Mechatronics Engineer (Intern, Winter 2025)
About Ammobia
Ammobia is on a mission to revolutionize the ammonia industry. We are a seed-stage startup developing Haber Bosch 2.0 – a next-generation ammonia synthesis process enabling cost-effective, clean ammonia production. Until now, ammonia production has been a highly polluting, steady-state, high inertia process. We are developing new regimes of physics and plant design that require dynamic processes, especially for ammonia production from intermittent renewable energy sources. Clean ammonia will support ammonia’s growing role in our decarbonized world, tackling some of the most difficult to abate sectors including chemicals, fertilizers, and heavy-duty transportation. We are supported by leading climate tech organizations including Starlight Ventures, Collaborative Fund, Third Derivative, Forbes 30u30, and more.
Job Description
We’re looking for a motivated and value-aligned mechatronics intern to contribute to (and own) projects related to our Haber Bosch 2.0 ammonia synthesis process. You will work across mechanical, electronic, and control engineering disciplines on tasks like reactor design, assembly, modification, and testing. We give trust, responsibility, and support to our interns, allowing you freedom problem-solve as you see fit, contribute in meaningful ways, and get help where you need it. In this role, you’ll be helping advance our core reactor technology by building new, novel bench-scale chemical reactors and modifying existing ones. Job duties include:
- Make our chemical reactor systems safe and orderly by preparing and reviewing P&IDs and PHAs
- Work with outside vendors to spec, order, and assemble all parts of a reactor system
- Wire power and control systems to read scientific data, control actuators, and more
- Develop a custom controls interface in our Python environment, similar to LabView
- Set up and use various scientific instruments such as mass spectrometers, mass flow controllers, thermogravic analyzers, and more
Who you are
You’re a mechatronic, mechanical, electrical, or chemical engineering student that’s comfortable working across domains – building projects with power tools, writing code, and debugging wiring are things you’ve done before.
Successful applicants will have most of the following
- A pragmatic problem-solving approach to mechanical and electrical tasks
- Experience planning and building physical projects
- Solid understanding of thermodynamics and fluid mechanics
- Comfort using and debugging Python code, Arduino code, or similar.
- Familiarity with basic circuit analysis and wiring (24V circuits, 0-10V signals, etc)
Nice-to-have
- Using Swagelok products
- Mass flow controllers and other scientific measurement devices
- Programming libraries like Tk, pymodbus, pyserial
- Jupyter Notebooks and Git/GitHub
- CAD Modelling such as OnShape, Fusion 360, or SOLIDWORKS
- An understanding of the traditional ammonia synthesis process and/or other chemical engineering processes
Who we are:
We are a small and passionate team of scientists and engineers. We value teamwork, accountability, open communication, and rapid iteration. We emphasize career growth, mutual feedback, and a fun and exciting working environment. Check out ammobia.co/careers for our full values statement and ammobia.co/team to learn more about us.
The position is full-time and in-person in San Francisco, CA. Anticipated start date is January 2025, and duration can be 3 to 9 months, depending on candidate. Compensation will be commensurate with experience.
Benefits include:
- Gym benefit
- Team bonding activities, so far including sailing in the Bay, waterfront happy hour, and bowling
- High quality espresso drinks and latte art training