Metallurgical Engineering Intern

Making the Metals Powering the World

Solcoa is building the next generation of American metalmaking, starting with rare earths - the metals of power and motion. We've developed a new chemistry that converts rare earth oxides into high-purity metals - the materials inside every EV, fighter jet, wind turbine, and data center - cleaner, cheaper, and faster than any conventional process. Now we're scaling it to thousands of tonnes of annual production.

The Role - Metallurgical Engineering Intern

Join our process team and help turn rare earth magnet waste into high-purity metals. You'll support our reactor operations, assist with alloy production, and keep our documentation tight - working with metallurgists, chemists, and technicians to move quickly from lab scale to production.

What You'll Do

• Assist with high-temperature and high-vacuum reactor operations.

• Help characterize feed materials and products using ICP-OES, SEM-EDS, LECO O/N.

• Run furnace cycles, collect process data, and summarize results to inform design iterations

• Maintain organized logs of process parameters, equipment conditions, and sample tracking

• Support equipment maintenance: vacuum systems, induction coils, thermocouples, and gas handling

• Contribute to safety-first culture and continuous improvement on the facility floor.

What You Bring

Required

• Pursuing a BS/MS in Metallurgical Engineering, Materials Science, or related field

• Exposure to pyrometallurgy, electrometallurgy, or high-temperature processing (coursework or labs).

• Hands-on experience from labs, foundry work, internships, or personal projects (furnaces, casting, heat treatment)

• Detail-oriented, disciplined documentation, and reliable follow-through

• Comfortable in a fast-paced, hardware-centric environment and willing to get your hands dirty

• On-site availability; able to start soon

Preferred

• Experience with vacuum or inert-atmosphere furnace operation

• Familiarity with rare-earth metallurgy, molten salt electrolysis, or reactive metal processing

• Basic thermodynamic analysis skills (Ellingham diagrams, phase diagrams, FactSage/HSC a plus)

• Welding or basic machining experience (mill/lathe)

• Python/MATLAB for data analysis

Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive compensation.

• Insurance provided.

• Support relocating to the Bay Area.

• Company-provided lunch daily.

• J1 Visa sponsorship available if needed.