab pilot program, or aerospace test cell environment.
  • Programming or scripting proficiency for data reduction and custom analysis (Excel, Python, MATLAB, or similar).
  • Experience with supercritical CO₂, high-pressure (100+ bar) systems, or power generation.
  • Familiarity with PHA/HAZOP leadership, LOPA, and pressure relief design.
  • Background in startup, R&D, or first-of-a-kind hardware development environments.

Compensation & Benefits

  • Pre-IPO stock options
  • Medical, dental, and vision insurance (Arbor covers 90% for employees)
  • Basic life insurance fully covered
  • Health savings account (HSA) with matching
  • Flexible savings account (FSA)
  • Unlimited PTO  
  • 12+ company holidays, including Earth Day!  
  • 401(k)
  • Commuter benefits
  • Annual learning and development stipend
  • And more!

Base Pay: $140,000 - $155,000 USD/year. The salary is subject to the applicant's skills, qualifications, experience, and geographic location.

Our Commitment

Arbor Energy is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, religion, national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, marital or veteran status, disability, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law. Solving global energy challenges requires a wide range of perspectives and experiences, and we are committed to building a team that reflects the world we serve.

Our hiring process is designed to be accessible, fair, and focused on the work that matters most for this role. Reasonable accommodations are available throughout the hiring process and employment—please let us know if you need one.

Apply for this job

*

indicates a required field

Resume/CV

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Cover Letter

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Arbor Energy’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Select...
Select...
Race & Ethnicity Definitions

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability

Form CC-305
Page 1 of 1
OMB Control Number 1250-0005
Expires 04/30/2026

Why are you being asked to complete this form?

We are a federal contractor or subcontractor. The law requires us to provide equal employment opportunity to qualified people with disabilities. We have a goal of having at least 7% of our workers as people with disabilities. The law says we must measure our progress towards this goal. To do this, we must ask applicants and employees if they have a disability or have ever had one. People can become disabled, so we need to ask this question at least every five years.

Completing this form is voluntary, and we hope that you will choose to do so. Your answer is confidential. No one who makes hiring decisions will see it. Your decision to complete the form and your answer will not harm you in any way. If you want to learn more about the law or this form, visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) website at www.dol.gov/ofccp.

How do you know if you have a disability?

A disability is a condition that substantially limits one or more of your “major life activities.” If you have or have ever had such a condition, you are a person with a disability. Disabilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Alcohol or other substance use disorder (not currently using drugs illegally)
  • Autoimmune disorder, for example, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV/AIDS
  • Blind or low vision
  • Cancer (past or present)
  • Cardiovascular or heart disease
  • Celiac disease
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Deaf or serious difficulty hearing
  • Diabetes
  • Disfigurement, for example, disfigurement caused by burns, wounds, accidents, or congenital disorders
  • Epilepsy or other seizure disorder
  • Gastrointestinal disorders, for example, Crohn's Disease, irritable bowel syndrome
  • Intellectual or developmental disability
  • Mental health conditions, for example, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD
  • Missing limbs or partially missing limbs
  • Mobility impairment, benefiting from the use of a wheelchair, scooter, walker, leg brace(s) and/or other supports
  • Nervous system condition, for example, migraine headaches, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS)
  • Neurodivergence, for example, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, other learning disabilities
  • Partial or complete paralysis (any cause)
  • Pulmonary or respiratory conditions, for example, tuberculosis, asthma, emphysema
  • Short stature (dwarfism)
  • Traumatic brain injury
Select...

PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENT: According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. This survey should take about 5 minutes to complete.