Senior Manufacturing & Commissioning Engineer (m/w/d)

Job Description

Our mission is to return the atmosphere to 280 ppm CO???. We convert excess inedible biomass into carbon-rich bio-oil and inject it into underground storage for permanent carbon removal. At scale, we can use bio-oil to make fossil-free iron.

Our carbon removal efforts began in 2020 with initial purchases from customers like Stripe, Shopify, and Microsoft. Since then, we've scaled to thousands of tons of carbon removal, grown to over a hundred employees, and established three locations in San Francisco, Colorado, and Louisiana.

We're expanding our team of ambitious, creative, and hands-on problem solvers. We value psychological safety, collaboration, and continuous learning. We take calculated risks and treat mistakes as opportunities to improve. If you're excited about tackling big challenges, we encourage you to explore our company values.

Come help us reverse climate change. Gigatons or bust!

About the Role

This role is a hands-on execution role, collaborating with pyrolysis engineering, process development, and commissioning operations. You will be the technical backbone of Charm's pyrolyzer iteration cycle - owning everything from contract manufacturing coordination and pre-shipment testing through onsite commissioning, operator training, and continuous improvement. As we advance successive revisions of our pyrolysis systems, you'll ensure each new unit arrives ready to run and keeps running reliably.

You will report to our Lead Manufacturing & Process Engineer and work from our Fort Lupton, CO production site alongside a cross-functional team of engineers, technicians, and operations leadership.

Your Responsibilities

Pyrolyzer Build, Commissioning, & Bring-Up

• Build and maintain a strong working relationship with Charm's future contract manufacturer as production ramps, serving as the primary technical liaison for manufacturing quality and build conformance.
• Communicate engineering change orders/design feedback, field-observed issues, and process improvement requests back to the contract manufacturer in a clear and structured manner, while staying in lockstep with our internal Procurement Manager.
• Own end-to-end commissioning of new pyrolyzer revisions as they arrive from our internal build teams or contract manufacturing partners, including system integration into existing infrastructure (power, biomass feed, bio-oil and char outputs). This will require collaboration and scoping across subject matter experts and design engineers to ensure proper system checkouts and acceptance criteria are planned.
• Conduct onsite testing and acceptance activities on the shop floor, verifying conformance to design specifications and operational readiness. This could manifest in our backyard for internally-built systems, or at a partner contract manufacturer prior to shipment.
• Lead the physical stand-up of new pyrolyzer units onsite, coordinating with technicians, engineers, and operations leadership to achieve safe, reliable first operation.
• Develop deep working knowledge of how the pyrolyzer functions, common failure modes, and how each subsystem integrates, becoming the go-to technical resource for commissioning and troubleshooting.

Process Engineering & Continuous Improvement

• Establish baseline process flow models to capture the current state of the manufacturing system; use these to highlight and prioritize improvement opportunities.
• Work alongside operators to identify and formally document pain points, translating operator feedback into structured design and process improvement proposals.
• Design, test, and implement tooling improvements for pyrolyzer cleaning, turnaround, and maintenance activities.
• Contribute to new product design processes and design reviews, embedding design-for-operations strategies into pyrolyzer hardware development.

Documentation & Standards

• Own and continuously maintain the pyrolyzer SOP, work instructions, and troubleshooting guide, ensuring they reflect current hardware and field-learned best practices.
• Generate clear, visual-aid-rich engineering work instructions for reliable operator execution.
• Develop and refine data collection methods for MRV (Monitoring, Reporting & Verification) and financial tracking of manufactured products, integrating these into ERP and MES systems.

Training & Operations Support

• Support initial and re-training activities for pyrolysis operations and supporting workflows, collaborating with the Training department to build robust training materials.
• Utilize digital manufacturing tools (MES, ERP) to improve existing production processes and inform new hardware development workflows.
• Collaborate with the Operations team to gather and act on operator feedback, reducing friction and improving system uptime.

You Bring

• 4+ years of experience in process engineering, commissioning, or working directly in a manufacturing or industrial operations environment.
• A degree in Mechanical, Aerospace, Chemical, or related engineering discipline, or equivalent hands-on experience.
• Proven ability to commission and troubleshoot mechanical systems; you've stood up complex equipment and gotten it running.
• Experience with hardware and tooling design; you can design a fix, not just identify a problem.
• A self-starter mindset; you identify process and design improvements independently and see them through to completion.
• Experience working directly alongside operators to understand human factors, tooling needs, and process inefficiencies.
• Comfort being hands-on with equipment more than half the time; this is not just a desk job.
• Strong written communication skills for producing clear, reliable work instructions and technical documentation.
• Willingness to travel to CMs and other charm sites up to 25%

Bonus if you Bring

• Knowledge of pyrolysis, gasification, or other thermal conversion processes.
• Experience executing formal hardware test campaigns and documenting results.
• Familiarity with MES/ERP systems and production data workflows.
• Comfort with Linux, Python, or scripting languages for data collection or process automation.
• Experience working with or managing contract manufacturing relationships.

$96,000 - $144,000 a year

What We Offer

• Stock options
• Health benefits (medical, dental, vision)
• Traditional and Roth 401(k) with a 50% match on contributions up to 6%
• Paid time off, including parental leave
• A yearly professional development stipend
• Healthy snacks for onsite employees
• A chance to pivot into a role in climate!

Visa Sponsorship Policy

Since we are a small startup, certain accommodations for visa sponsorship may not be within our capability. At this time, Charm Industrial is only sponsoring E3 and TN visas.

Our Commitment

Charm Industrial is an equal opportunity employer. We hire based on skills, experience, and passion for our mission. Climate challenges require a wide range of perspectives and expertise, and we welcome applicants from all backgrounds. We're excited to grow our team with people who bring unique strengths and help us improve as a company.

At Charm, we may use AI-enabled tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as organizing applications, reviewing resumes, or helping identify relevant experience. In a world where AI-assisted resumes, synthetic content, and deepfakes are increasingly common, these tools help our team navigate the process thoughtfully and efficiently. That said, hiring decisions at Charm are made by people, not algorithms. Our recruiting process is designed to ensure candidates are evaluated fairly, consistently, and in alignment with our equal employment opportunity commitments. AI tools support our team's work, but they do not replace human judgment or determine hiring outcomes.