Director of Synthetic Chemistry

The future must be created.

01 THE ROLE

Chemistry is the invisible layer under every critical system, and the supply chain behind it has become a weapon. Ohr makes the molecules that matter most, from the atom up: energetics, propellants, rare-earth extractants and the ignition chemicals already in production today.

As Director of Synthetic Chemistry you own the chemistry across three verticals that share a platform and almost nothing else. Energetics is taking an integrated route to TATB from TRL 3 to a validated 10 kg/day pilot on a government clock. Mining and metals holds ten product lines. A polymer program sits across both. In every case the route is proposed rather than demonstrated, and the hazard case is created by a route choice rather than inherited from an established process.

THE KIND OF PEOPLE THIS WORK DEMANDS

Our mission demands more than great science. It requires a particular kind of team — visionary builders, hustlers, scientists, engineers, operators. Together, we carry both the technical depth to make the chemistry work and the commercial instinct to make the business thrive. People are our engine. Collaboration is our multiplier.

02 WHAT YOU'LL DESIGN AND BUILD

• Own route selection across all three verticals, on delivered cost per kilogram and on hazard, and hold the standard for how a route is proposed, costed, assessed and documented

• The synthetic chemistry team

• Carry the energetics program from a 1 kg characterized sample in early 2027 to a validated 10 kg/day pilot in 2029, including the design of experiments that sets the pilot design basis and the review, HAZOP and commissioning sequence that follows it

• Sequence campaigns that compete for the same bench. Four metals campaigns converge on the first quarter of 2027 against roughly 4.5 FTE of demand, with no allocation for discovery, and somebody has to decide what slips and defend it to the product lines waiting

• Own process safety as a leadership function rather than a compliance one: calorimetry programs run before conditions are fixed, quench design on exothermic workups, the handling case for a Category 1B carcinogen used at about 3 kg per kilogram of product, and the siting and insurance conversation held before laboratory work rather than after

• Keep the candidate pipeline stocked. Several product lines turn on a single kill test in 2027, and a bench that only executes committed campaigns has nothing to offer in the quarter one comes back negative

• Make the build-or-buy calls on intermediates, and defend the cost model in front of a board and a government customer

• Stand up the Colorado laboratory: equipment specification and long-lead procurement, licensing scope for energetic materials, and the compliance regime around export control and procurement-controlled reagents

• Represent the chemistry externally at government program reviews, with partner laboratories and CDMOs, and in front of customers who will not accept a data package they cannot interrogate

03 WHAT YOU BRING WITH YOU

You have run a bench and then stopped running it, and you know what that trade cost you. You would rather kill a candidate on arithmetic in week one than carry it for three quarters. You are comfortable being the person who says a route is not safe enough at the price it needs to hit. You likely have:

• A PhD in organic, process or materials chemistry with 12 or more years beyond it, or equivalent depth reached another way

• At least 3 years managing chemists against external delivery dates, including hiring and leveling a team from a standing start

• Personal ownership of a synthetic route that reached pilot scale, with the scars to describe where it nearly did not

• Real depth in at least one of energetics chemistry or metal extraction chemistry, rather than general familiarity with neither

• Process safety leadership: reaction calorimetry, exotherm and quench design, HAZOP participation, and hazard treated as an input to route choice

• Route selection on cost per kilogram, with a specific decision you can walk through end to end

• The ability to manage ITAR- and export-controlled information and to run a team inside that regime

• Writing and presentation good enough for a government program review, because a large share of this job is defending a technical position to people who did not do the work

Strong plus

• Delivery against government-funded, milestone-based development programs

• Standing up a laboratory from scratch: equipment specification, licensing, long-lead procurement, and the first year of operating discipline

• Converting exothermic or corrosive batch chemistry to flow or continuous processes

• Insensitive high explosives, operation inside an ATF-licensed facility, or familiarity with DoW explosive safety standards

• Hydrometallurgical reagents, chelating ligands, or solvent extraction chemistry

• Condensation polymer chemistry where the product specification is a molecular weight distribution

• An active security clearance, or the ability to obtain one

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

After 3 months

• A campaign sequence across three verticals exists, is written down, and holds up when someone senior pushes on it

• The two senior hires are in process, with a bar the rest of the function will be hired against

After 6–12 months

• The FY27 wave is hired and producing, and the FY28 wave has a plan behind it

• Route, hazard and cost review is a standing process that does not depend on your calendar to happen

04 HOW YOU'LL WORK

• Onsite, five days per week, with hands-on time in HazMat and energetics laboratories

• Up to roughly 15% travel for partner laboratories, pilot sites, customers and government program reviews

• Eight direct reports at full strength, with two senior technical anchors carrying sequencing authority inside their verticals

05 REQUIREMENTS

This role involves access to data and systems subject to U.S. export control regulations, including ITAR. Candidates must be a U.S. citizen or national, lawful permanent resident, or a protected individual as defined under 8 U.S.C. § 1324b(a)(3).

This role also involves access to explosive materials. Candidates must be eligible to serve as an “employee possessor” of explosive materials under federal law, meaning they are not a prohibited person as defined under 18 U.S.C. § 842(i).

06 COMPENSATION

This is an onsite role based in the Denver–Boulder Metro Area (Lafayette, CO), with travel up to 15% to laboratories, partner facilities, and test sites. Relocation Assistance provided. The annual base salary range for this position is $215,000 – $275,000, commensurate with experience, plus equity. Final compensation will be determined based on skills, experience, and qualifications.

Be a creationary.