VP of Plant Operations

Thank you for stopping by to take a look at the VP of Plant Operations with a focus on Biomass and Bio-Engineered Materials role, I appreciate it. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Tom Welke, I am Partner & VP at RSM Solutions Inc and I have been recruiting talent for over 22 years and have been in the tech sector since the 1990s. Due to that, I am going to be far more focused on 'fit' than anything else...a fit for you and a fit for the client. If you are familiar with my job descriptions, you will know that I like to add some humor to these things. So, no bots; no AI ....just a guy working late, crafting a real job description.

As with any role we work on here, social fit is just as important as technical fit. So, here

are some of those characteristics that create a social fit:

• This is an environment where there are no real 'wrong answers'. We are seeking that individual who thinks of things that others may not have thought of in the past. These guys really thrive on diversity in thinking.
• Those Tom Peters fans among us understand this great concept 'he who tries the most stuff wins'. That is a perfect analogy as to how this client approaches things.
• This client really doesn't look at problems the same way other firms do. They look at them as challenges and look at what needs to be done to get past them as opposed to laboring on them.

Ideally, we are seeking someone either in the Lancaster / Palmdale California area, or Lodi, California area. So, this is not a remote opportunity. If you aren't local to those areas, we would need you to relocate to the area.

This firm is working on the revolutionary process of breaking down biomass and activated carbon into useful compounds (like biofuels, hydrogen, etc) requiring high- temperature kilns and a series of chemical processes. I am mentioning this because, for this role, we are seeking an individual who has experience managing plants and has worked on Thermo Chemical processes. While we do not need a PhD in Chemistry, a solid understanding of biofuels, and chemical refining would be right up the alleyway of what we are seeking (as you will also be overseeing a lab).

You will also be helping to map out the plan for the building of these refining facilities. One of their goals is to co-locate 10-15 plants on the same site (the site will, more than likely, be around 17 acres in size). This plant is in the idea stage at the moment...so, you will be foundational in the buildout of this plant. This client has about 10 employees now and will grow to roughly 100+ within the next two years. So, this is definitely a firm in startup mode. So, we will need you to be comfortable in a startup environment where things can change rather rapidly.

From a strategic level, we are seeking somoene who can think about targeted solutions for activated carbon, that can improve plant automation, establish processes from scratch, work on improving and streamlining processes, remove bottlenecks and so on. As this firm grows, you will be a pivotal part of that growth from a plant automation and operations perspective.

Here are some of the key things we are looking for in this role:

• At least 10 years of experience as a plant manager in the chemical processing, biofuels, thermochemical processes and so on. This experience will need to be in smaller environments (100 employees or less).
• Experience building processes from scratch for plant operations. Again, plant operations should focus on chemical processing, biofuels, activated carbon, thermochemical processing and so on.
• Experience working in a startup environment where you have either set up plants and processes for these plants from the ground up or have taken those plant operations from their early stages of development to full operational effectiveness.