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Metal R&D Manager

Research Triangle Park, NC

Vulcan Elements is manufacturing American rare-earth permanent magnets for a secure, resilient future. With a focus on national security and economic resiliency, we serve critical industries such as defense, aerospace, and automotive powering a high-technology future. Vulcan Elements is building a team of ambitious professionals committed to Mission Focus, Technical Excellence and Transparency. 
 

As the Metal R&D Manager you are responsible for leading the development of processes and improvement of key performance indicators (KPIs) relating to production of rare earth metals from oxides. In this role you will own the experimental design and scale up of metal making operations from bench scale through pilot and into production implementation – driving advances with bottom-line impact. You will build and lead a multidisciplinary team of scientists and engineers, partnering closely with magnet, lab, and supply chain teams to transfer knowledge gained into scalable impact.  

The ideal candidate combines management experience, hands-on metallurgical experience, and a background in electrochemistry. 

 

Responsibilities 

  • Process Development: Design, execute, and interpret experimental programs to convert rare earth oxides to high-purity metals, including molten salt electrolysis, metallothermic reduction, and downstream refining. 
  • Scale-Up: Lead transitions from lab to pilot to production, owning equipment selection, process specifications, run plans, and the data-driven case for capital investment. 
  • Team Leadership: Recruit, mentor, and develop a team of chemists, metallurgists, and engineers; set technical direction, manage priorities, and grow individual contributors into senior technical leaders. 
  • Cross-Functional Partnership: Work with manufacturing, quality, EHS, supply chain, and commercial teams to align R&D outputs with production readiness, regulatory requirements, and customer specifications. 
  • Operational Rigor: Establish experimental standards, electronic lab notebooks, design-of-experiments practices, and post-run analysis routines so that learnings compound across the team. 
  • Safety & Compliance: Champion a strong safety culture in environments involving high temperatures, reactive metals, molten salts, and inert atmospheres; ensure compliance with all EHS and export-control requirements. 
  • Communication: Present technical progress, risks, and recommendations to executive leadership, cross-functional teams, and external partners; contribute to patents, publications, and government program reporting as appropriate. 

 Responsibilities and tasks outlined are not exhaustive and may change as determined by the needs of the business 

Qualifications 

  • Master’s/PhD degree in Metallurgy, Materials Science, Electrochemistry, Chemical Engineering, or related field 
  • People management experience leading scientists and engineers 
  • Strong command of process KPIs and the experimental, statistical, and economic tools needed to improve them 
  • Excellent written and verbal communication 

    Must be a U.S. Person due to required access to U.S. export-controlled information or facilities  

Desired Skills 

  • Direct experience with high temperature metals R&D 
  • Familiarity with molten salt/oxide electrochemical systems 
  • Experience operating in a startup or scale-up environment with constrained timelines and capital. 

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