Process Engineer (Polymers) - El Segundo, CA / US
About Roosevelt Talent
Roosevelt Talent is a recruitment agency specializing in helping ClimateTech and frontier technology startups hire.
We believe the right people are the foundation of every successful climate company. The teams solving the world's toughest energy challenges deserve a hiring partner that moves with the same urgency and ambition.
The challenge: Traditional recruiting is expensive, and often misses the best candidates. We change that. We proactively find exceptional talent, deliver a premium candidate experience, and help startups hire top performers at a transparent, affordable cost.
Reach out if you want a genuine hiring partner – not another mercenary.
About Our Client
Roosevelt Talent is working with Indigo Ethylene, an early-stage chemicals startup founded by UC Berkeley alumni that replaces traditional steam cracking with a proprietary catalytic reactor process to make ethylene, the building block of most plastics.
Its working unit already produces ethylene at roughly half the usual cost, and the company's first commercial product will be high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic pellets, aimed at a ~$600B plastics market at about 50% lower cost.
The founders are Garrow Geer (CEO; Berkeley Physics, ex-SpaceX and xAI) and Gregory Tate (PhD, 13 years developing chemical catalysts).
Indigo recently closed a venture round that gives it roughly 3-4 years of runway, and it is now moving from pilot to its first commercial plant.
The Role
Our client is hiring a Process Engineer (Polymers) to own the engineering of its polymerization reactor trains: the step that turns its low-cost ethylene into HDPE pellets.
The company's core expertise is the front end (its ethane-to-ethylene catalyst technology); this hire covers the polymerization side and works hand in hand with the company's Process Engineer so the polymerization design integrates with the overall ethane-to-ethylene-to-HDPE process design.
Reporting to the technical co-founder, you will engineer the polymerization portion of the process to hit target HDPE properties (catalyst and reactor geometry selection, residence time, grams of Ziegler-Natta catalyst per kg of product, degassing steps), model it in a process simulation package, and help evaluate pilot output (a few hundred kilograms of plastic per day) as the company moves from pilot to its first commercial plant.
The search is US-wide, with relocation to the engineering office in El Segundo (Los Angeles area). Travel is expected to be minimal.
Qualifications & Skills
Required
- Experience designing polymerization processes (engineering of polymerization reactor trains), ideally in plastics / HDPE production
- Ability to model polymerization processes with a software package (any tool, from Aspen to COMSOL) so the model integrates with the overall process design
- Mid-level (around 5 years) to senior industry experience: close to the nuts and bolts of design (no fresh grads)
- Motivated, high-energy, and up for a demanding startup schedule
- Motivated by the technology and mission (make plastic, in America, and 50% cheaper)
- Wants ownership and to build: a prime mover, not a cog in the machine
- Easy to work with; ignores workplace politics and stays focused on the work
- US work authorization
Nice to have:
- Aspen or ChemCAD experience, specifically Aspen Polymers
- Downstream HDPE product testing (glass transition, brittle point, stress-strain / yield curves, molecular weight distribution) against customer specs
Benefits
- Strong, above market comp offered at the base salary, along with equity in the company; Indigo aims to pay at or slightly above market for top talent
- Willing to consider relocation support
- Be one of the first engineers at a well-funded startup (3-4 years of runway), helping build its first commercial plant
- A long-term path into catalyst research: Indigo's 10-year vision is a "Bell Labs" of catalysis funded by plastics revenue, with engineers able to rotate into research roles
- Health and other benefits
Approximate Process
- Expect a concise interview process (we're looking for people soon; target is to have this hire in seat before the end of 2026)
- Speak with us (Roosevelt) for a screening, then a ~45 minutes with CEO Garrow Geer, a 45-60 minute technical screen with scenario-based problem solving with Gregory Tate, then a final session talking through a hypothetical technical problem with both founders (no NDA or IP involved), then offer (approximately).
Note
This role requires US work authorization. The search is US-wide; candidates open to relocating to the engineering office in El Segundo, CA (Los Angeles area) are welcome. Our client is an equal opportunity employer.
Application
If you are interested in this role and believe you are a good fit (ie: have designed polymerization processes and can model them in a process simulation package) apply today.
If you have any problems applying, you can reach out to Silas@roosevelttalent.com with your updated resume and reason for interest.