Cosmetic Process Engineering Intern

Chemical Engineering

Job Title: Cosmetic Process Engineering & Scale-Up Intern

About Komon & Komonil

We are building the bridge between regenerative agriculture in the Toledo District of Belize and the US commercial cosmetic market. Komon operates on the ground in Central America, driving local economic development through native stingless bee apiculture. Komonil is our US-based commercial arm, formulating luxury skincare using this enzymatically active honey. As we scale our apiaries from 400 to 2,500 hives by 2029 and build a digital repository for the Q'eqchi' and Mopan Maya languages, we are recruiting an exclusive internship cohort from UT Austin, St. Edward’s, TAMU-CC, and TAMU-SA. Texas is a premier hub for international trade, and we want high-autonomy builders from its top universities to help architect our cross-border enterprise.

The Role

Texas produces some of the sharpest engineering minds in the country. We need that caliber of talent to solve the complex thermodynamic and physical challenges of stabilizing high-moisture botanical emulsions. You will bridge the gap between bench chemistry and commercial manufacturing, ensuring our unique stingless bee honey formulas can be produced at scale without failing or separating.

Core Responsibilities

• Engineer solutions to prevent water-in-oil phase separation and modify viscosity when working with raw honey, natural cerumen, and lipid bases.
• Translate 100-gram benchtop skincare formulations into exact manufacturing specifications for 50-kilo commercial co-packing runs.
• Run predictive stability models utilizing Design of Experiments (DOE) to anticipate shelf-life issues before they occur.
• Optimize the heating and cooling phases of manufacturing to protect the delicate enzymatic integrity of the active ingredients.

The Ideal Candidate

• Pursuing a degree in Chemical Engineering or Materials Science.
• Mastery of fluid dynamics, colloid science, and transport phenomena.
• A pragmatic problem-solver who understands how physical processes and thermodynamic shifts dictate final product viability.

How to Apply

Submit your resume and a brief proposition (under 250 words) on how you would approach scaling an emulsion that is highly sensitive to shear stress from a 1-liter bench beaker to a 50-liter manufacturing vat.