Fabric Process Development Engineer

Summary Title: Fabric Process Development Engineer Location: Chicago, IL Compensation: $110,000 – $150,000 annual base salary, plus equity. Final pay within this range will depend on experience, skills, and qualifications. Travel Requirement: Up to 25% travel may be required. Benefits include: Family Health, Dental, Vision; Flexible PTO, FSA Benefits, 401K Savings Plan, Paid Parental Leave, and Long-term Disability Insurance Reports to: Director of Development The Company Numat is a global leader in the field of precision chemistries. Numat’s solutions are changing the way industries around the world capture and separate hazardous chemicals that negatively impact human health and the environment. Numat has been at the forefront of Metal-Organic Framework (MOF) research and production for over a decade, and is the first company to successfully commercialize MOFs. The company’s world-class platform integrates MOFs into existing products and processes, merging chemistry innovation with manufacturing at industrial scale. Through bold and transformative chemistry, Numat helps its global customers and partners make meaningful progress toward their net zero and innovation objectives. Be a part of something bigger, join our team. Position Overview This role develops and scales the processes behind Numat’s protective fabrics — proprietary MOF deposition processes, construction of nonwovens, and lamination. You will take processes from bench and pilot through defined, repeatable operation, and build the packages that let them scale toward commercial production. Just as important as any single step is how they fit together: our products are built by several unit operations in sequence, and you will own that sequence as one integrated process. You will drive process development for Numat’s proprietary MOF deposition and lamination operations; working out how material properties and process settings drive each product’s performance, defining the operating windows that keep output consistent, and running the trials — on our pilot equipment and at external converting partners — that prove a process out. This is a hands-on development role on a web line supporting new technology development. Responsibilities You will work on a varied set of instrumentation/projects and have a diverse set of responsibilities including: Fabric Process Development Scale Numat’s proprietary MOF deposition processes — from bench and pilot trials through defined, repeatable processes suitable for commercial production. Select, specify, and configure application hardware, fluid delivery, and the drying and curing profile. Establish how material properties and process settings drive the product’s critical quality attributes. Define and hold the process windows, specifications, and control strategy that keep output consistent. Own the product as an integrated process rather than a set of separate steps — define how the nonwoven, MOF deposition, and lamination operations interact, what each requires from the preceding operation, and how variation propagates through to the finished fabric. Pilot Trials Run pilot trials on site and support vendor and toll production trials. Own web handling and its interaction with the MOF deposition step — unwind and rewind tension, web path, line speed, drying profile, and edge and defect control. Diagnose and eliminate defects and sources of variation. Support and develop Numat’s pilot nonwoven and lamination processes alongside the MOF deposition work. Partner with maintenance and equipment vendors on commissioning, qualification, and preventive maintenance as new pilot lines come in-house. Design Experiments and Scale the Process Plan, design, and execute experiments and DOEs that map the process space and reduce product and process variability. Analyze the data and turn it into clear conclusions and decisions; assess process capability against product specifications. Handle raw-material and substrate variation — set incoming material requirements and build the process latitude needed to absorb what varies. Build technology transfer packages and lead trials at external converting and contract manufacturing partners through to qualification. Support basic design and FEED for installing unit operations together into a production line — process flow, equipment sizing and specification, layout, material flow, and utilities — and work with equipment vendors through specification, acceptance testing, and commissioning. Work Across the Group Partner with Research — bound what is processable at scale and feed process constraints back into development early. Work with the quality lab and metrology program to define the measurements