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Charm Industrial is a climate tech company on a mission to return atmospheric CO₂ to 280 ppm by converting excess inedible biomass into carbon-rich bio-oil and injecting it into underground storage for permanent carbon removal. The company has scaled to thousands of tons of carbon removal, grown to over 100 employees, and operates locations in San Francisco, Colorado, and Louisiana.
You will join the Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) team as a hands-on Lab Specialist, owning experimental work that investigates how bio-oil behaves once injected underground—interacting with rock, sediment, and brine. Working closely with Charm's reservoir engineers and technical leads, you will design experiments, build reactors and experimental systems, and perform rigorous testing to gather critical data for business development and regulatory submissions.
Key responsibilities include:
- Co-designing reservoir compatibility studies and formation characterization experiments with reservoir engineers
- Designing, building, and operating laboratory experiments and test systems, including high-pressure and high-temperature equipment
- Converting experimental concepts into executed tests that generate actionable learnings
- Managing field samples (brine, sand, bio-oil, and other materials) at the Colorado lab, including registration, tracking, and storage
- Managing relationships with third-party labs: sending samples, tracking turnaround, reviewing results, and occasionally traveling to third-party labs and Charm field sites
- Building and documenting repeatable test protocols for consistency across labs and teams
- Organizing experimental data in electronic databases to ensure traceability and accessibility for teammates
- Supporting other MSE lab projects such as bio-oil and biochar analysis as priorities shift
You will report to the Lead Analytical Scientist in Colorado and work onsite at the Fort Lupton facility. The role calls for strong chemistry fundamentals, a drive to design and build experimental systems, and the ability to troubleshoot and iterate when systems or experiments don't behave as expected. You will treat failed experiments as problems to solve rather than dead ends, and you will be energized by generating high-quality data that informs Charm's expansion into new jurisdictions.
Requirements:
- Bachelor's degree required in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Geology, or relevant scientific discipline
- Advanced degree (MS or PhD) and/or 4+ years of hands-on laboratory experience preferred
- Hands-on experience designing, building, or operating laboratory testing equipment, ideally including high-pressure and/or high-temperature systems
- Solid working knowledge of chemistry fundamentals
- Strong equipment troubleshooting skills and comfort diagnosing and iterating toward fixes
- Analytical and critical thinking, including sound judgment about data quality
- Clear written and verbal communication; ability to partner well with engineers, scientists, and external labs
- Comfort managing samples and coordinating with third-party labs, including tracking, documentation, and reporting
- Comfort using digital communication, database tools, and AI tools
- Ability to prioritize and work through ambiguity in a fast-paced environment
- Willingness to travel occasionally to third-party labs or Charm field sites (up to 10% of time)
- Safety-first approach to experiments, sampling, and equipment operation
- Commitment to rigorous science
Bonus qualifications:
- Experience with subsurface, geochemistry, or reservoir-adjacent testing
- Experience with complex organic fluids such as bio-oils, petroleum fractions, heavy oils, or reactive mixtures
- Experience with corrosion or metallurgy testing
- Experience with oil and gas topside infrastructure (oil-water separation, blending tanks, filtration, process piping, pumps)
