Careers at Hiring now
Solcoa
A new way to make rare earth metals, without China's playbook
- BCVGCMFJD+3
- Alameda
- AI
Open roles at Solcoa, by team
12 roles · 2 teams · re-checked daily
Each team has someone who decides who gets hired. An email to them gets read; a form joins the pile.
Engineering 7
7 open roles in Alameda and San Francisco Bay Area, newest found 2 weeks ago. Roles like these usually go to the Head of Engineering.
usually hires for thisHead of EngineeringSenior Manufacturing Engineer
Alameda, CAonsiteSeniorFirst seen 2 weeks agoSenior Controls Engineer
Alameda, CaliforniaSeniorFirst seen 2 weeks agoHead of Engineering
San Francisco Bay AreaSeniorFirst seen 2 weeks agoStaff Mechanical Engineer
Alameda, CAonsiteSenior$210K–$250KFirst seen 2 weeks ago+ 3 more Engineering rolesShow fewer
Mechanical Engineer (Alameda)
Alameda, USAMid-levelFirst seen last monthResearch Engineer (Alameda)
Alameda, USAMid-levelFirst seen last monthR&D Technician (Alameda)
Alameda, USAMid-levelFirst seen last month
Other roles 5
5 open roles in San Francisco Bay Area and Alameda, newest found last week. Roles like these usually go to the Hiring manager.
usually hires for thisHiring managerPilot Plant Operator (Alameda)
Alameda, USAMid-levelFirst seen last monthHead of Government Relations (Washington, D.C.)
Alameda, USASeniorFirst seen last monthFinance & Accounting Manager
San Francisco Bay AreaMid-levelFirst seen last weekOffice & Operations Manager
Alameda, CaliforniaMid-level$110K–$130KFirst seen 2 weeks ago+ 1 more roleShow fewer
Technical Recruiter (Alameda)
Alameda, USAMid-levelFirst seen last month
The product
What Solcoa is building
Solcoa makes the metal that goes inside a permanent magnet. Everyone talks about rare earth mining and magnet factories. The narrow step in between gets less attention: turning a refined oxide powder into neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) or samarium metal. The standard route is molten-salt electrolysis, which is energy hungry and gives off fluoride gases and perfluorocarbons. China has spent decades scaling it, and that is exactly the race Solcoa refuses to run. The company uses halide-free chemistry in modular reactors it builds itself in Alameda 'in weeks.' Feedstock is refined oxides and scrap, sourced from France, the US and Malaysia. Solcoa says the process is faster, uses less energy and costs less than electrolysis, and it is clean enough to run in a Bay Area industrial building. It isn't only a lab claim. Solcoa already makes more than 10 tonnes a year of NdPr and samarium metal in Alameda and is shipping it. Solcoa One scales that to 500 tonnes a year in Nevada. The company says that is enough NdPr for magnets in up to a million EVs. Target markets are EVs, robotics and defense. Hooman Reza Nezhad's pitch fits in one line: 'You will not beat China by copying China.' He points out that America's last genuinely new primary-metal process was titanium in the 1940s.
The money
Why this matters
The deadline is real and it's close. DFARS 252.225-7052 already bars Chinese-origin magnets from US defense supply chains, and from January 1, 2027 the restriction reaches back to the metallization step. According to the company's announcement, China controls about 95% of global rare earth metallization capacity. Felicis cites the IEA's projection that demand for magnet-grade rare earth metal grows 4-7x by 2040, and says the Pentagon committed $1.2B in loans in June 2026 to rebuild the segment. As Felicis's James Detweiler puts it, 'Western production of magnet-grade rare earth metals rounds to zero.' Anyone who has metal in hand before 2027 has a buyer.
Investors: Bain Capital Ventures (Alysaa Co), Gigascale Capital (Mike Schroepfer), Felicis (James Detweiler), Long Journey, J.P. Morgan (debt), Angels: Dylan Field
The outlook
Hiring outlook
The round explicitly funds a new plant and more reactor manufacturing, and the Ashby board has nine open roles right now.
