Metallurgical Engineering Intern

Overview - Making the Metals Powering the World

Solcoa exists to stabilize the western rare-earth metal supply chain—powering every fighter jet, EV, wind turbine, phone, and generator. We're among the very few companies outside China producing rare-earth metals—and the only one delivering a 100% U.S. supply of both light and heavy rare earths. Our carbon-zero process converts end-of-life magnets directly into metal, ready to accelerate energy independence and secure one of the world's most vital resources.

We are a lean, well-funded team rapidly accelerating Western rare-earth production. We're building a world-class team to solve this crisis.

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 hourly pay.

• Insurance provided.

• Support relocating to the Bay area.

• Company-provided lunch daily.

• J1 Visa sponsorship available if needed.