Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

Chief Financial Officer (CFO) — Hydrometallurgical Metals Refinery

Location: United States (remote with regular site travel)

Role type: Full-time, long-term executive leadership

Reports to: Founder & CEO

About the company

We are a U.S.-based hydrometallurgical metals refinery producing refined critical metals using waste lithium-ion battery materials as feedstock.

Our facilities integrate front-end battery materials processing with downstream patent-pending hydrometallurgical refining, including:

• Battery discharge and dismantling
• Shredding and physical materials separation
• Hydrometallurgical refining and purification

The individual technologies are commercially proven and mature. Our differentiation lies in their integration into a single, continuous refinery operation designed to process diversified battery scrap at commercial scale and a patent-pending hydrometallurgical refinement flow sheet. We operate as a metals refinery, not a waste services business.

Role overview

We are seeking a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to join the executive team and own the financial integrity, capital strategy, and economic discipline of a commercial hydrometallurgical refinery business.

This is a long-term CFO role spanning final development, construction, commissioning, steady-state operations, and future facility replication. The CFO partners closely with engineering, operations, and commercial leadership to ensure the refinery is financed, built, and operated on a bankable and economically sustainable foundation.

Key Roles

• Co-Development of proprietary financial systems architecture related to company operations (Integrated CRM/ERP/Operations/Accounting)
• Oversight and management of construction & commissioning budgets
• Ongoing operational oversight related to financial systems architecture & management of accounting level operations
• Strategic collaboration with c-suite regarding company wide growth, expansion, and diversification goals
• Collaboration with C-Suite regarding company equities, finanical vehicles, and structures

This role is a hands-on executive position focused on owning plant-level economics and financial execution; it is not an advisory or transaction-focused role.

Key responsibilities

1. Integrated plant financial model ownership

Own and maintain a single, first-principles financial model for the entire integrated facility, including:

• Front-end battery materials processing (discharge, dismantling, shredding, materials separation)
• Downstream hydrometallurgical refining and metals recovery

Integrate full buy-side and sell-side economics into the model, including:

• Feedstock procurement and payable structures
• Product pricing assumptions and realizations
• Working capital impacts across purchasing, inventory, and sales cycles

Tie economics directly to:

• Battery scrap feedstock composition and variability
• Front-end processing performance and yields
• Metallurgical recoveries and refining performance
• Throughput, uptime, and operating availability
• Product mix and realized metal pricing

Ensure assumptions are explicit, traceable, and defensible across the full plant.

Serve as the internal authority on plant-level, buy-side, and sell-side economics.

2. Construction, commissioning, and operating finance

Lead financial oversight for:

• Construction of a commercial integrated processing and refining facility
• Commissioning and ramp-up
• Transition into steady-state operations

Manage:

• Construction cash flows and draw schedules
• CAPEX tracking, forecasting, and change management
• Operating budgets, cost control, and margin performance
• Establish financial systems and controls appropriate for a continuous metallurgical operation

3. Process-aware financial leadership

Work directly with:

• Metallurgists and chemical engineers
• Battery materials processing teams
• Operations and maintenance leadership

Translate process performance into:

• OPEX and sustaining CAPEX forecasts
• Cash flow and margin analysis
• Reconcile modeled expectations with actual plant performance over time

4. Capital strategy and fundraising

Lead current and future capital activities, including:

• Engagment with investment bankers as needed
• Institutional equity
• Strategic partners
• Project finance or structured debt

Define:

• Capital structure
• Use-of-funds strategies
• Construction and operating cash profiles
• Act as the primary financial counterpart to investors, lenders, and the board

5. Metals markets, hedging, and integrated pricing discipline

Maintain a deep understanding of relevant metals commodities markets, including:

• Nickel, cobalt, lithium, manganese, copper, and graphite
• Index structures, payables, and pricing mechanisms

Evaluate hedging and risk-management mechanisms for refined metals, including:

• Futures, swaps, and other instruments where applicable
• Fixed-price, floating-price, and hybrid structures
• Timing, basis risk, and exposure management

Translate metals market dynamics into realized product pricing assumptions, accounting for:

• Commodity price volatility
• Working capital and inventory exposure

Integrate sale-side pricing realities directly into plant economics by:

• Stress-testing margins under commodity volatility
• Evaluating downside and upside cases across market environments

Use this integrated view to support and inform feedstock pricing strategy, ensuring:

• Pricing accounts for operating costs, hedging costs, and margin durability
• Provide analytical support to the commercial team on pricing frameworks, market-linked contract structures, and risk-adjusted economics
• Support pricing discipline without owning commercial negotiations or deal execution

6. Long-term financial leadership

Build and lead the finance organization as the business matures.

Establish governance across:

• Budgeting and forecasting
• Cash management and capital allocation
• Board, investor, and lender reporting
• Serve as a durable executive partner through operations and expansion

Required experience and background

Mandatory

• 10+ years of senior finance experience in metals refining, hydrometallurgy, chemicals, or industrial processing
• Direct involvement in commercial metallurgical facilities exceeding $100MM
• Experience supporting construction and operation of hydromet plants and integrated processing facilities with front-end materials preparation
• Demonstrated ability to own asset-level financial models integrating operating, buy-side, and sell-side economics

Relevant technical and industry experience

• Familiarity with hydrometallurgical refining environments
• Experience with shredding and materials separation as part of an integrated plant
• Experience with battery scrap recycling as feedstock for metals production
• Experience with battery-relevant metals including nickel, cobalt, lithium, manganese, copper, and graphite

What this role is not

• This is not a waste management or recycling services business
• This is not a pilot-scale or R&D-focused operation
• This is not an advisory or transaction-oriented finance role
• This role does not own commercial negotiations or deal execution

What success looks like

• A bankable, defensible financial model covering the full integrated plant, including buy-side and sell-side economics
• On-budget construction and stable commercial operations
• Pricing decisions grounded in recoveries, market reality, and operating costs
• High confidence from lenders, investors, and counterparties
• A finance function capable of supporting repeatable facility deployment

Compensation

• Meaningful long-term equity participation
• Opportunity to help build critical U.S. metals refining infrastructure

Founder note

We are building a commercial hydrometallurgical refinery that produces refined metals from waste lithium-ion battery materials. This is a real industrial operation, not an experiment or a services business. The CFO we bring on will be a long-term partner in ensuring the financial integrity, capital discipline, and economic sustainability of the plant as it moves from construction into steady-state operations and future replication.

Closing statement

This is an opportunity to join the executive team of a commercial hydrometallurgical refinery and help build durable U.S. battery metals infrastructure. We are intentionally selective in this search and are looking for a CFO with deep industrial experience who understands metallurgical operations, commodities markets, and the discipline required to operate a commercial refinery sustainably over the long term.

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