Principal Engineer (Industrial Metallurgical Rotating and Tilting Furnaces) / Leitender Ingenieur metallurgische Dreh- und Kipp-Schmelzöfen

About Hatch

Join a company that is passionately committed to the pursuit of a better world through positive change. With more than 70 years of business and technical expertise in mining, energy, and infrastructure, our 10,000 colleagues in 150 countries tirelessly work toward bettering the industries in which we operate. With practical solutions that are safe, innovative and sustainable, we think globally while acting locally. Are you looking for an opportunity to join a diverse group of professionals who are committed to remaining exceptional? We look forward to hearing from you.

About the Team

Our Technologies team commercializes and delivers technologies across all three of Hatch's sectors: Metals, Energy, Infrastructure. We're a team of innovators and problem solvers who deliver custom and specialized engineering to deliver novel solutions and technologies.

At Hatch Küttner, we’re driven by curiosity, passion, and a commitment to creating positive change for our clients, our communities, and the industries we serve. If you’re looking for an opportunity to apply deep technical expertise while shaping the future of metals processing technologies, we want to hear from you.

The Role

We are looking for a Principal Engineer (Industrial Metallurgical Rotating and Tilting Furnaces) / Leitender Ingenieur metallurgische Dreh- und Kipp-Schmelzöfen to join our Technologies team. This role can be based either in Essen, Germany or Katowice, Poland.

In this senior role, you will drive innovation, standardization, and technical excellence across design, project execution, operation, and lifecycle management of tilting and rotating furnace systems (including, for example, Top Blown Rotary Converters (TBRCs), rotating and drum-type furnaces etc.). This role is both strategic and hands-on, responsible for technical leadership, design governance, business development and project delivery support, and development of best practices applicable to copper, PGM, recycling and other pyrometallurgical operations.

Hatch Küttner brings decades of experience in the metals sector, delivering engineering excellence, technology development, and project execution for both greenfield and brownfield sites. Your leadership will help us continue to set the standard for safe, efficient, and sustainable design.

Your Role

As a Principal Engineer (Industrial Metallurgical Rotating and Tilting Furnaces ), you will:

• Serve as Hatch Küttner’s global mechanical subject matter expert for rotating and tilting furnace equipment technologies
• Support the business development team by providing technical expertise during client engagements to develop custom equipment solutions for their applications and challenges
• Lead the global Tilting and Rotating Furnace equipment engineering team, with accountability for technical excellence and team leadership, including resource planning, skills development, mentoring, performance management, and succession planning.
• Maintain overall technical responsibility for the detail design, delivery and commissioning of complete systems provided to clients including advanced mechanical engineering packages, encompassing crucible design and refractory integration, hydraulic systems, sealing systems, burners & lances and offgas interfaces‑gas interfaces
• Drive research, innovation and product development across furnace designs.
• Work with the supply chain management team to maintain relationships with fabricators and vendors to ensure high-quality, cost-effective equipment design and fabrication, and FAT/SAT activities, and to ensure that all quality standards and client specifications are met
• Provide technical assistance and expertise, from home office or on-site, during the integration of the equipment into the overall plant design, as well as throughout equipment erection and installation, commissioning, start-up and operational readiness of systems supplied by Hatch Küttner
• Work with asset performance management teams to ensure ongoing performance improvements and operations support including managing mechanical integrity, process and reliability improvements, root cause