Working at Solcoa
Solcoa works in AI and is based in Alameda, USA.
Most Solcoa jobs are based in Alameda, USA.
How to actually get hired at Solcoa
Why applying the normal way doesn't work
Solcoa runs an applicant tracking system (Ashby), but hiring managers still work referrals first. A cold application to Solcoa isn't dead, it's just fourth in line behind internal referrals, sourced candidates and recruiter pipelines.
Who to contact at Solcoa
- Who decides
- the hiring manager
- Best channel
- LinkedIn or direct email
- ATS
- Ashby
What to show them
A one-page scale-up risk register for going from a 10-tonne pilot line to a 500-tonne plant: which failure modes grow non-linearly (heat management, atmosphere control, feedstock variability between French, US and Malaysian oxide), what you'd instrument first, and what you've actually run at pilot scale yourself.
A cold email that works at Solcoa
What Solcoa screens for
Bain Capital Ventures led a $45M equity seed into a company that is barely a year old. Pairing it with $30M of J.P. Morgan debt tells you this is a plant financing, not a science bet. Gigascale's Mike Schroepfer (former Meta CTO) backed it because the metal already exists: 10 tonnes a year shipping from Alameda. Felicis framed it as 'invention, not imitation.' The window is concrete. Solcoa One has to run by July 2027, and the defense metallization rule starts January 1, 2027, so every hire in the next six months works straight on the critical path. Pilot plant and mechanical roles are where you get the most leverage.
Don't send a generic CV to Solcoa. Mirror the job posting's language to get past automated screening.
Avoid
Don't make these mistakes
Don't open with geopolitics. Hooman has been giving the 'break China's grip' speech to investors and reporters all year, so hearing it back from you proves nothing. Also don't treat him as a kid who needs mentoring. He deferred the University of Toronto on a Thiel Fellowship and holds a patent on a molten-salt reactor for pulling metal out of Martian regolith. He knows electrolysis well enough to have chosen against it. With Artem, skip the 'passionate about sustainability' framing and talk about reactors, yields and uptime.
Mistakes that kill Solcoa applications
Don't send the same CV you sent everywhere else. Whoever reads applications at Solcoa can tell, and it's the fastest rejection there is.
Lead with their problem, not your ambition. Solcoa is focused on The deadline is real and it's close — show you understand that.
Don't apply and wait. The median AI application gets no response ever. One follow-up at day five roughly doubles reply rates.
Tracking Solcoa
Applying to Solcoa? Get the contact, not the form.
The Solcoa interview process
Usually 4 stages over about 14 days, including a take-home task. See each stage, what it tests and how to prepare.
- 1Recruiter Screen
- 2Hiring Manager Interview
- 3Technical/Functional Round
- 4Final Round
Modelled on how AI companies interview, not confirmed by Solcoa.
Solcoa careers: frequently asked questions
How many jobs does Solcoa have open?
Solcoa currently has 12 open roles, last verified November 15, 2026.
Does Solcoa hire remotely?
Solcoa doesn't have remote openings at the moment. All roles are in Alameda, USA.
What roles is Solcoa hiring for?
Solcoa is hiring across Engineering, Finance and Operations. The most recent opening is Finance & Accounting Manager.
How do I apply for a job at Solcoa?
Apply directly through the links above, or read our guide on how to actually get hired at Solcoa.
Does Solcoa respond to cold emails?
We're still collecting cold email data for Solcoa.
Who is the hiring manager at Solcoa?
We haven't confirmed who leads hiring at Solcoa. It's usually the manager of the team that's hiring.
What ATS does Solcoa use?
Solcoa uses Ashby.
How competitive is it to get hired at Solcoa?
Expect 100-250 applicants in the first two weeks for AI roles at this size. Apply within 72 hours for best odds.
Where is Solcoa based?
Solcoa is headquartered in Alameda, USA.
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