Senior Methodology Engineer

Role overview

This position is accountable for creating, harmonizing, and refining metallurgical and operating methods used across aluminum recycling, melting, alloying, casting, and downstream activities. It is focused on embedding best-practice processes that raise performance, product quality, metal recovery, energy efficiency, safety, and sustainability. The role also acts as the technical lead for methodology matters and provides support during commissioning, ramp-up, troubleshooting, and ongoing improvement work across the plant.

Key responsibilities

• Build and continuously improve safe and efficient operating practices, with a strong focus on process safety and compliance.
• Help ensure alignment with environmental regulations, company standards, and ESG reporting needs, including recycled-content reporting.
• Drive initiatives that reduce energy use, CO₂ emissions, waste generation, and dross production.
• Develop, update, and standardize methods for scrap intake, preparation, sorting, upgrading, charging, melting, holding, alloying, metal treatment, fluxing, dross handling, billet and slab casting, homogenization, and product handling.
• Create SOPs, work instructions, and process standards, and make sure they reflect recognized industry practices and internal operational excellence expectations.
• Lead studies aimed at improving yield, recovery, throughput, product quality, energy consumption, furnace performance, and environmental outcomes.
• Support operations, maintenance, and quality teams with hands-on technical guidance.
• Review process data to spot trends, gaps, and improvement opportunities.
• Lead root-cause investigations and corrective actions for quality issues, metal losses, instability, productivity shortfalls, and furnace-related abnormalities.
• Apply Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, and other continuous improvement tools to solve problems and raise performance.
• Conduct process capability assessments and benchmarking exercises.
• Define methodology for multiple scrap streams, including post-industrial scrap, post-consumer scrap, UBC, tense, twitch, mixed scrap, prime aluminum feed, and internal returns/process scrap.
• Optimize scrap blending, contamination control, metal recovery, yield, salt slag and dross generation, and recycled-content performance.
• Support circular economy and sustainability initiatives in the recycling operation.
• Provide technical leadership for tilting melting furnaces, side well furnaces, holding furnaces, de-coating furnaces, and launder/molten metal transfer systems.
• Improve charging methods, burner settings, combustion efficiency, heat transfer, fuel use, refractory life, shell temperature monitoring, and furnace campaign management.
• Develop and refine casting methods for DC billet casting and DC slab casting, including grain refining, alloy additions, degassing, filtration, parameter optimization, water cooling, butt curl control, surface quality, and defect prevention.
• Investigate and resolve casting defects such as cracks, bleeds, segregation, inclusions, surface flaws, and porosity.

Qualifications and experience

• A bachelor’s degree in Metallurgical Engineering, Materials Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or Mechanical Engineering is required.
• A master’s degree is preferred.
• Applicants should have 10 to 15 years of experience in aluminum production and recycling.
• Relevant background should include secondary aluminum recycling plants, casthouse operations, melting and holding furnaces, billet and slab casting, process engineering, methodology development, commissioning/start-up work, and continuous improvement or operational excellence programs.

Skills and technical strengths

• Strong understanding of aluminum metallurgy
• Knowledge of scrap classification and recycling technologies
• Familiarity with furnace systems and combustion control
• Alloy chemistry and metal treatment expertise
• Experience in billet and slab casting operations
• Ability to improve metal recovery and yield
• Understanding of dross and salt slag management
• Process control and automation awareness
• Statistical analysis of process performance
• Root cause analysis and problem-solving capability
• Lean and Six Sigma methods
• Operational excellence and quality system knowledge
• Environmental and sustainability compliance awareness

Additional information

This is a full-time, onsite role based in Ras Al Khair, Eastern, Saudi Arabia.