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.

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.

• 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.

• 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

• 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, Fact Sage/HSC a plus)

• Welding or basic machining experience (mill/lathe)

• Python/MATLAB for data analysis

• Competitive hourly pay.

• Insurance provided.

• Support relocating to the Bay area.

• Company-provided lunch daily.

• J1 Visa sponsorship available if needed.