Vice President of Engineering

About the Company

Lydian is developing the lowest cost sustainable fuels from waste CO2, water, and renewable electricity to decarbonize the aviation industry. Our breakthrough technology replaces oil and gas refining with fully electrified, modular, and flexible reactor systems that produce fuel with 95% lower emissions than traditional jet fuel.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end engineering execution across FEL stages for pilot, demo, and commercial systems, including PFDs, P&IDs, heat & material balances, and design reviews
• Lead engineering development for FOAK capital projects and beyond from early design through commissioning
• Partner closely with project/program managers to integrate scope, schedule, cost, and risk into all engineering decisions and execution plans
• Drive design-to-cost decisions and continuous cost-down across all systems
• Define and implement execution strategies that favor modular, internally-controlled approaches over default EPC models
• Lead/manage process and controls engineering across all system scales
• Design for fully electrified operation, including grid interaction and flexible load management
• Own equipment specification, vendor selection, and procurement strategy
• Drive modular design and design-for-manufacturing to minimize field work and accelerate deployment

Requirements

• BS or MS in Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Systems Engineering, or similar
• 15+ years of experience leading engineering for complex process systems
• Proven track record delivering FOAK or early commercial capital projects
• Deep expertise in process engineering with fluency across controls, mechanical systems, and plant integration
• Familiarity with fuel upgrading technologies or closely related refining processes
• Ability to operate at both system-level architecture and detailed technical execution

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience operating outside of traditional EPC models with a bias toward modular execution
• Experience designing and deploying electrified process systems including grid integration