Sr. Manufacturing & Commissioning Engineer

Charm Industrial is working to return the atmosphere to 280 ppm CO₂. We design, build and operate a fleet of mobile fast pyrolyzers that convert ag and forest biomass residues into bio-oil for use in carbon removal and direct-reduced-iron steelmaking.

In 2020 our Chief Scientist and co-founder Shaun Meehan had two breakthroughs (bio-oil intermediate and bio-oil sequestration) that kickstarted the company. Within 10 months we completed our first carbon removal injection and in 2021 we completed more than 5,000 tons of CO₂e removal for customers like Stripe, Shopify and Microsoft. 

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.

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.

• 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%

• 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.